Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 24, 1995 TAG: 9510240033
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO PERSONAL HEALTH
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Any old steps - or no steps at all - will do, say the practitioners of dance/movement therapy. They use a combination of structured and unstructured movements to help people express their innermost feelings and conflicts without having to use words.
In dance/movement therapy, the structure is mainly provided by the patient's feelings, not by the therapist or from a preset pattern of movements.
Through the years a number of psychotherapeutic techniques, including music therapy, art therapy and psychodrama, have arisen as alternatives or adjuncts to traditional talk therapy.
Dance/movement therapy, which emerged from modern dance in the 1940s, is perhaps the most versatile and diverse in its application. It is being used increasingly in nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals and schools for children with special needs, as well as in private psychotherapy practices.
This year, the more than 1,100 members of the American Dance Therapy Association are celebrating the organization's 30th anniversary. And at an annual conference this week in Rye Brook, N.Y., they will convene to discuss the ever-widening uses of their approach to communication and expression.
Just as talk psychotherapists vary widely in their techniques, dance/movement therapy is a diverse field, with each practitioner providing an individualized approach.
The dance therapist's role typically varies with the needs of patients. As Dr. Fran J. Levy, a Brooklyn psychotherapist who uses movement, explains in her forthcoming professional book, ``Dance and Other Expressive Art Therapies: When Words Are Not Enough'':
``Many move with their patients in supportive and mirroring roles while others act essentially as empathetic observers. Occasionally, some therapists do their own dances to reflect what they perceive, or to help the group feel more comfortable with movement.''
Dance/movement therapy has helped those afflicted with a wide range of problems: physical and mental limitations, speech and learning disabilities, a history of sexual abuse, autism, family discord and personal psychological problems associated with feelings or acts that may be difficult to describe in words.
For example, children and even many adults who have been sexually abused are often unable to articulate exactly what they feel or to describe in words the painful things that happened to them.
``But,'' Levy explained, ``if you give them room to move, their story can unfold through movement. The trauma is in their bodies, and movement helps them release or express it.''
Once feelings are identified and expressed, patients can often discuss them more freely, strip away the barriers they had created and move forward in their lives in a healthier fashion.
Bonnie Bernstein, a dance therapist from Palo Alto, Calif., tells of a patient who was tormented by the idea that she could somehow have prevented being raped. The therapist encouraged her to dance an enactment of the rape and to include various actions she imagined she could have taken.
As she danced, the patient discovered that if she had tried to fight back, the rapist's knife might have injured her more seriously. She then realized that her intuitive actions had actually helped her to survive. The new insight enabled her to make peace with herself.
In her previous book, ``Dance Movement Therapy: A Healing Art,'' Levy describes how effective the technique was for a 56-year-old man named Richard who had become seriously withdrawn after suddenly becoming blind. After 25 therapeutic sessions, he could ``stomp out'' his old closeted and resentment-filled life and move forward, entering a school for the blind, making new friends, learning how to maneuver around the city and finally marrying and working.
To a trained therapist, patients' movements are often highly revealing. A fist thrust out in anger, an arm reaching for aid, the stomping of a foot, even the tilt of a head can provide vital clues to a patient's innermost feelings and thoughts.
The underlying premise of dance/movement therapy is, as Levy describes it, ``that body movement reflects inner emotional states and that changes in movement behavior can lead to changes in the psyche, thus promoting health and growth.''
Dance/movement therapy has proved especially helpful for the elderly, whose outlets for relieving tension and loneliness are often limited. Dr. Susan L. Sandel and Amy Hollander, dance/movement therapists who have worked with the elderly in Connecticut nursing homes and centers for the elderly, have found that it helps them cope with feelings of loss, counters social withdrawal, encourages creativity and fosters self-esteem.
For adolescents, Diane Duggan, a dance/movement therapist in New York, uses structured dance to help them resolve their conflicting drives, like sexuality and aggression or the need to distinguish oneself as an individual and yet not leave the group.
To find a trained dance/movement therapist in your area, write to the American Dance Therapy Association, 2000 Century Plaza, Suite 108, Columbia, Md., 21044-3263, or call (410) 997-4040.
by CNB