A Study of Dance / Movement Therapy from the Standpoint of Psychotherapy
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Dance/Movement Therapy (D/MT) is defined as a psychotherapeutic use of body movement as a process which promotes oneʼs emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration. In reality, however, D/MT is largely unrecognized as a psychotherapy. And also, little is known about how D/MT has been developed, as well as how is actually taken place. In this study, D/MTʼs psychotherapeutic meaning and mechanism are reviewed with a concern for D/MT as “a psychotherapeutic use of body movement.” Consequently, it was found that D/MT session was moving along with a mutual communication between a therapist, having a genuine empathy for a client, and the client, responding to it, which promoted and developed the therapeutic effects. It was “physical empathy” that helped the therapeutic effects to be brought, and “Mirroring”, an essential technique in D/MT, played an important role there. Mirroring would bring an awareness to a client by looking oneself through therapistʼs body. Furthermore, what is considered to become therapeutic is the process of growing the Self by experiencing the awareness together and dancing together with the therapist.
Authors: 廣瀬 優希, 京都文教大学大学院臨床心理学研究科
Language: English
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2570762144