Do you long to fully experience your own positive life energy? Dance and Movement Therapy has been proven very effective for the treatment of a wide range of health problems. Activate the self-explorative and self-healing powers of your body!
Dance and Movement Therapy
"The dancing dialogue gives an insight into the lives of clients, even if they have difficulty communicating their experiences."
Beyond Dance • Practice for Dance and Movement Therapy
What is it?
Dance and Movement Therapy is an experience-oriented form of treatment. It is based on the idea that pain, tension, anguish and sadness are reflected by your body and in the way you move (your body language). This implicates that changes in yourself can reversely be initiated through your body and through movement. In a number of sessions we work together to achieve the pre-existing physical and mental balance in you.
Dance and Movement therapy can be very effective as a single form of treatment, but also be combined with other forms of therapy, such as cognitive psychotherapy and EMDR. Dance and Movement Therapy is also regularly used as a coaching tool in personal development programs.
How does it work?
During the sessions we will focus on what is happening with you at this very moment, in the here and now. This may very well involve disruptive feelings that originate from (memories of) painful situations in the past. We observe, investigate and discuss the experience of your ‘Self’, or body experience- and the way you (tend to) move, your movement language. Step by step, you will reacquaint yourself with the feeling of moving from within and learn trust in the stability of and anchoring in your own body.
Good to know: For the effectiveness of dance and movement therapy, it does not matter if you usually rather express yourself verbally, physically or not at all. Dance and Movement Therapy is about restoring your balance, not about how well you dance or learning dance steps: it’s not a dance class.
Who is it for?
Dance and Movement Therapy can be an effective treatment if you have trauma related issues and complaints, have a hard time coping with feelings of for example loss, hurt or betrayal, if you experience negative self-esteem or suffer from a burnout. The same goes for feelings of depression, anxiety disorders and psychosomatic problems. These are mental complaints that manifest themselves physically, for example in the shape of headaches, migraines, dizziness or equilibrium disorders. Moreover, in case physical examinations do not lead to a clear diagnosis, or when mainstream forms of treatment do not bring the results you wished for, Dance and Movement Therapy can be a good alternative. Common themes in dance therapy practice are:
- Emotion and aggression regulation
- Tension/stress and relaxation regulation
- Being in contact with your own personal life or body experience
- Self-image, identity, autonomy and assertiveness issues
- Recognition of boundaries
- Recognition of pre-set ideas / negative beliefs about yourself
- Experiences in connecting and interacting with others, social skills
- Mourning processes, processing and acceptance of loss
Beyond Dance specializes in trauma treatment and the treatment of anxiety disorders, whether or not accompanied by depression and, as is often the case, physical complaints.
