by Stefanie Tong | Jul 12, 2021 | ADHD, Anxiety, Autism, Creative Arts Programs, Depression, Health, Mental Health, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Stress, Therapy, Trauma
Many people feel apprehensive or intimidated when they hear the word “dance.” Movement is a beautiful and intricate part of who we are. We are in constant motion, from blood flowing through our veins to neurons firing during thought processes and through the simplicity of breath. Our very existence depends on the continuous movement happening within the body.
Therapeutic dance, or movement, is a mind-body approach for working with emotions towards holistic wellness. We often dismiss the subtle signs of stress from our bodies until it becomes a chronic issue, preventing us from functioning in our daily lives. Therapeutic dance and movement explores the presence of emotions within the body and shows us how to care for the emotional symptoms that we may find.
What do you mean by emotions living in the body?
Have you ever noticed sayings like, “I have butterflies in my stomach,” “That gave me the heebie-jeebies,” or “My blood is boiling”? These sayings are examples of how we experience nervousness, fear, and anger in the body. Some people describe these feelings in their body as “gut feelings.” We often override gut feelings using the mind and ignore what is happening in the body. Learning to trust in the body’s wisdom is an important skill to possess in today’s fast-paced world.
In therapeutic dance and movement, the connection between the mind and the body is facilitated as a conversation used to achieve a deeper understanding of the self. Emotions in the body are made aware by paying attention to the subtle shifts in the body and linked back to spoken language.
What does an appointment look like?
Clients are often surprised that a session does not have to involve dance whatsoever. Sessions are NOT like a dance class, experience in movement is not even required. Therapeutic dance/movement is an approach that gives your body the space to express what words cannot. Do you ever move your hands when you talk? That’s a form of therapeutic movement! A session can consist of talking to someone, along with the optional invitation of moving, breath-work, or spontaneous dance. It’s entirely up to you! Another way to interpret therapeutic dance/movement is as a counselling session. Your whole body is invited into the conversation, and expression is created from the inside to the outside.
There have been times clients have said, “I’m not sure why I just did that.” The body knows what the mind may not understand quite yet. Therapeutic dance/movement helps to bring understanding and self-compassion to patterns of being. Session goals are co-created between client and practitioner. With this, a therapeutic movement session becomes a journey of creative expression and experiential processing.
What can therapeutic dance/movement help with?
Therapeutic dance/movement can help with anything, such as stress, pain, difficulty sleeping, relationship issues, chronic illness, temper tantrums, developmental disabilities, and neurodiverse diagnoses.
Some other issues therapeutic dance/movement can support:
- Feeling stuck
- Feeling agitated or angry
- Anxiety
- Depression / low mood
- Trauma
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Tantrums and intense emotional upsets
- Strengthening relationships
How Can I Start Moving?
Whether you want to start moving by speaking, storytelling, writing, drawing, or dancing, get your emotions moving today by calling our office to book a therapeutic dance/movement session. Have a quick question about therapeutic dance/movement? Click here to email our therapeutic dance/movement practitioner, Stefanie.
by Stefanie Tong | Dec 26, 2019 | Mindfulness Meditation, Therapy
I have had a year full of rich learning experiences. My training in dance/movement therapy began and I experienced movement in new ways as courses progressed throughout the year. With an artistic background in dance, I have been trained to look, move, and perform a certain way. Engaging in the therapeutic aspects of the movement has been an eye-opening and challenging experience. I found myself defaulting to the comfort zone of performing rather than allowing my innate internal rhythms to lead. It is emotionally safer to produce choreography and follow dance steps than it is to engage emotions and allow them to move through me. As I reflect on this past year, I realized the comfort zone can be a difficult place for many of us to leave.
Living in Greater Vancouver, the normal flow of life is going from one event to the next without taking a break to recalibrate our system and allow the body to catch up to our mind and emotions. Many of us go from dropping off our children at school, straight to work, to appointments or extracurricular activities, and then crash at the end of the day. Our nervous systems are being stimulated with sensory input at an 80/20 ratio throughout the day (80% incoming, 20% releasing).1 This can be extremely overwhelming for our systems, particularly for children. To release ourselves from the busyness of life requires us to move outside of our comfort zone and the life patterns we have created for ourselves.
