Polyvagal-Informed Dance/Movement Therapy for Trauma: A Global Perspective

Abstract

During the 51st annual American Dance Therapy Association conference, this author participated in a cross-disciplinary panel, “Polyvagal-informed therapy for trauma, attachment and autism,” with Dr. C. Sue Cater, Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute and Rudy Professor of Biology at Indiana University, and Dr. Stephen Porges, Distinguished University Scientist at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University Bloomington and Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The following article offers the author’s remarks on this panel, focusing on the intersections between trauma treatment and the activation of the social engagement system through polyvagal-informed dance/movement therapy (DMT). This author applies polyvagal-informed DMT within a global framework.