Dance Therapy and Mental Health

Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. It can be positive, such as when it helps you avoid danger or meet a deadline. But when stress lasts for a long time, it may harm your health and specially your mental health.  Now we will talk about how Dance Therapy and Mental Health are related? How can dance reduce stress? One will think that Dance Therapy and Mental Health both are very different topic but no they are related .

A person uses different techniques, activities, or methods to deal with stress. What if I say that dance is used to deal with stress and many other mental health issues? Is that something you hear often when you talk about stress? No because there is not much awareness of such therapy in our society. 

Lyall Watson a South African botanist and ethologist said “Dancing is surely the most basic and relevant of all forms of expression.”

How is dance therapy different from regular dancing ??

We may dance through life, but how many of us dance through therapy?

Many young people walk into dance classes every week, learning how to hold their hands just so and position their feet in a specific way. They think that dance will boost a person’s mood and improve body image which is true to some extent. But this is not actual dance therapy. 

Dance therapy takes therapeutic dance to another level. People in treatment with a qualified dance therapist have the right to confidentiality. Dance therapists also provide a safe space for people to express themselves. An individual sometimes is not able to express his/her emotions and at that time dance movements become more than exercise; it becomes only language for person to express. People in treatment communicate conscious and unconscious feelings through dance, which allows a therapist to respond in kind.

So, Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) is a type of therapy that uses movement to help individuals achieve emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration. Beneficial for both physical and mental health, dance therapy can be used for stress reduction, disease prevention, and mood management.

History and philosophy of dance therapy

The American Dance Therapy Association was founded in 1966 as an organization to support the emerging profession of dance /movement therapy and is the only U.S. organization dedicated to the profession of dance/movement therapy.

Dance has been used therapeutically for thousands of years. It has been used as a healing ritual in the influence of fertility, birth, sickness, and death since early human history. There is a general opinion that dance/movement as active imagination was originated in the 1960s by dance therapy pioneer Mary Whitehouse. Tina Keller- Jenny and other therapists started practicing the therapy in 1940.

1. First Wave

• Marian Chace spearheaded the movement of dance in the medical community as a form of therapy.
• She is considered the principal founder of what is now dance therapy in the United States.
• In 1942, through her work, dance was first introduced to western medicine.

2. Second Wave 

• The second wave of Dance Movement Therapy came around the 1970s to the 1980s and it sparked much interest from American Therapists. 
• As a result of the therapists’ experiments, DMT was then categorized as a form of Psychotherapy.
• It was from this second wave that today’s Dance Movement Therapy evolved.

How effective is Dance Therapy???

Research has demonstrated that dance therapy can be effective in the treatment of mental health issues like disordered eating, depression, and anxiety. Dance Therapy and Mental Health are closely related and it can help to reduce many of the mental issues.

Some recent examples include:

A literature review from The American journal of Dance Therapy indicated that DMT may be a treatment option for children on the Autism Spectrum.

A study from the journal The Arts in Psychotherapy (2007) found that dance therapy has a positive effect on participants experiencing symptoms of depression.

A study from Alzheimer’s Care Today (2009) suggests that DMT can directly improve memory recall in people with dementia.

Issues which can be treated with the help of Dance Therapy 

There are mental issues which can be treated with dance therapy. Dance Therapy and Mental Health are closely related to each other.

• Mental Health Issue
• Depression
• Post traumatic stress
• Anxiety
• Disordered Eating
• Poor Self esteem                    

• Physical issues

• Arthritis

• Cancer

• Hypertension

• Childhood obesity

• Cardiovascular disease

• Social issues

• Autism
• Family conflict
• Aggression / Violence
• Domestic violence trauma
• Social interaction

Thus dance therapy has a great impact on mental health. Regardless of theoretical approach, all dance therapists must pursue graduate training in order to become certified dance / movement therapist. They can earn either be the R-DMT (Registered Dance / Movement Therapist) Credential, or the BC-DMT (Board-Certified Dance / Movement Therapist) Credential. Dance Therapy is emerging therapy. After reading this blog one can say that dance therapy and mental health are related to each other.

References

1)https://medlineplus.gov

2)https://ww.goodtheraphy.org

3) Chicago healthonline.com

4) www.dualdiagnosis.org

5) https://en.m.wikipedia.org

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