Health, Happiness And Movement Based Treatment

By Joshua Reed


While traditional therapists still provide clients with services out of an office with a couch, others now use more alternative therapies. These can include everything from hypnosis and psychoanalysis to movement based treatment. While psychoanalysis and hypnosis often focus on behavioral and emotional issues, dance oriented therapies often treat body, mind and soul.

These therapists use a form of expression which draws a correlation between preparation, illumination, evaluation and incubation. Each of these aspects represent one of four stages of treatment. To prepare a client for this type treatment, therapists generally create a treatment plan, evaluate the mover then provide illumination when discovering the right treatment and incubation period for putting the plan into action.

These therapies are often provided in a clinical or medical setting. While community dances such as the many ongoing non-alcohol, smoke-free, barefoot dance jams that occur on an regular basis are often hosted in churches, community centers or schools. In either case, dance is one activity which has the ability to effect the overall health and well being of the dancer. In some cases related to physical injuries, individuals may be sent to a physical therapist who can also integrate movement based therapies into an overall treatment plan.

Dance oriented therapies began thousands of years ago having a positive effect on many different areas of life. These areas include, birth, sickness, health and death. It was not until 1930 that a new philosophy took hold that resulted in the establishment of this treatment in Europe and the United States. After which, many colleges and universities began offering a specialized focus of dance in the field of psychology.

Before being established as a valid form of psychotherapy, dance had always been seen primarily as an expressive form of art. Then, after more of these therapies were established in the 1950s, a number of professionals begin working in the field now known as dance therapy. While there are now programs focused on this type therapy, originally these therapies were provided by general psychologists and psychotherapists around the world.

Dance therapy can be divided into two waves with the first beginning in 1942. During this time, the focus remained primarily on the clinical and medical aspects of dance. As a result, a well known therapist began seeing clients on a regular basis at a local hospital. While most often successful, there were also times when a client needed different and unique therapies beyond the standard four stage approach.

After students began to report seeing positive changes to overall health and happiness, doctors began sending clients to receive treatment. After several success stories from these individuals and others, these alternative therapeutic forms became more accepted as valid forms of treatment for emotional and physical aspects of clients.

The next or second wave brought a new ideology to dance therapy in the 1970s and 1980s. The new ideology sparked a great deal of attention from therapists at the time. A time when therapists began to explore and experiment with different applications associated with dance and movement. It was these applications that evolved into forms and modalities which therapists still use after having seen great success.




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