The Role of Dance Movement Therapy in Mental Health

Abstract

As material life becomes better and the pace of life accelerates, mental health is becoming more and more of a concern. However, traditional verbal psychotherapies have failed to meet peoples demands for pleasurable, safe, and universal psychological healing, and thus dance movement therapy has emerged and taken on an increasingly important role in the mental health field. There is a large gap in the comprehensive research on contemporary dance movement therapy related populations and few suggestions for its development in China. To bridge this gap, the author has collected a large amount of relevant literature and summarized the important role of dance therapy in mental health from three perspectives: its emergence and development as well as theoretical foundation; the second part is the current situation of related groups, including the qualifications, employment prospects of dance therapists and three major categories of groups that have been proven to benefit from dance therapy at present; the last part provides suggestions for four social roles concerning the development of dance therapy in China.