Journal de traumatologie et de réadaptation

Dance Movement Therapy in the Wider Concept of Trauma Rehabilitation

Renata Martinec

We have recently witnessed a growing number of events that can be characterized as traumatic. Due to serious consequences that can be caused by traumatic experience, additional efforts have been made to prevent or reduce trauma-related symptoms. Various therapy models oriented to persons who suffer from traumatic experience are based on the idea of supporting resilience as an individual's ability to positively adapt to stress or adversity. As the body is the dominant media in Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) this kind of therapy can be particularly useful in the area of physical trauma, physical abuse, and body-image disturbances or in conditions where certain physical or sensory limitations inhibit the realization of emotional or social needs. Namely, in various traumas body is often the victim of injuries, ailments and disasters and because of that it can be associated with pain, trauma, hurt, helplessness and fear. In those cases it is logical that body should be involved in the therapeutic process. In this regard, DMT may be appropriate therapeutic approach since it is directed towards body-awareness and body-sense. A considerable number of researches confirmed that DMT may induce different benefits in physiological and psychosocial functioning in persons who suffer from traumatic experience, but also additional researches need to be done aimed to promote DMT as an evidence-based practice and more widely used in wider concept of trauma rehabilitation.