Abstract: |
(from the chapter) The dance movement psychotherapy approach has been developed through the integration of many fields of study specifically focusing on research and theories that support the primacy of movement and nonverbal communication in early childhood development. They are built upon the notion that our bodies tell stories that speak of our experiences. These experiences start to accumulate from the beginning of life, as each infant enters the world with a developing sense of body. This principle emphasizes that bodily sensations, reactions, expressions, and experiences of all children come from their keen physical receptivity to sensations-these are their earliest experiences of self-these body experiences define and continually inform them about who they are. From this understanding, intervention focuses on: (1) how a child's sense of body impacts his or her experience; (2) how the child's nonverbal style influences the "whole child" looking at the development of all aspects of self, emotionally, socially, intellectually, physically, and communicatively; (3) how to transform and elaborate on a child's existing sense of body as reflected in his or her nonverbal style, to support the development of more complex and functionally adaptive styles of behaving and relating, that will incorporate all aspects of self; and (4) how an understanding of the role of multi-sensory experience can be used to support the young child through pain due to medical illness. Nonverbal observation, music, dance, movement, body awareness, and play are the key intervention tools of this dance therapy method that trained psychotherapists can use to best support growth and change in young children. This chapter will provide an overview of the method that I have created, using case studies to demonstrate how it is used both in private practice and medical/hospital settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved). |