Kestenberg Movement Profile Research Articles

History and the psychoanalytic foundations of the Kestenberg Movement Profile

ABSTRACT This theoretical study is part of my doctoral research on the history and development of the psychodynamic theory movement, the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP). This paper attempts to introduce the KMP within the historical context of its origins, the psychoanalytic circles of 1940–1980 New York outlining the main lines of influence on Kestenbreg’s work. The KMP forms a complex integrative approach of movement assessment and analysis that examines the interplay between movement development and the process of self-formation. The paper explores the theoretical foundations of the Kestenberg Movement Profile in general, concerning infl uences from Freudian drive theory and ego-psychology in particular. The paper aims to illuminate the field of scientific thought that the KMP emerged from as a psychodynamic assessment tool of movement behaviour.

Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) Approaches to Working with Young Children and Caregivers in Dance/Movement Therapy

ABSTRACT In this article we will explore concepts drawn from Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) theory and methodology that are relevant to working with young children and caregivers in a community setting. The KMP approach encourages new parents to learn about their baby’s movement behavior and what to expect as their baby grows. This approach heightens caregivers’ awareness of new phases of development and when the child is ready to explore new movement patterns. Goals in working with young children are: the enhancement of social, emotional, motor and cognitive development, attachment through movement attunement, and meeting the child’s developmental and transitional needs through dance/movement therapy (DMT) interactions and interventions. Topics addressed are: the creation of a safe holding environment; the development of trust, attunement, and attachment; the importance of transitions, and channeling antisocial behavior into creative movement forms of self-expression. These concepts and interventions may be modified for clinical work with older children and adolescents. We will examine Kestenberg’s psychomotor developmental framework, present issues that may arise for families, and offer clinical case examples in DMT. The coauthors will present the KMP approach at a creative movement group setting for young children and caregivers.

The body communicates: Movement synchrony during music therapy with children diagnosed with ASD

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulties with social communication and relational interactions as well as repetitive and stereotypical movements. Based on the assumption that movement synchrony can be used to enhance social skills, this study examines the synchrony of body rhythms between children with ASD and their music therapists. A computerized diagnostic for calculating body synchrony characteristics, based on the Kestenberg Movement Profile, was developed. Data collection took place over a period of 20 weeks. The participants had been recruited for a large international controlled trial study where ‘improvisational music therapy’ was used as music therapy approach. The methods in the current study included microanalysis of video footage of nineteen 4- to 6-year-old children diagnosed with ASD. The results revealed higher levels of synchrony between the therapists and children when the latter were using repetitive rhythmicity that occurred 2 or more times per second. At the end of the treatment, there was no significant change in autistic symptoms and in the children's ability to synchronize with the therapists, although the therapists were significantly more synchronize with the children. We discuss the possible role of music therapists in promoting experiences for children through the use of basic body rhythmicity patterns.

„Wär’ schön, wenn sie’s schaffen würde!“

AbstractThis article is based on the KMP (Kestenberg Movement Profile) for assessment of child development and movement behavior. I investigate characteristic movement patterns in a videotaped child psychoanalytic session. How do therapist and child move together? Since the KMP is commonly applied in dance therapy to evaluate movement skills and give support to development process, I will propose some suggestions for alternative modes of moving and encourage the building up of a new dialogue through action modification.

Dance movement psychotherapy with the under fives and their families: identified and unidentified learning difficulties in a diagnosis dominated world

The paper focuses on the use of dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) as an expressive and experiential approach to working therapeutically with children up to five years old with learning difficulties/differences. It considers the many ways in which to approach therapeutic work with this client group whilst retaining a committed interest in the wider public conversation. The questions asked concern what kind of learning ‘differences’ are perceived as learning ‘difficulties’, and what happens to children who suffer from a gap in provision due to their invisible needs. The paper also gives an informative outline of early years’ provision in the UK, a description of the author’s early years DMP projects at children’s centres, and an account of a session. The author utilises perspectives derived from the person-centred and psychodynamic approaches. Additional understandings stem from the use of the Kestenberg Movement Profile, a movement analysis tool used both for assessment and intervention.

