Dance has been used as a form of therapy for thousands of years – Anthropologists believe that dance and music were our first forms of healing, self expression and therapy. Dance Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses various creative elements including movements and elements from dance, art, music, embodied drama and the body to support us in therapy. Our main target populations are clients with mental health needs, the elderly, those with learning difficulties or emotional and behavioural issues as well as infants and preschoolers. We also work with the general population.
Dance Therapy with Children, those with Special Needs and the Elderly
The aims and benefits of Dance Therapy are various and will vary depending on the clients I am working with. It may be used to facilitate self-development, work through and express difficult emotions, develop genuine communication and interact with others on a deeper level. With younger populations it can help to develop self esteem and autonomy, improve attention and concentration, encourage coordination and gross motor skills, develop empathy and most importantly increase our capacity to work cooperatively and in synchrony with others and build on our capacity to interact with others. It also has all the benefits of physical activity. As a therapist, I believe that everyday movement, dance, art and the body gives us information about what is happening in our lives. I use these media to help me establish a trusting rapport with my clients and to help them develop an understanding of themselves, express hard to express emotions and build genuine and deep relationships with others.
Using the arts and the body is especially useful to those who are not able to communicate what is going on internally verbally. Infants and children often don’t have the capacity to communicate verbally what is going on inside them which is often why they act out. Those with dementia, autism and mental health problems may also find it difficult to communicate their internal worlds verbally. But even those of us who have verbal skills often find that words are not enough to help us communicate the complex and intense emotions we are experiencing. This is because emotions are very primitive from both an evolutionary and developmental perspective. We intuitively understand that music, movement and the body tap into deep wells of memories and emotions. Using creative media helps us connect with our experience, memories and emotions at a deeper level that is not possible if we only use our heads. This is a right brain connection whereas thinking is a left brain. Both of these are valuable in our leading a full and spontaneous life and especially so if they are used in conjunction and communicate with each other.
Dance and Movement Therapy helps children enhance their cognitive, emotional and social development. DMT’s use simple open ended movement activities and music from different cultures and to encourage young people to communicate through the modality of dance. Props such as balloons, stretch cloths, ribbons pom poms and a parachute along with other creative modalities such as drama, musical instruments and creative play encourage these children to interact with each other in a creative and joyful way. It offers a space where children can work on their communication and ability to interact with others verbally and non-verbally whilst strengthening their gross motor, concentration and attention skills and having fun.
Group Dance and Movement Therapy with the elderly provides social interaction and may alleviate loneliness and social isolation that is felt by many elderly people. During a Dance Therapy session, connections are formed between people and the contribution of each person, however small, is appreciated and valued. This is what creates a group spirit and makes the group therapeutic. Each person has the space to be unique and express their own individuality and yet be part of something bigger. People share a sense of community when dancing together.
At the moment i am working solely with individuals but hope to begin running groups once COVID is over
Dance Therapy with the General Population
Dance and Movement Therapy as a form of Psychotherapy can be useful to anybody - those that are having difficulties with their daily life or those who simply want to be more in touch with their bodies and emotions. This can be done on a one to one basis or through group sessions. All Dance and Movement Therapists are trained Creative Arts Psychotherapists. This means that when I work with my clients I do not rely solely on the verbal medium but use other forms of expression and communication such as art, music, dance, embodied drama, movement and most especially the body. This means that we avoid staying 'all in our heads' when working through difficult emotions or experiences connect with the true body felt experience.. Instead we live fully through our experience, in the presence and with the support of someone else paying attention to sensations, emotions, thoughts and images and metaphors.
I often work using Body Based Psychotherapy which both uses the body as a tool for self expression as well as to give us information about our true emotions through various sensations we may be feeling. For example sometimes I might find myself saying 'I don't really care about this or that situation or what he or she said', yet I feel a huge knot in my stomach. This gives us information about our true feelings and a chance to express and accept them. It is now generally accepted by scientists that study the way the mind and boy interact that when we don't listen to ourselves and suppress our feelings the body has a way of 'making us listen'. It does this through various lingering aches and pains, stiffness, lethargy and despondency. Research is starting to show how dangerous swallowing emotions is and how some emotions can be linked to ill health. Doctors are not usually able to identify the cause of such complaints and it is often put down to the usual catchword 'stress'.
Therapists who believe that the body is a valuable tool in therapy believe that pent up emotions keep us from being spontaneous, happy and able to be open and intimate in relationships. Most of our feelings don't happen in our head but in our bodies. Think about the last time somebody said something hurtful and you felt a sharp pain in your heart, or when you receive some good news and you instantly feel lighter.. When people have been repressing emotions such as anger and fear for a long time, they often feel frozen or find it 'comes out' at the wrong times or with the wrong people. Certain emotions may have served us well at another point in our lives - usually our childhood - but are now stopping us from being the person we want to be.
From an evolutionary perspective our emotions come from a time before we were humans and our minds were developed enough to understand them. From a developmental perspective, again, many of the overwhelming emotions that we feel originate from a time in our childhoods when we were not yet verbal or able to understand them. That is why it is often so hard to understand what we are feeling, let alone tell someone else. And because of this simply talking about our feelings may do little to integrate or change them. They often need to be expressed through our bodies. This may seem unsophisticated, especially to people who identify themselves with their 'heads' and their ability to use themselves cognitively. However it must be remembered that emotions are primitive. This is not to say that the cognitive realm is not valuable in psychotherapy. On the contrary it is essential and plays a very important role in our leading a more fulfilled life. However, simply put, words and thoughts are often not enough. Many of the emotions that stop us from leading a more full life - such as anger, sadness, desperate longing and fear - need to be dealt with the body and mind working together. When we express, accept and integrating our emotions on the other hand we become more healthy and leads to us feeling more alive and free.
Please contact me if you would like to discover how your body can help you lead a freer, fuller and more intimate life and to embark on a journey of self discovery.