Life itself is like a dance. Some people have a natural talent for dancing while others stumble, fall, and seem to make a joke out of themselves. However, regardless of how you’re dealing with life, one thing you can benefit from is dance therapy. In this article, we will look at what dance therapy is and how it can help you.
What Is Dance Therapy?
Dance therapy, also known as dance/movement therapy or DMT, is a therapy that uses, well, dance. Besides getting people off their feet and helping people be more physical, which can help mental health problems, dance therapy is used for mental health problems. The goal is to help reduce stress, improve cognition, and make yourself physically more active. Dance therapy is seen as quite effective, and let’s look at a few reasons as to why that is.
What Can Dance Therapy Treat?
Dance therapy is popular because it can help treat quite a few problems. The belief is that dance therapy can help treat your emotion with motion. Dance is said to help you with social, physical, cognitive, and any other problems you have in your life. Let’s look at a few of them.
Physical
Pain : If one has chronic pain, exercise can help by releasing natural painkillers in one’s brain.
Obesity : If someone is going to move more, they can lose weight.
Cardiovascular disease : Exercise can help improve your heart health.
Hypertension : Exercise helps reduce blood pressure.
Cancer : Movement can keep you physically fit and keeps your spirits up.
Mental
Exercise : can help with your anxiety and depression. Besides the feel-good chemicals released in your brain, it provides a good distraction. Being able to get into a hobby can help people cope with their trauma. Exercise can help give the older crowd a hobby, and exercise may help improve memory.
Self-esteem issues : Those who have problems with their confidence may be able to benefit from dancing.
Communication problems : Whether you’re awkward or have a legitimate speaking problem, dance therapy can help.
- Dance therapy is said to help people with autism. If one has anger issues, dance therapy can help them get their energy out.
- Dance therapy is good to build up one’s social circle as well. You can dance with other like-minded people.
History Of Dance Therapy
The dance itself has been around since humans learned how to walk on two feet. The healing power of dance was quite noticeable, and, obviously, dance had a supernatural aspect to it for many tribes. While dance certainly isn’t magic, it has some scientific proof that it can be a tool for healing. Many early psychologists began seeing its power, and, in the 1950’s, early dance therapy was born.
“It may begin with a warm up, a cool down, breaks, certain dances, and other things that make it a unique experience. However, dance therapy can also be something that has no structure. The dancers control their dances, and the instructors just watch.”
Dance Therapy’s Effectiveness
You may wonder how effective dance therapy is. Is it placebo or is there scientific support for it? As you can imagine, dance therapy is quite effective and a great way to treat your mental health problems. There have been studies that have seem to indicate that those who tried it ended up having a positive experience. Other studies have seemed to point to the fact that dance therapy can make people less aggressive. For those who have had dementia, dance therapy can help with memory. It can help children with autism deal with the problems that come with autism. Childhood obesity seems to decrease with dance therapy. It’s still a field that does require more research, but, so far, the evidence has pointed out that it is effective in both physical or mental problems.
What To Expect
If you go to a dance therapy session, you may wonder what to expect. Dance therapy usually begins with an observation and assessment. They make sure you’re fit to dance, you can tell them your problems, and you can get an idea of what to expect with your session.
When it comes to dancing therapy, the session will depend on who you’re seeing. Some sessions have a structure. It may begin with a warm up, a cool down, breaks, certain dances, and other things that make it a unique experience. However, dance therapy can also be something that has no structure. The dancers control their dances, and the instructors just watch.
Do I Need To Dance Well to Enjoy Dance Therapy?
One thing that is intimidating for quite a few people who go through dance therapy is that they believe that someone must need to be immensely talented to enjoy dance therapy. This is simply not the case. Anyone can benefit from dance therapy. It doesn’t matter if you have two left feet. Dance therapy is free form, and the therapists do not judge you. Instead, it’s a safe place for you to express yourself. If you have any doubts, you can put them to rest.
Dance Therapy Is For Everyone
You don’t need to have severe mental problems to benefit from dance therapy. Anyone can benefit. Even if you feel like nothing is wrong with your life, dance therapy is good exercise, a great way to improve your overall health, and a great way to express yourself. Think about an aspect of your life that you want to improve on. Odds are, dance therapy can help you improve upon it and then some. Talk to a therapist and see if dance therapy is right for you. There’s a good chance it will be.
New possibilities for feeling and perceiving
It is clear that dance has a powerful effect on the human body and psyche. DMT from its inception emphasize that the body is inseparable from, and in constant reciprocal interaction with, the mind. As such, sensations, perceptions, emotions and thinking affect our body and the way we move. By observing
the body we can deduce mental states.
Conversely, our posture and our movements have the power to transform our mental states, to evoke repressed memories, to release spontaneity and creativity, to reorganize our brains. New ways of moving and dancing may produce new ways of feeling and perceiving the world. This is one of the most exciting and profound aspects of DMT and it is shocking that the body, movement and dance have been almost entirely ignored by mainstream psychotherapy. It is time to change that!