The embodiment of attachment: Directional and shaping movements in adults’ mirror game

Specific body-movement parameters have been suggested by the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) to be linked to social interactions and communication behaviors in adults, yet very few studies have explored these associations empirically. Here we analyzed the movements of 48 participants who played the mirror game, which involved two players mirroring each other’s movements during a nonverbal interaction. Their movements were assessed using tools based on the Laban Movement Analysis and later defined in the KMP. In addition, the participants completed the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) attachment questionnaire. Two major results emerged. First: high scores on the anxiety and avoidance attachment scales were found to be significantly correlated with a low use of ‘shaping in planes’ movements, which involve the use of at least one plane. Furthermore, specific use of one dimensional ‘directional movements’ and two dimensional ‘shaping in planes’ movements, significantly differ between adults with high anxiety scores and adults with high avoidance scores. Second, using factor analysis, three main groups (factors) of the movement measures were identified and were significantly correlated to the attachment orientation. The findings indicate that analysis of movement interactions could provide information that is linked to attachment orientation.

Judith S. Kestenberg’s Dance/Movement Therapy Legacy: Approaches with Pregnancy, Young Children, and Caregivers

This article will present several dance/movement therapy (DMT) applications of the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP), designed by Judith Kestenberg and colleagues. Starting with pregnancy and the Prenatal Project, and following children through age six with their caregivers, the article describes the author’s early DMT work at Judith Kestenberg’s Center for Parents and Children, and continues to the present. Kestenberg’s developmental phases from birth through age six are presented, along with issues concerning children and caregivers; also covered are examples of practical interventions. The KMP is used as a springboard for understanding the origins of aggression, along with theoretical underpinnings of Kestenberg’s research, and practical applications for both dance/movement therapists and caregivers.

Embodying Self: A Dance/Movement Therapy Approach to Working with Concealable Stigmas

Concealable stigmas are characteristics, attributes, or identities that can be hidden from others and are socially devalued and negatively stereotyped. While research exists on the psychological costs of having a concealable stigma, less exists on the somatic costs of having a concealable stigma and on clinical approaches with this population. Drawing on the Kestenberg Movement Profile, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and the Five Fundamental Actions, this article proposes how dance/movement therapy (DMT) can be an additional lens through which to understand how having a concealable stigma impacts a person, particularly on a somatic level. This article also outlines specific DMT interventions designed to increase embodiment and movement repertoire. The goals of these interventions are to lessen the somatic impact of having a concealable stigma and empower clients to have choice in the ways in which they present themselves in the world.

Opposites attract: holistic emotional regulation using dance/movement therapy and the doshas in Ayurveda

This model presents a collaborative and holistic perspective on dance/movement therapy (D/MT) and Ayurveda. This approach suggests that the dance/movement therapist takes into account all range and manner of an individual’s movement repertoire and uses these observations to construct therapeutic interventions that build upon body types and movement preferences represented in Ayurveda. Both D/MT and Ayurveda share the value of achieving a sense of regulation through the use of opposite qualities of movement, which will be explored in depth through the lenses of Laban Movement Analysis and the Kestenberg Movement Profile. Several examples of interventions the therapist might utilise are provided. Further considerations exploring the growth of this model in the future and limitations are also included in this article.

