A developmental approach to the interactive process in dance/movement therapy

Abstract

This paper applies a child development framework to the interactive process in dance therapy. The first section of the paper includes a brief discussion of developmental stages as described by Margaret Mahler and others. The second section involves a more extended description of the attachment and separation process, based on Mahler’s work, with particular attention to the nonverbal cues and body movement dynamics characteristic of each stage. The third section details specific case material taken from dance therapy work with two hospitalized women in their early twenties. The focus is on the quality of specific interactions and movement response patterns emerging in the dance therapy work in relation to the developmental material revealed, and on factors such as degree of ego boundary, use of space, passivity or activity, imitation, touch, friction, and compliance. The final section of the paper describes some of the consequences of such an intensely interactive approach to treatment as is implied in a developmental point of view.