Dance Movement Therapy!
Dance Movement Therapy is one of the Creative Arts Therapies. The Creative Arts Therapies also include: art therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, and psychodrama. Creative Arts Therapists are licensed in
What is Dance/Movement Therapy?
(information provided by www.adta.org
dance/movement therapy fact sheet, and dance/movement therapy brochure)
Dance/Movement Therapy Is:
Psychotherapy or counseling that uses movement to address emotional, social, cognitive, and physical needs of individuals.
Who benefits from Dance/movement therapy?
people with developmental, medical, social, physical and psychological impairments. Those struggling with relationship issues, stress management issues, creative blocks, mood disorders, addiction, parenting difficulties, time management, going through a difficult life transition.
Where is Dance/Movement therapy practiced?
Practiced in mental health rehabilitation, medical and, educational settings, nursing homes, day care, forensic, disease prevention, health promotion programs, and in private practice.
Used with people of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds in individual, couples, family, and group therapy formats.
What kind of training is required?
Dance/Movement Therapy Professionals:
Dance/Movement Therapists enter the profession with a Master's degree.
"Registered Dance Movement Therapist" (R-DMT)* is the entry level credential and indicates clinicians who have a master's degree including 700 hundred hours of supervised clinical internship.
"Board Certified Dance Movement Therapist", (BC-DMT)* is the advanced credential. It indicates a clinician who has additionally completed 3,640 hours of supervised clinical work, and passed a rigorous examination.
* Note R-DMT and BC-DMT are awarded by the Dance/Movement Therapy Certification Board. Dance/movement therapists may also hold state licenses and doctoral degrees.
I've never heard of it before, how large is the field and how long have there been Dance/Movement Therapists?
ADTA has members in 48 states and
Will I have to Dance?
You won't have to do anything. A dance/movement therapist focuses on movement behavior as it emerges in the therapeutic relationship. Expressive, communicative, and adaptive behaviors are used for group and individual treatment.
Body movement as the core component of dance simultaneously provides the means of assessment and the mode of intervention for dance/movement therapy.
Sometimes, Dance is used as a metaphor, to communicate about our lives. We all have movement preferences. What a dance therapist will typically do is: take some time to establish a working, trusting relationship; assess your movement preferences, and limitations. They will then build upon your strengths, and work with you toward your particular treatment goal to expand your movement repertoire.
To maximize health, we need a large range of ways to cope or respond to both internal and external stressors.
Dance Movement Therapy is a very comprehensive modality for treatment. Approximately 93% of all communication is nonverbal. "Our issues are in our tissues~ and in our movement preferences, physiology and kinesthesia (way we sense our muscle tension). A dance movement therapist is highly trained, and can work with you both non-verbally and verbally, to address your issues: mind, body, and spirit.
To learn more about Dance/Movement Therapy click on the dance therapy link to the left.
If you have any questions, you can email me directly: cfmatteson@hotmail.com