A Movement-Informed Mentalization Lens Applied to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy of Children and Adolescents with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

Deficits in decoding and encoding emotion and intention are inherent in children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The interface of neuro-deficit, epigenetic influences, relational challenges, weaknesses in social-cognition, and affective dysregulation are embedded in keystone theoretical perspectives, further informed by recent research findings. Highlighting the importance of developmental potentials and nonverbal behavior, as well as facilitating parental resolution and reflectivity in the wake of diagnosis, a mentalization-framed therapeutic approach is described wherein the child exercises holding the therapist’s mind in mind, while developing a richer portrait of a mentalizing and relating self. Verbal exchanges invite perspective taking, inducing the patient to help the therapist know what is unknown and vice versa. Such inducement is explicit and implicit. Interpersonal coordination of nonverbal processes in the therapeutic context enables progress toward ‘embodied mentalization.’ A therapist’s challenge includes awareness of one’s own (and the patient’s) bodily experiences and kinesthetic identifications that promote experiences of empathy and collaborative trust. These allow the patient to feel capable of knowing and being known. The Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) illuminates such bodily processes and their possible meanings. De-vitalized and/or rigidified states can secondarily serve defenses. Video-feedback is sometimes warranted within the context of therapy.

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

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.

Somatic assessment of nonverbal social skills in children with Down syndrome: Using the Kestenberg Movement Profile as a tool for treatment planning

The focus of this quasi-experimental pilot study is how to support the emergence of the full potential development of nonverbal social skills in children with Down syndrome (DS). It is an exploratory case study using an embedded-multiple case design. This study views working with the social skills of a 6-year-old girl with DS through the lens of the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP). Through this lens, the social intelligence, relational shaping, developmental movement, and nonverbal communication of a child with DS were explored. In order to more accurately identify the child's strengths and challenges a triangulation approach is used. Data were collected for the child with DS and her typically developing, fraternal, twin sister using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II as a quantitative assessment tool, the KMP as a qualitative assessment tool, and from a naturalistic observation in their home environment in order to assess and compare their nonverbal social skills.

Movement, Art, and Child Development Through the Lens of an Innovative Use of the Kestenberg Movement Profile

In this work, based on a doctoral dissertation in the field of education, the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) was innovatively used for data analysis to assess group or gestalt (“non-individual”) movement of children in a public preschool. The choice of inquiry was driven by the author’s belief that freedom of movement and expression are foundations for natural learning processes and should therefore be included as core structures in school learning. Through an ethnographic, emergent research design, the KMP was used to demonstrate the relationship between movement and expressive parameters in different classroom activities. Three profiles of group or gestalt movement were constructed based on three movement activity categories that emerged from the research data for 14 children. In the formal activities, there was a high degree of external control of how the children moved their bodies and expressed themselves. In the improvisational movement/dance and art-making activities there was a low degree of external control of how the children moved and expressed themselves. Comparison of the three activity profiles showed that how the children of the study moved their bodies and expressed themselves influenced important learning and developmental processes.

Magical Moments in Movement: Antioch University New England Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling Students Quest in the Real World

The aim of this article is to highlight dance/movement therapy students’ learning process as they integrate and apply dance/movement therapy concepts. Three current students present vignettes on how they were able to use dance/movement therapy principles and techniques after their first year of dance/movement therapy graduate studies. The vignettes illustrate dance/movement therapy and Kestenberg Movement Profile approaches that are applied as students test out their new knowledge in real world settings with a child with autism, an infant, and parents of a three-year-old. Woven through the students’ stories are dance/movement therapy intervention techniques, successful approaches to communicating with nonverbal infants and prevention techniques to guide parents through difficult developmental phases.

Nonverbal Transmission of Stress Between Parent and Young Child: Considerations and Psychotherapeutic Implications of a Study of Affective Movement Patterns

