Dance/Movement Therapy

Overview

Dance/movement therapy (DMT) is the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration. Founded on the principle that body and mind are inseparable, DMT works with the fundamental human capacity for movement expression — the way we hold our bodies, how we occupy space, the qualities of our gestures, and the rhythmic patterns of our motion all reflect and influence our psychological state. When words fail, when trauma has lodged itself below the threshold of language, when the body has become disconnected from feeling through dissociation, numbing, or chronic tension — movement offers a pathway back to wholeness.

The American Dance Therapy Association, founded in 1966, defines DMT as “the psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, social, cognitive and physical integration of the individual.” This definition emphasizes that DMT is not dance instruction, not exercise, and not performance — it is psychotherapy that uses the body’s movement as both the medium and the message of therapeutic work. DMT is practiced by credentialed professionals (BC-DMT, Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist) who complete graduate-level training in psychology, human development, and movement analysis, in addition to extensive supervised clinical practice.

The roots of DMT reach back to the 1940s, when Marian Chace began working with psychiatric patients at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., discovering that patients who could not or would not engage in verbal therapy would respond to rhythmic, empathic movement interaction. Since then, DMT has developed multiple theoretical frameworks, accumulated a substantial evidence base, and expanded its applications from psychiatric hospitals to schools, rehabilitation centers, prisons, community settings, and private practice. This article examines DMT’s major approaches, its applications for trauma, eating disorders, and aging populations, and the rich tradition of cultural dance as healing.

The Chace Method

Marian Chace and the Birth of DMT

Marian Chace (1896-1970) was a professional dancer and teacher who noticed that her students seemed to gain psychological benefits from dance class that went beyond physical fitness. She began offering movement groups at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the federal psychiatric institution in Washington, where she worked with patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, and other severe mental illnesses. Chace discovered that through mirroring patients’ movements, establishing rhythmic group synchrony, and gradually expanding the range and expressiveness of movement, she could establish connection with people who were otherwise unreachable.

The Chace method is structured around four core concepts: body action (the use of the whole body in rhythmic movement), symbolism (the expression of feelings and experiences through movement metaphor), therapeutic movement relationship (the empathic connection between therapist and client mediated through movement), and rhythmic group activity (the use of shared rhythm to build group cohesion and a sense of belonging).

A typical Chace-method group begins with a warm-up (rhythmic group movement that establishes connection and assesses the group’s energy), moves through theme development (the emergence and exploration of emotional themes through movement), and concludes with closure (a return to shared rhythm and grounding). The therapist’s primary tool is empathic reflection — mirroring the client’s movement quality, rhythm, and energy in a way that communicates “I see you, I feel you, I am with you” through the body rather than through words.

Authentic Movement

The Discipline of Witnessing

Authentic Movement, developed by Mary Starks Whitehouse and further elaborated by Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow, is a contemplative movement practice that emphasizes the relationship between mover and witness. In its therapeutic form, the mover closes their eyes and waits for impulses to move, following whatever emerges from the body’s own intelligence without planning, performing, or judging. The witness sits with eyes open, maintaining compassionate, non-judgmental attention to the mover.

The mover’s experience is one of deep listening to the body — allowing images, sensations, emotions, and movements to arise spontaneously from the unconscious. Whitehouse described this as “being moved” rather than “moving” — a surrender of ego control to the body’s own wisdom. This practice has deep parallels with Jungian active imagination, in which conscious attention is directed toward unconscious content, and with contemplative prayer traditions in which one waits in stillness for what comes.

After the movement period, the mover may speak about their experience, and the witness offers reflections — not interpretations but descriptions of what they saw and what resonated in their own body. This witnessing relationship is central to the healing process: the experience of being seen, in one’s most vulnerable and authentic self-expression, by another person who is fully present and non-judgmental.

