Time Out of Time: Dance/Movement Therapy on the Onco-hemotology Unit of a Pediatric Hospital

Abstract

The suffering caused by a diagnosis of cancer with subsequent hospitalization is traumatic for children and their parents. Their lives change from one day to the next and time is no longer the same. Being hospitalized on the onco-hemotology unit of a pediatric hospital implies waiting for medical examinations and procedures to be completed with consequences of passivity or hyperactivity induced by long treatments lasting days, weeks, and even months with uncertain results. An underlying anxiety accompanies this waiting, which constantly pervades the atmosphere of the unit. It is a time out of time. This article illustrates, in the foreground, a clinical approach of dance/movement therapy (DMT) on the unit using movement analysis including Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) (Laban, 1980), fundamental body connections (Bartenieff & Lewis, 1980), and elements from the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) (Kestenberg & Sossin, 1979). In the background influencing the understanding of movement analysis, theoretical concepts of authors such as Winnicott (1985), Bollas (2001), and Stern (2011), contribute to the interventions. The author’s body as a Corpo Ambiente (body/mind environment) is the state of being that she brings with her from room to room, from bed to bed, to activate and offer therapeutic relationships with three children through movement, dance, play, or simply assisting and staying with their emotional states. The child’s age, particular medical treatment, temperament or personality, and resilience to change constitute the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual nucleus within the hospital’s structure, and are the center of this article.