Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Bharatanatyam, An Effective Psychotherapeutic Intervention In Dance/Movement Therapy, Maanasa Marghashayam Bharath

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

Dance/movement therapy is a psychotherapeutic modality that acknowledges the human body as a window to the human mind and spirit. Through creative and dynamic interventions, it fosters a healthy unification of the mind and body to enhance an individual's holistic health. This research focuses on the traditional dance form of India, Bharatanatyam, and its influence on the body and mind of the practitioner. Journeying through the history of the dance form to its relevance in the field of dance/movement therapy, the thesis explores how Bharatanatyam can be useful as an alternate method, in a therapeutic session to facilitate navigation through …

Divorce And Dance/Movement Therapy: Helping School-Aged Children Find A Sense Of Self-Agency, Madeleine Vouros

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

The divorce rate currently sits at 50% for families in the United States. Divorce can and will look different for all families. Children are directly impacted by this event externally as their familial structure is shifts and internally on a body-level. This can cause children to have feelings of shame, neglect, self-doubt, fear of abandonment, embarrassment as well as behavioral issues.Many times, these feelings can go unaddressed and can cause new “challenging” behaviors.

Dance/movement therapy is a therapeutic approach that presents tools which are beneficial for school-age children going through divorce. More specifically, using body-based grounding techniques can help school-aged …

Embodied Medicine: Integrating Dance/Movement Therapy Into Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Sneha Rajan

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) is a field of medicine that addresses a variety of disorders impacting the brain, spinal cord, muscles, and bones. When approaching patient care, the goals of dance/movement therapists are similar to those of physiatrists, because both strive for a holistic approach to treatment that considers more than just physical ailments. Adding dance/movement therapy sessions in parallel with PM&R services would enhance the overall patient experience and quality of life. Previous studies that explore the use of dance/movement therapy with various neurodegenerative diseases, neuromuscular diseases, and sustained injuries are reviewed for potential application in PM&R settings. …

Dance/Movement Therapy In Response To Continuous Race-Based Trauma, Aliesha Bryan

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

Trauma is concomitant with a lack of safety; as such, where there is a threat to safety, there is likely to be trauma. Afrodescendants living in the United States, through an ongoing lack of human regard, are often powerless to ensure their safety, and are regularly subjected to continuous, race-based trauma. Racism is deeply embedded in the nation’s institutions as well as in every relationship, and this deeply pervasive and penetrating ideology influences strongly how individuals of any race interact with others. Race-based aggression, from micro- to macro-, has a profound and continuously traumatizing effect on Afrodescendants, with similarly profound …

Dance/Movement Therapy And A Search For Wholeness Under Capitalism, Autumn Wright

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

Wellness, as it is currently defined in late capitalism, is a luxury good for the ruling class. Capitalism and the commodification of wellness go largely unaddressed in current dance/movement therapy research. In the United States, dance/movement therapists operate within the for-profit healthcare system. The United States is the only industrialized democracy in the world without a national health insurance program. Despite the access to state licensure for the past 20 years, dance/movement therapists still have no guarantee that health insurance companies will pay for their services. Concurrently, there has been a surgency of self-proclaimed wellness coaches. These …

Addressing White Body Supremacy In The Black Body: An Embodied Approach, Alexandra Stewart

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

Oppression, discrimination, and racism are deeply rooted within our country’s institution and are the framework for the ideology, political, social, and economic values that are still upheld today. The enforcement of White body supremacy has caused trauma related mental and bodily distress to develop into anxiety, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS), and other mental conditions manifested in the body. As oppression is not officially acknowledged as trauma, it significantly complicates the process of healing for Black people. Degruy (2005) calls Black people to action to heal the traumas that have been passed down …

My Embodied Bicultural Experience And Dance/Movement Therapy, Anisabel Perez

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

Culture is in the everyday. It is embodied in the way people walk, sit, stand, eat, wash, breathe, and otherwise comport their bodies as they go through daily life (Cohen & Leung, 2009). Culture is multifaceted and embedded and embodied within identity. Ignoring emotions and body signals is detrimental to mental and physical health. It is possible for an individual to have a sense of belonging in two cultures without compromising their sense of cultural identity (Kim, 2002). Biculturalism allows culture to be a choice rather than something that requires purging old practices and beliefs from the self for individuals …

Disconnecting From The "Dancer" Identity: Dance/Movement Therapy In Support Of Maintaining The Sense Of Self In Professional Dance, Sandra Ross

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

The culture of the professional dance environment perpetuates an ideal image of the dancer identity. In the pursuit of this ideal, dancers struggle with integrating their own personal identity, creating internal conflict that potentially underlies dance related mental health issues. Dance/movement therapy offers a different therapeutic environment that promotes self-awareness, acceptance, and trust within the body to establish a connection with a deeper sense of self. An examination of the research and documentation of the utilization of dance/movement therapy with dancers suggest it could be beneficial to the issues they face, including maintaining their own sense of identity. This discussion …

Teaching Through Movement, Michaela Laird

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

Within the United States, many children struggle in the public school system to meet the demands required of them. Often the underlying issue stems from a lack of focus around the social and emotional needs of the children. The demand of this issue requires work on multiple levels: the individual, collective, and institutional, and can be met through better understanding and application of nonverbal communication. Dance/movement therapy is an approach that can be applied to address these issues in such a manner. Through the application of dance/movement therapy for students and teachers alike, improvement can be made to further promote …