Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy
Course #68250 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
For millennia, indigenous cultures around the globe have regarded dance and other movement-intensive activities like drumming to be highly valuable in emotional healing. Present-day discussions in the psychotherapeutic professions tend to label movement or dance therapy as an "innovative" approach. This course will explain how using basic movement strategies (which may or may not include dance) into clinical work represents a return to the roots of how healing arts have been classically used from a global perspective. Special attention is paid to the role of movement in the processing of unhealed emotional trauma. The work of pioneers in Western psychology will be surveyed, and an overview of dance and movement therapy as specific disciplines will be presented. Clinicians will acquire no fewer than five movement-related techniques that they can use alongside of their existing clinical training through reading this course. Options for further training, which also includes a discussion on scope of practice issues with movement, are also presented.
- INTRODUCTION
- FOUNDATIONS: MOVEMENT AND HEALING
- THE IMPACT OF MOVEMENT ON HEALING
- SIMPLE MOVEMENT TECHNIQUES IN CLINICAL WORK
- FURTHER TRAINING & COLLABORATION
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX 1: MULTICULTURAL AWARENESS AND COMPETENCE
- APPENDIX 2: DANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF EXPRESSIVE GROUP THERAPY
- Works Cited
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This intermediate course is designed for psychologists who work with clients on a regular basis or who teach/supervise those working with clients who might benefit from the inclusion of movement in their therapy.
Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.
The purpose of this course is to introduce movement therapy as a treatment option that practitioners can incorporate into their work with clients, with the goal of improvement outcomes.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Describe movement and dance in the context ofpsychotherapy.
- Describe how various world cultures have used movement, dance, and ritual for emotional healing as a separate entity from modern psychology.
- Outline the work of earlier pioneers in the psychotherapeutic and dance professions who used movement in healing.
- Describe how the field of dance and movement therapy emerged as its own discipline.
- Define conscious dance and explain its differences to dance therapy.
- Discuss the importance of movement to healing the limbic area of the brain affected by trauma.
- Summarize the psychotherapeutic profession's research findings and applications for working with mindfulness, movement, and yoga.
- Describe how to assess clients for the appropriateness of movement-based adjuncts in clinical therapy.
- Discuss how adding simple movement techniques can enhance traditional, talk-based therapy, and apply basic movement-related exercises to existing clinical work.
- Decide whether or not further training in movement-related modalities is a good fit for one's own clinical repertoire.
- Outline special considerations for movement- and dance-related modalities, including cultural competence and group therapy.
Jamie Marich, PhD, LPCC-S, REAT, RYT-500, RMT, (she/they) travels internationally speaking on topics related to EMDR therapy, trauma, addiction, expressive arts, and mindfulness while maintaining a private practice and online education operation, the Institute for Creative Mindfulness, in her home base of northeast Ohio. She is the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness approach to expressive arts therapy and the developer of Yoga for Clinicians. Dr. Marich is the author of numerous books, including EMDR Made Simple, Trauma Made Simple, and EMDR Therapy and Mindfulness for Trauma Focused Care (written in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Dansiger). She is also the author of Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery. In 2020, a revised and expanded edition of Trauma and the 12 Steps was released. In 2022 and 2023, Dr. Marich published two additional books: The Healing Power of Jiu-Jitsu: A Guide to Transforming Trauma and Facilitating Recovery and Dissociation Made Simple. Dr. Marich is a woman living with a dissociative disorder, and this forms the basis of her award-winning passion for advocacy in the mental health field.
Contributing faculty, Jamie Marich, PhD, LPCC-S, REAT, RYT-500, RMT, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Margaret Donohue, PhD
The division planner has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.