Stressful experiences clearly make their way into the complex communicative systems shared by parent and young child. Transmission of stress is often discussed but infrequently explicated as a process. Recent research on the intricacies of explicit and implicit message exchanges between parent and young child invite further consideration of how various types and intensities of stress are manifest in different types of observable manners and behaviors. Employing the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) as a descriptive movement-nonverbal behavior classificatory system, developed within a psychoanalytic frame of reference, Birklein and Sossin (in press) recently identified specific tension-flow and shape-flow patterns corresponding to parental stress, as manifest in the parent, the child, and the dyad. These findings are relevant to the identification of modalities of behavior and interaction in which stress (and an awareness of the other's affective state) is transmitted. Data underscore the links between parental stress and specific tension-flow attributes of the parent experiencing the stress but also link the parental stress to mismatches in the child's tension-flow and shape-flow and to discordances in the dyad's patterns as well. This article examines the theoretic implications of these findings regarding the recognition of a channel of “stress-transmission” and for understanding identificatory and internalizing processes in the parent–child dyad. It further considers evaluative and therapeutic implications of the stress-nonverbal links found through this research in developing effective clinical approaches to the stressed child or dyad, highlighting the role of tension-flow, shape-flow, and its nonverbal (and verbal) analogs in the therapeutic exchange.

Body movement, presence of parents, and the process of falling asleep in toddlers

A total of 30 toddlers were videotaped as they fell asleep and the kinematic properties of their movements were analysed employing a computerised system, based on the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP). We analysed the movements and their association to the length of the falling asleep phase and presence of parents. Results revealed that the movement variables had a significant contribution in explaining the length of the Falling Asleep Phase (FAP). Toddlers who fell asleep within 30 minutes of entering bed displayed movements characterised by low amplitude and gradual slopes, movements such as sucking and caressing. Toddlers who were awake for longer than 30 minutes before they fell asleep displayed movements characterised by high amplitude and abrupt changes, movements such as kicking, banging, and straining. The movement variables predicted the length of the falling asleep phase significantly better than other variables associated with the falling asleep phase, such as duration of music played, duration of using pacifiers/thumbs, and the presence of objects in the bed including bottles. A significant correlation was found between the presence of parents in the toddler’s room and the type of movement that was used; Parents who spent more time in the room had toddlers who revealed less soothing movements and more movements characterised by high amplitudes and abrupt slopes. Possible intervening variables including temperament, chronological age, mental age, sleep parameters, and demographic information did not explain the findings. Practical applications of the study in assisting young children in the falling asleep phase are discussed.

The Kestenberg Movement Profile: Performance of Novice Raters

Whether for clinical evaluation or research purposes, the reliable assessment of movement behavior is central to the practice of dance/movement therapy. While few researchers have examined the rater training process for movement observation tools, this pilot study is an investigation of the agreement of novice raters on the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP). The novice raters were students who completed a basic KMP training of 45 hours. The five student raters constructed KMP ratings of four participants from a non-clinical, adult population for three of the nine KMP dimensions (tension-flow rhythms, bipolar, and unipolar shape-flow). Performance of the raters was assessed using generalizability theory (Cronbach, Gleser, Nanda & Rajaratnam, 1972). Results indicated rather inconsistent reliability for novice raters. Raters displayed particular difficulty with unipolar shape-flow, and more successful rating for tension-flow rhythms and bipolar shape-flow. The results are discussed in the context of using data analysis to investigate rater training issues pertinent to dance/movement therapy practice and research.

Mutual influence to match kinesic time patterns in mother-infant play

Specific body-movement parameters have been suggested by the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) to be linked to social interactions and communication behaviors in adults, yet very few studies have explored these associations empirically. Here we analyzed the movements of 48 participants who played the mirror game, which involved two players mirroring each other’s movements during a nonverbal interaction. Their movements were assessed using tools based on the Laban Movement Analysis and later defined in the KMP. In addition, the participants completed the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) attachment questionnaire. Two major results emerged. First: high scores on the anxiety and avoidance attachment scales were found to be significantly correlated with a low use of ‘shaping in planes’ movements, which involve the use of at least one plane. Furthermore, specific use of one dimensional ‘directional movements’ and two dimensional ‘shaping in planes’ movements, significantly differ between adults with high anxiety scores and adults with high avoidance scores. Second, using factor analysis, three main groups (factors) of the movement measures were identified and were significantly correlated to the attachment orientation. The findings indicate that analysis of movement interactions could provide information that is linked to attachment orientation.