Body-Mind Centering

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s Somatic Approach

Body-Mind Centering (BMC), developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, is a somatic approach to movement education and therapy that explores the relationship between the body’s physiological systems (skeletal, muscular, organ, endocrine, nervous, fluid) and psychological experience. BMC practitioners develop the ability to direct awareness into specific body systems and to notice how each system contributes to movement quality, emotional state, and sense of self.

For example, BMC identifies distinct movement qualities associated with different organ systems: the lungs support a quality of lightness and exchange; the heart supports pulsation and emotional expression; the kidneys support grounding and fear response; the liver and gallbladder support processing and decision-making. While these correspondences are explored experientially rather than claimed as scientific fact, practitioners report that directing attention to specific body systems produces shifts in awareness, emotion, and movement that have therapeutic value.

BMC is used in DMT as a tool for deepening body awareness, accessing somatic resources, and working with the body-mind connection at a level below conscious thought. It is particularly valuable for working with developmental movement patterns — the sequences of movement development (yielding, pushing, reaching, pulling, grasping) that underlie both motor and psychological development.

DMT for Trauma

Embodied Trauma Processing

Trauma is stored in the body. This is not a metaphor but a neurobiological reality documented by Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Pat Ogden, and other somatic trauma researchers. Traumatic experiences that overwhelm the person’s capacity to cope are encoded in implicit memory systems — body sensations, movement impulses, postural patterns, and autonomic nervous system responses — rather than in the explicit, narrative memory systems that verbal therapy primarily addresses. The traumatized body may remain frozen in a state of hyperarousal (muscle tension, vigilance, startle response) or hypoarousal (collapse, numbness, dissociation) long after the traumatic event has ended.

DMT addresses trauma at the level where it is stored — in the body. Through movement, the therapist helps the client gradually reconnect with body sensations that may have been avoided or dissociated, complete survival responses (fight, flight, freeze) that were interrupted during the traumatic event, expand the range of tolerable movement and sensation, and develop new body-based resources for self-regulation.

Specific DMT techniques for trauma include: grounding exercises (feeling the weight of the body, the contact of feet with floor, the support of the earth); boundary work (exploring personal space, learning to say “no” through movement, practicing approaching and retreating); rhythm and co-regulation (the therapist’s calm, predictable rhythmic movement helps regulate the client’s activated nervous system); and creative movement expression (giving form to traumatic experience through metaphorical movement, which creates distance and control while allowing processing).

Evidence Base

A systematic review by Koch and colleagues (2014) found that DMT interventions for trauma showed promising results across multiple populations, including combat veterans, sexual abuse survivors, refugees, and domestic violence survivors. Improvements were documented in PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, body image, self-esteem, and quality of life. While the evidence base is still developing (many studies have small sample sizes and limited controls), the theoretical rationale for body-based trauma treatment is strong and the clinical observations are consistent.

DMT for Eating Disorders

The Body Image Distortion

Eating disorders involve a fundamental disturbance in the relationship between the person and their body — distorted body image, disconnection from body signals (hunger, satiety, fatigue), and the use of food restriction, purging, or overeating as strategies for managing unbearable emotional states. DMT addresses these disturbances directly by working with the body as a lived experience rather than an object to be controlled or changed.

DMT for eating disorders typically focuses on: reconnecting with body sensation (interoceptive awareness — the ability to feel what is happening inside the body); exploring body image through movement (how do I actually move, as opposed to how I imagine my body to be?); developing body-based emotional regulation (learning to identify and express emotions through movement rather than through food behaviors); and building a positive relationship with the body’s capacity for pleasure, strength, expressiveness, and connection.

Research on DMT for eating disorders, while limited in scope, shows improvements in body image, interoceptive awareness, emotional regulation, and self-esteem. Kleinman’s comprehensive review noted that DMT’s direct engagement with the body makes it a theoretically ideal intervention for disorders characterized by body image disturbance and body disconnection.

