Dance Movement Psychotherapy in Acute Adult Psychiatry: a mixed methods study

This presentation is based on doctoral studies at Durham University. The research involves an investigation of the therapeutic mechanisms at play in dance movement psychotherapy in acute adult psychiatry. There is an emerging... [ view full abstract ]

This presentation is based on doctoral studies at Durham University. The research involves an investigation of the therapeutic mechanisms at play in dance movement psychotherapy in acute adult psychiatry. There is an emerging field of philosophically-led research into embodiment highlighting the importance of understanding severe mental distress, for example schizophrenia, psychosis and bi-polar disorder, in terms of the ‘lived-body’ experience (Fuchs, 2015, Hye-Lin 2015, Ratcliffe et al., 2014, Sass and Byrom, 2015). When people are experiencing severe mental distress they often report disorders of embodiment (Stanghellini et al, 2016). For example, experiencing time as speeded up or slowed down, having a sense of déjà-vu, having premonitions about oneself and loss of relationship to being in the present moment (Stanghellini et al, 2016). These are significant symptoms, and can effect how the person moves in and relates to their environment; yet these important experiences are often minimised, seen as difficult to assess, non-measurable and unscientific (op.cit, 2016).
There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) is effective in reducing symptoms in schizophrenia/psychosis (Cochrane Review, 2012, Martin et al, 2016, Röhricht and Priebe, 2006). There is little understanding or investigation of why this might be the case. Is part of DMPs efficacy as an intervention related to its capacity to change the way people relate and move together in their environment, re-configuring an abnormal perception of time?
Stanghellini (2003) argues the body can be perceived as ‘de-animated’ in schizophrenia, meaning a person experiences ‘living at a distance from themselves’, where other people’s bodies are also experienced as lifeless. The body subsequently becomes a de-temporalised one, with the possibility for spontaneous movement diminished and the sequencing of everyday life events disrupted. Can these subtle changes be better understood via the qualitative dynamics of movement in the DMP session?