BELIEFS, METHOD/APPROACHES, INTERVENTIONS

Beliefs/Values/Assumptions/Core Concepts/Philosophies (Beliefs)

Mechanisms explain how DMT works. What explains why dance/movement therapy works? Author Stephen R. Covey (2004) states that beliefs, values, core concepts and assumptions explain why something works within a discipline. I am referring to the vast array of words— beliefs, values, assumptions, core concepts and philosophies as beliefs for this publication. Table 9.2 is a list of dance/movement therapy beliefs that I have accumulated over numerous years but that should not be considered by any means a complete list. The construction of a more complete list would be beneficial for the DMT discipline.

Theories, Approaches and Methods

Theories, approaches and methods are influenced by the therapist’s individual beliefs, assumptions, core concepts and philosophies. They differ from principles and laws because they are not phenomena that are considered proven by a discipline. Theories/approaches/ methods describe one’s individual way of working and ways in which one’s practice is described to others (Burnham, 1999). Marian Chace’s theories/approaches/methods of DMT included four core concepts—symbolism, therapeutic movement relationship, rhythmic group activity and body action (Chaikhn & Schmais, 1993). Her core belief was that dance is communication. Much has been written about methods and individual beliefs (theoretical frameworks) as exemplified by the founding figures in the discipline. Theoretical frameworks are essential in academic training and have laid the groundwork for the

Table 9.2 Shared Beliefs, Assumptions, Core-Concepts, Philosophies

profession. Defining laws/principles and their mechanisms as previously mentioned is necessary for the discipline to grow.

Interventions

A dmts theoretical framework informs their intervention choices. The DMTCB (n.d.) requires candidates to define their “Movement Interventions and Rationales”:

Demonstrate perception of movement cues and reflection back to client(s) dynamically developing movement to lead to fuller expression. Explain logically and clearly what is observed, what is responded to and why in client(s) movement. Explain what movement intervention is made and why. Describe thematic material and how it reflects intrapsychic issues.

What is observed, what is responded to, and why, leads us to interventions. Interventions, which are numerous throughout a DMT session, generate action within the mechanisms to bridge the dynamic tension from the current movement presentation/form and its accompanying story/content toward the desired outcome. Interventions are the heart of the therapist’s creative process in DMT. The therapist takes what is observed, what is existing and available, and formulates/develops the movement in predictable and unpredictable ways with the client (Rusch & Imus, 2016). An example of an intervention may be to ask your client to create a dance that represents a thunderstorm. A follow-up intervention may be to ask your client to relate the thunderstorm dance to their expression of anger. Formulation and development (from fundamental mechanism 8-clinical decision making) emerge from the therapist’s creative process. The less structured and more adaptive the therapist is to the client’s call, the more creative the response by the therapist. It is the therapist’s creating that breeds the client’s creating.

Creativity theorist Robert Fritz (1991) stated that structural tension is essential to creativity. Applied to DMT, the tension-seeking resolution is from the current health situation as observed and appraised through the client’s movement form and story, the reality, into the form and content of the desired health outcome. The interventions are the experiences or creative opportunities the therapist presents for the client to use to seek resolution. Interventions take the form of both verbal and nonverbal tasks, prompts, cues and instructions. Minor directives may be defined as prompts or cues. I prefer the term transitional task (Wright, 1979) when entering into a specific movement phase in my practice. The term transition assists in explaining the function of the prompt. A prompt during improvisation and play (mechanism 3) may simply be: “Let the music move you.” During dynamic concretiza-tion (mechanism 4), there is a more complex transitional task: “Create a thunderstorm dance through your movement that has a beginning, middle and end.” This task is transitional because it links or attempts to integrate (fundamental mechanism 5-symbolization and metaphor) the content and form to a specific theme. In dynamic concretization, or embodiment, the therapist is taking the story from the client. In this case, the story may be the inability to identify and express anger. The therapist is taking the client’s story and transitioning it into a concretized form through a dance that has three phases or phrases.

These two examples presuppose that prompts and transitional tasks are more often verbal. In DMT, the prompts may also take the form of movement development and are called cues. Development of movement through a cue is the nonverbal equivalent of the verbal transitional task. All are transitional, taking what is present and available to the client and changing it in predictable and unpredictable ways (Arieti, 1976: Rusch & Imus, 2016). The client’s words may be developed, as well as the client’s movement. Interventions are bidirectional—moving the body to move the mind or moving the mind to move the body. Neuroscientists (Caldwell, 2018; Siegel, 1999) call this the bottom-up or top-down approach.

Movement Substances

How do we identify or categorize what we observe, what is present? What is available? What we are trying to seek resolution of or to? Caldwell (2013) called for us to identify what we seek to transform. Bechtel (2008) stated that the way to understand the mechanisms is to identify the various substances within the component parts that are produced or transformed. Bechtel also stated that it is “discovering the various substances that are produced or transformed in operations [that] provides a powerful heuristic for characterizing the operations themselves” (p. 987). This is what I tried to do when I originally analyzed the four

DMT sessions to determine how transformation occurred. The teaching approach called, A-FECT attempts to articulate the movement components and their substances.

What movement is available or is the call and response within aesthetic mutuality (fundamental mechanism 2) and dynamic concretization (fundamental mechanism 3)? What are our substances and formal structures in DMT? Is the DMTCB (n.d.) referring to these substances when they request the certificate applicant identify “movement processes” (p. 4)? Queyquep White referred to the “substances of movement” (Queyquep White, 2009, p. 219) through effort/shape and reported that she and Claire Schmais introduced Rudolf Laban’s movement system of effort/shape into the educational content at Hunter College when they created the first degree program in DMT.

The profession of DMT has implicitly agreed upon using the language introduced by Queyquep White and Schmais from Laban, Lamb, Bartemeff, and Kestenberg to identify the substances and components of movement. Although these specific systems are suggested and not required by the current ADTA s Educational Standards for Approved Master of Arts Programs in DMT (2017), a system for observing and analyzing movement is required in DMT training. Recently, Laban’s system has been challenged (Caldwell, 2013) for its Eurocentric bias. As language and synthesis, Laban’s taxonomies are invaluable. As a form of analysis, well-trained dance/movement therapists know that they must validate their assumptions and aesthetic preferences with their clients, as in the formation of all good analysis. Interpretation is not usually made in isolation by the observing dmts but is co-created with the client.

In 1999, when preparing for a conference presentation, I designated movement within a DMT session into three categories: functional/developmental, expressive and communicative. These categories are also included within the current Educational Standards for Approved Degree Programs (ADTA, 2017) and are labeled developmental, multicultural, expressive and communicative aspects of verbal and nonverbal behavior.