There is something particularly valuable about hearing about Dance Movement Psychotherapy from the perspective of someone who has experienced it.
It can be difficult to explain what happens in DMP because the work is different for every person. It isn’t simply about talking about what has happened, nor is it about making the body “do” something in order to feel better. Through movement, sensation, creativity and the therapeutic relationship, clients can begin to notice experiences that may have been difficult to access in words.
For some people, this can lead to a new awareness of how emotions and life experiences are held in the body. It can also bring a different kind of relationship with the body — one that is more curious, compassionate and accepting.
The following reflection was written by a client who came to DMP following a bereavement. Over time, she found that the work offered a way not only to explore grief, but also to understand longstanding patterns of tension and feelings that had previously been difficult to approach.
These are her words, shared with permission.
Healing the Hurts
Dance brings me joy. It frees my body to move, to express how I feel. It also, like the well-known beer, reaches the parts other exercise doesn’t reach. It reaches old tensions, old hurts, allowing them to surface. Old hurts tend to be the ones I’ve tucked away because they’re too hard to look closely at, the ones I need help with. Dance and Movement Psychotherapy gives me that help. Sometimes I know that I’m angry or anxious or sad. Sometimes I even know why. Sometimes I haven’t a clue what’s going on. It doesn’t matter because my body knows and DMP allows my body to explore, in a very safe way, what’s wrong and to let it out in some way, to let it go. Sometimes I know what I’ve let go of, sometimes I don’t. Again, it doesn’t matter because my body knows how much better it feels and that affects my mood and well-being. Another knock-on effect is how much kinder I am to myself and how much more comfortable I am in my skin. I went to DMP initially because of delayed reaction to bereavement and it has helped enormously with that. But it’s also helped me with chronic tension in my shoulders and hips and with those old hurts that I didn’t have the courage to look at. I now have an understanding and affection for my body that I never had before. I used to rationalise my problems away, thinking I’d dealt with them, unaware that they were being stored as tension in my body. Now I know better and with DMP, I have a way of addressing them fully.
Every DMP journey is unique. What happens within the creative process emerges from the individual person, their history, their body and the relationship they develop with their therapist.
For this client, the journey led towards a deeper understanding of her body and a kinder relationship with herself. It is one example of what can become possible when therapist and client work together through an embodied, creative process.