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  • Dance/Movement Therapy & Dementia

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  • Ways of moving

    I have learned a lot about the Creative Arts and Dance Movement Therapy in particular over many years. I have come to know the far reaching effects that movement has in discovering one’s own feelings. I have come to recognizing others feelings by witnessing their movement as well.

    In one situation I spend time directing a group of clients to move in ways that expressed relaxation for them. Ten people moving in ten different ways, all expressing the same thing. Later the group shared their experience first with a movement and then with verbal processing. The clients discovered new ways of relaxing and being relaxed by exploring and witnessing others move and share.

     

    We can all learn new ways of moving and being moved by witnessing others. As children we learned patterns of movement from our care givers and from our culture. As adults we add to our developmental movement patterns by incorporating the uniqueness of who we are. As we mature and age, our movement patterns change again to reflect where in our lives we are.

    We all move, everyone of us. With our breath, our smiles and frowns, our heart beat, and more. It is what we have in common. It is who we are.

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  • Ant Coloring Page

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  • Physically Being Me

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  • Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are

    Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.

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  • Mandala 5 Coloring Page

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  • Does Animal-Assisted Therapy Help Adolescents With Psychiatric Problems?

    Can animal-assisted therapy can help adolescents who are in hospital because of an acute psychiatric crisis? A randomized controlled trial investigates.

    The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by M.C. Stefanini of the University of Florence, randomly allocated patients to either an animal-assisted therapy intervention or no intervention. Both groups continued to receive psychiatric treatment as usual, and those treating them did not know which group they were in. The results are very promising.

    The intervention group had better school attendance, higher levels of global functioning, and spent less time in the hospital compared to the control group. “One possible explanation for this success is the role of the animal as a catalyst in the therapeutic process,” the researchers write. “Animals may represent a valid help in therapeutic contexts thanks to their ability to catalyze social interactions and to create a more relaxed environment.”   MORE HERE

  • Little Girl Experiences Her First Rainfall

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  • Transformation of the Ordinary

    Dance/movement therapy (DMT) can be an avenue for creating a symbolic transformation of individual, or community experience. DMT can use the same characteristics of weight, balance, and dynamics as do everyday actions such as walking, working, playing, or communication. Out of our everyday and ordinary motor activities, DMT can select, heighten or subdue, gestures/postures and body movement to achieve something which transcends the ordinary.

    For instance as a teen I learned a West African Maize Dance from the Arthur Hall African American Dance company. This dance uses the movements of planting, tending, and harvesting of maize as the core elements of the dance. Taking these agrarian movements and enacting them outside of their usual context begins the process of symbolic transformation. As the movements are performed an element of artistic quality begins to emerge and becomes evident in the transitional movements that occur between planting, tending, and harvesting. This Maize Dance combines the ordinary with the extra ordinary; taking the everyday actions and ritualizing them in a way that expresses and celebrates an important aspect of West African culture.

    Symbolic transformation can take place on an individual level as well. Once, working with a client an opportunity arose to explore the bodily expression of sadness; i.e. what are you doing/feeling physically when you are sad. The client took the ordinary movements/gestures/postures of their sadness and made them bigger and smaller, connecting, un-connecting and reconnecting them as they slowly evolved into a pattern. As this client continued with their exploration a transformation occurred and new movements, suggestive of another feeling emerged. Asking the client to add words to their exploration of the new movements provided a clearer understanding of sadness.

    Enacting movements/postures/gestures outside of their usual context allows the possibility of experiencing in way that can be more; objective and subjective. Making bigger and smaller, connecting and reconnecting, movement and feelings emerge uncensored, allowing a different understanding of the original feeling and all that surrounds it. The therapeutic process of dance movement therapy can guide the mover as they explore, uncovering the extraordinary in the ordinary.

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  • Coloring Page Goddess Eos

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