Healing From Trauma Through Dance Therapy

You can begin to heal the trauma you live with through dance movement therapy. Before that, let’s explore what trauma really is. Trauma is a pervasive issue. It results from exposure to an incident or series of events that are emotionally disturbing or life-threatening with lasting adverse effects on our functioning. It may also result in dysfunction in our mental, physical, social, emotional, and/or spiritual well-being. Trauma is in part what happens to us, but also our bodies and minds respond to what happens to us.

We might begin to understand our physiological response to trauma by looking at how animals commonly regulate themselves under life-threatening circumstances. Wild animals are routinely threatened by predators in the wild, yet they are able to reset and restore their functioning shortly after the attack. Humans on the other hand endure adverse and long-lasting effects from similar trauma that may last a lifetime. By design, animals have evolved to “shake off” the stress hormones that their bodies produce during the attack to allow them to run faster, fight harder, or hide better so they might survive a life-threatening attack. Humans, on the other hand, often override these natural ways of resetting the nervous system and become burdened by feelings of fear, judgment, shame, and intrusive thinking. The build-up of unreleased hormones and distressing traumatic experiences manifests in our bodies as chronic stress leading to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

DANCE MOVEMENT THERAPY is a somatic psychotherapeutic approach to further healing and connection to the self through a deepening of conscious connection between your body and mind. Through engaging in SOMATIC-BASED INTERVENTIONS such as meditations, body scans, somatic sensing, breath-work, movement improvisation, structured movement phrases, imagery, and movement explorations you can reach places within yourself that words can not.

Through dance movement, you are able to get in touch with, express, and explore emotions that may be lodged in the body. This sort of movement allows you to release the trauma imprinted in your mind, body and as a result the nervous system. Allowing for cathartic release, and adaptive processing of trauma.

During VIRTUAL DANCE MOVEMENT THERAPY, you will be met where you are at in your process. All you need is your laptop, tablet, or phone to access the tele-therapy platform, a physical space that allows enough space to stretch your arms, lay down a yoga mat, or step away from your device to explore your body’s expression. Your therapist will tailor the therapeutic process to your needs and physical abilities. CONTACT US to learn more about how DANCE MOVEMENT THERAPY can help you in your journey.