Collaborative Couple Dance Therapy

Abstract

Dance has been used as a metaphor by couple therapists such as Johnson (1996) for Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) (Johnson, 1996). However, Johnson preferred to have the couples do the leading in the therapy albeit staying at the realm of metaphor. As a result, the therapy is slow and her outcome studies take at least 12 sessions (Johnson, 1996). Whilst dance as a metaphor is useful, couples need more direction. They are like the novice dancer coming to learn some form of dance new to them or to brush up their dance steps of a dance they have not been dancing for a while and expect the therapist to be much more leading as the expert dance instructor. Instead the Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist (EFCT) would spend many sessions doing just validation of both parties - in order to de-escalate their communication dynamics (Johnson, 1996). This akin to allowing the couples fumble in their out of rhythm dance steps. In this paper a new model of couple therapy based on the dance metaphor which is much more directional and collaborative than that used in EFCT will be presented and it will be shown that this model is more efficient and effective as a form of couple therapy and psychotherapy. Of course, the same dance still needs to be adapted for each couple differently as they have different needs - different heights, different tastes and different passions. The specific dance steps for the couple will be collaboratively created by the Couple Collaborative Dance Therapist (CCDT).