The Mind-Body Disconnection
With the imbalance of incoming and outgoing stimulation, we risk losing our mind-body connection and become influenced by our external environment. Interoception information is received and transmitted from inside the body.2 When we are interoceptive, we are aware of things like hunger, pain, and body sensations our emotions elicit. The butterflies in our stomach when we’re nervous, the tightening of our chest when we’re angry and the crushing headaches associated with grief are all examples of interoception.
When we push through symptoms signalling us to slow down or take a break, we tend to lose our interoception. The accumulation of this mind-body disconnection has adverse effects on our health. We get fatigued, stressed, and sick. All emotions have a muscular pathway. If emotions are not permitted to sequence through the neuromuscular system, the consequences are ill health, both physically and mentally.3
Dance/Movement Therapy
Dance/movement therapy (DMT) takes individuals to the edges of their comfort zone to integrate the mind and body to support wholistic wellness. Deriving from modern dance, the field of dance/movement therapy began in the early 1930s. Marian Chace was a pioneer in the DMT field being the first to bring dance into hospital settings as an intervention for war veterans battling post-traumatic syndrome disorder.4 Chace developed therapeutic dance/movement interventions as mental health treatment and supported the creation of the American Dance Therapy Association, serving as the first president.
Today, dance/movement therapy is recognized world-wide with therapists serving in schools, hospitals, rehabilitation centres, forensic settings, prions, and more. The goals of dance/movement therapy are to support the integration of emotional, physical, cognitive, and social aspects of an individual. A common misconception is dance/movement therapy is limited to dancers. No dance experience is necessary to engage in DMT. Movement therapy occurs on a continuum of movement. Engaging in DMT can be as simple as discovering your breath pattern, moving your arms while sitting, or finding movement through speaking.
The body has a memory and sometimes those body-based memories arise without our understanding. In dance/movement therapy sessions, individuals may be answering questions non-verbally with a series of movements. Emotions always result in physical actions.5 The only way to work through the pre-verbal experiences is through the body. Dance/movement therapy allows individuals to integrate interoception with their externals worlds by sequencing innate movement patterns before verbally naming the process.
Discover Your Movement
Our first relationship is self-to-self. We are designed to move and our bodies are in constant motion. From blood surging through our veins to cells moving across our systems, we are in constant motion. Dance/movement therapy creates opportunities for us to connect to the self and embrace the motion within. When we are learning to be internally aware, moving can promote self-expression, rhythm, synchrony, and cohesion. The mind-body connection allows for self-integration, resulting in an improved understanding of the self and of others.
Beneath each movement lies a need. Movements may come as metaphors or communicate a clear need. Who are we as moving beings? Our bodies have a story to tell. May your courage move you to step out of your comfort zone and discover the flow of your unique movement.
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Would you like to learn more dance/movement therapy? Join me on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, at 6:30 pm for a free information session at Alongside You. Discover the healing benefits of therapeutic dance/movement and how the mind-body connection contributes to wholistic well-being. Registration (while free) is required.
Saturday, January 28, 2020
Let’s Talk Hope Conference
If you have any questions, please feel free to connect me directly.
References:
- Kemble, H. S. (2019, September). Introduction to dance/movement therapy I: basic theory, methods, and techniques. Russian Hall, Vancouver, BC.
- Hindi, F.S. (2012). How attention to interoception can inform dance/movement therapy. American Journal of Dance Therapy, (34), 129-140.
- Kemble, H. S. (2019, December). Introduction to dance/movement therapy II: applying methods with clinical populations. Russian Hall, Vancouver, BC.
- Chaiklin, S. & Wengrower, H. Eds. (2009). The art and science of dance/movement therapy: life is dance. New York: Routledge.
- Betty, A. (2013). Taming Tidal Waves: A Dance/Movement Therapy Approach to Supporting Emotion Regulation in Maltreated Children. American Journal of Dance Therapy 35 (1), 39–59.