DMT with Elderly Populations

The Verghese Study and Dementia Prevention

A landmark prospective study by Joe Verghese and colleagues, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2003), followed 469 adults over 75 years of age for a median of 5.1 years, tracking their participation in various leisure activities and the incidence of dementia. The study found that among physical activities, only dancing was associated with a reduced risk of dementia — a 76% risk reduction for participants who danced frequently compared to those who did not.

The proposed mechanism for dancing’s protective effect is its unique combination of physical exercise (cardiovascular benefit, motor coordination), cognitive demand (learning and remembering sequences, navigating spatial relationships, coordinating with a partner and music), social engagement (dancing is inherently interactive), and emotional activation (music and movement stimulate emotional processing). This combination engages multiple brain networks simultaneously, promoting neuroplasticity and cognitive reserve in ways that single-domain activities (physical exercise alone or cognitive activities alone) do not.

DMT in Geriatric Settings

DMT in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and senior centers has been shown to reduce falls (by improving balance, coordination, and proprioception), decrease depression and anxiety, increase social interaction, and improve quality of life. Seated DMT adaptations allow participation by individuals with limited mobility, and the group format provides social stimulation that is often lacking in institutional settings.

For individuals with dementia, DMT offers a non-verbal mode of connection and expression that remains accessible when language deteriorates. The rhythm and structure of shared movement can orient and calm individuals who are confused, and the emotional expressiveness of dance can reach people who are otherwise withdrawn or agitated.

Cultural Dance as Healing

Dance Across Cultures

Every human culture has developed forms of dance that serve healing functions — from the trance dances of the San people of the Kalahari to the whirling of Sufi dervishes, from the ceremonial dances of Native American traditions to the cathartic ecstasy of Brazilian Candomblé. These cultural dance forms typically share several features: rhythmic entrainment (the synchronization of individual rhythms with group rhythm), altered states of consciousness (induced through repetitive movement, music, and breath), community participation (dance as a collective activity that reinforces social bonds), and spiritual connection (dance as a vehicle for communion with the divine, the ancestors, or the natural world).

Vietnamese Folk Dance as Healing

Vietnamese traditional dance (múa dân gian) encompasses a rich variety of forms that serve communal and healing functions. The lantern dance (múa đèn), fan dance (múa quạt), lotus dance (múa sen), and bamboo dance (nhảy sạp) are performed at festivals, celebrations, and communal gatherings where they reinforce cultural identity, strengthen community bonds, and create shared experiences of beauty and joy.

The water puppet theater (múa rối nước), unique to Vietnam’s Red River Delta region, combines storytelling, music, and movement in a form that has served entertainment, education, and communal bonding functions for over a thousand years. While not DMT in the clinical sense, these cultural dance traditions embody the same principles that underlie DMT — the integration of body, emotion, community, and meaning through movement.

African Dance Traditions

West African dance traditions — particularly those from Senegal, Guinea, Mali, and Ghana — have been incorporated into community healing programs in the United States and elsewhere. African dance’s emphasis on polyrhythm (different body parts moving to different rhythms simultaneously), community participation (the circle, call-and-response, collective improvisation), and spiritual connection (dance as communion with ancestors and orishas) offers therapeutic elements that Western clinical approaches often lack.

Programs combining African dance with therapeutic processing have been used with trauma survivors, incarcerated individuals, adolescents in residential treatment, and communities affected by racial violence. Participants report experiences of empowerment, cultural reconnection, emotional release, and collective joy that transcend the limitations of individual verbal therapy.

Clinical/Practical Applications

DMT is practiced in psychiatric hospitals (for psychosis, personality disorders, mood disorders), rehabilitation centers (for traumatic brain injury, stroke, spinal cord injury), schools (for children with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems), prisons (for anger management, emotional regulation, and social skill development), oncology settings (for body image, quality of life, and emotional coping), and community settings (for wellness, prevention, and social connection).

In private practice, DMT is used for anxiety, depression, PTSD, relationship issues, life transitions, grief, and personal growth. Many DMT practitioners integrate movement with verbal processing, creating sessions that move between embodied exploration and reflective conversation.

