Dance Movement Psychotherapy isn’t only about working through difficulties. It can also offer space to become curious about ourselves — to notice what we carry in our bodies, how we respond to the world, and the different ways we have learned to protect and support ourselves.
Sometimes, something that has felt confusing or difficult to understand can become clearer when we approach it through the body. Rather than trying to think our way towards an answer, we can slow down, notice what emerges, and allow the body to lead the exploration.
In this session, the client discovered a part of themselves they had not previously recognised: a detached, observing part that could step back when emotions became overwhelming. Through embodied exploration, this part came to be understood not as something wrong or missing, but as something that had an important role to play.
The discovery offered a new perspective on the balance within themselves — and a greater appreciation for a part of them that had quietly been helping them all along.
These are their words, shared with permission.
Car DMP
Shirley is guiding me through my body looking for areas of tension, looking for areas that are asking for attention.
My shoulders and neck are really tight.
I try moving them around to loosen them and I start to yawn.
My voice joins in so I’m consciously letting go of tension.
I become aware of the area between my shoulder blades.
I can see myself sitting, looking out through glass in this area.
There’s a hint of red frame and I realise that that ‘me’ is sitting in a red car that’s mostly windows.
The car sinks down my spine, losing colour and definition, until it reaches my pelvis.
By now it’s like a 3D silhouette in dark grey.
I move my hips around, imagining warm oil in my pelvis.
The car slips and slides around. It isn’t happy.
I bring it back up my spine to my shoulder blades again and it regains definition, with a ‘me’ sitting looking out of the windows again.
‘Car me’ isn’t interested in ‘this me’.
She doesn’t want to communicate. She’s just watching.
‘This me’ tries to sense how ‘car me’ is feeling but the glass gets in the way.
‘This me’ manages to wind down the window.
‘Car me’ still isn’t communicating.
‘This me’ can sense that she’s quite ok as she is, just watching, not involved in anything, not needing anything, just watching.
There’s a lack of feeling in her but she doesn’t feel a lack.
I search for a word to describe her – Disinterested? Uninvolved? Emotionless?
Shirley suggests Detached and it’s a Eureka moment.
‘Car me’ is the one who stops emotional me getting lost in my emotions.
She pulls me back from the brink when I’m overwhelmed.
She gives me a bit of distance from the intensity of my feelings.
She’s my balancer, the Yin in my Yang.
I wouldn’t want to live in her world all the time – not enough joy in it!
But I am so grateful for her presence. She keeps me sane!