Resilience enhancement in parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder through dance movement psychotherapy

Abstract

Raising children with an Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) can have an impact on the wellbeing of parents. However, emotional support for raising children with ASD is not always readily available and/or carefully considered. Interventions that offer psychological support using body-based creative approaches to psychotherapy such as Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) are scarce; research in this field is equally limited. In this study, the lived experiences of parents of children with ASD who participated in six DMP sessions were analysed from a hermeneutic phenomenology perspective. Three main categories and several sub-themes were identified: (a) the journey (6 themes); (b) therapeutic factors and contextual resources (10 themes); (c) general and specific perceived outcomes of DMP (11 themes). Integrating all these themes and considering relevant literature, a summary of the process and outcomes of DMP for resilience enhancement in parents of children with ASD was developed.