Four Directions Integration

• Serpent (Physical/Body): DMT is the body’s own therapy — working directly with muscle tension, postural patterns, breath, coordination, balance, and the full spectrum of movement capacities. The Serpent dimension is central: the body’s sensations, impulses, and movement patterns are the primary material of DMT. Through movement, the body tells its story, releases what it has been holding, and discovers new possibilities for being.

• Jaguar (Emotional/Heart): Movement is inherently emotional — try clenching your fists and stomping without feeling anger, or swaying gently with arms open without feeling tenderness. DMT accesses emotions through the body’s movement vocabulary, providing expression for feelings that have no words. The therapeutic relationship in DMT — particularly the empathic mirroring of the Chace method — creates a profound emotional connection through movement that parallels and may exceed verbal empathy.

• Hummingbird (Soul/Mind): DMT engages the soul through symbolic and metaphorical movement — when a client reaches upward and describes flying, when a group creates a movement story about a journey, when authentic movement produces images and associations that illuminate the mover’s life situation. The meaning-making dimension of DMT transforms movement from physical activity into psychological exploration.

• Eagle (Spirit): Cultural dance traditions worldwide testify to dance’s capacity as a vehicle for spiritual experience — the Sufi whirl as union with the divine, the shamanic dance as journey to other worlds, the ecstatic communal dance as dissolution of individual boundaries into collective consciousness. DMT at its deepest touches this spiritual dimension, where movement becomes meditation and the body becomes a temple.

Cross-Disciplinary Connections

DMT connects to neuroscience (embodied cognition, mirror neurons, interoception, motor learning), psychology (attachment theory, developmental psychology, trauma psychology, Jungian analysis), dance studies (Laban Movement Analysis, choreographic principles), somatic therapies (Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique), anthropology (ethnography of healing dance, ritual studies), geriatology and neurology (fall prevention, dementia intervention), and the broader creative arts therapies field (art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy).

Key Takeaways

• DMT uses movement as both the medium and the message of psychotherapy, based on the principle that body and mind are inseparable
• The Chace method uses empathic mirroring, rhythmic group activity, and symbolic movement to build therapeutic connection
• Authentic Movement develops the discipline of listening to the body’s own wisdom in the presence of a compassionate witness
• DMT is particularly effective for trauma because traumatic memories are stored in the body as implicit sensorimotor patterns
• Dancing is the only physical activity associated with reduced dementia risk (76% reduction in the Verghese study)
• Cultural dance traditions worldwide — including Vietnamese folk dance, African dance, and Sufi whirling — embody healing principles that predate clinical DMT
• DMT addresses eating disorders by reconnecting clients with body sensation, body image, and body-based emotional regulation

References and Further Reading

• Chaiklin, S., & Wengrower, H. (Eds.). (2016). The Art and Science of Dance/Movement Therapy: Life is Dance (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• Levy, F. J. (2005). Dance Movement Therapy: A Healing Art (Rev. ed.). National Dance Association.
• Verghese, J., Lipton, R. B., Katz, M. J., et al. (2003). Leisure activities and the risk of dementia in the elderly. New England Journal of Medicine, 348(25), 2508-2516.
• Koch, S., Kunz, T., Lykou, S., & Cruz, R. (2014). Effects of dance movement therapy and dance on health-related psychological outcomes: A meta-analysis. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 41(1), 46-64.
• van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score. Viking.
• Adler, J. (2002). Offering from the Conscious Body: The Discipline of Authentic Movement. Inner Traditions.
• Bainbridge Cohen, B. (2012). Sensing, Feeling, and Action: The Experiential Anatomy of Body-Mind Centering (3rd ed.). Contact Editions.
• Whitehouse, M. S. (1979). C. G. Jung and dance therapy: Two major principles. In P. L. Bernstein (Ed.), Eight Theoretical Approaches in Dance/Movement Therapy. Kendall/Hunt.
• Ogden, P., Minton, K., & Pain, C. (2006). Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy. W. W. Norton.