Dance movement therapy and developmental trauma: dissociation and enactment in a clinical case study

Abstract

This article highlights how body language and non-verbal communication are key elements for the treatment of patients who have suffered from developmental traumas. Contributions from authors from a range of disciplines help the writer to compare the relationship infant-caregiver with the relationship patient-therapist, focusing on common rhythms, attunement, breathing and regulation of affects. The writer investigates how a prolonged lack of attunement from the primary caregiver can have traumatic effects for the child. A clinical case study demonstrates that, through the awarness of his/her own body as 'the instrument', the dance movement therapist can stimulate unconscious implicit body communication and create a sort of vessel where enactments that arise from the therapeutic process can find expression in creative and unexpected ways, as in dreams. This process helps the patient to reintegrate the dissociated aspects of his/herself and can generate significant changes for those involved in the therapeutic process.