Philosophy
DANCE THERAPY and SOMATIC PSYCHOLOGY
Before psychology, dance has been a source of healing and psychological outlet for thousands of years. Shamans have been finding cures by listening to their bodies intuition and listening to their subjects bodies expression in order to find their needs, ailments and cure. Society has found dances to heal social strife and economical downturns. Communities has developed dances to differentiate themselves from one another and increase the bond among its members. Dance has been used to practice self defense and strengthen the warriors of the tribe. Why dance? Because to dance we need to listen to our bodies and to listen to our bodies, is to return home. If home is not in aligned with health, than there is a process to make the body a safe place again, and that is the art and science of dance therapy and somatic psychology.
Dance Therapy uses movement to help heal the same symptoms and underlying issues than other fields of psychology work would. It is not the use of "artistic" dance for performance. Rather, it is a search for authentic movement composed by each own personal felt sense at the moment.
Dance therapy to me is what Mary Whitehouse, one of the pioneers of dance movement therapy, says, don’t move, be moved. There is something quite magical that happens when one follows their intuitive body and allows that inner sensation to just dance and move from within. When one is authentic to their bodies, their sense of self, or ego becomes stronger and one can live from a more embodied perspective.
Exploring dance for the sake of the process of being authentic often brings up matters that are not as easily achieved when just using words. Before one dives into the world of pre verbal movement exploration, one touches in the what Christine Caldwell, the founder of dance therapy and somatic psychology degrees at Naropa University, called the first stage of the moving cycle: awareness. That first moment of awareness can lead into the next stage of the moving cycle, owning, that can be explored through dance or through a more somatic exploration.
Different than a classic Dance Therapy session where one is working for part of the time through movement and sounds in a pre verbal fashion, and the body has to unwind and speak before the mind can start making sense of what is happening in the healing process, somatic Psychology works in a more subtle inner dance.
When trauma gets locked in the body, just talking is not enough. One has to allow the trauma to be released in a very organic and embodied process. By beginning with what Eugene Gendlin, the author of focusing, names as a “felt sense”, one begins to find the cognitive correspondence to that sensation. This delicate process of integration of mind and body is very transformative. The locked energy transforms as one gives attention with a curious mind and body exploration.
Somatic Psychology has advanced a lot over the past years, demonstrating through research the importance of working through the body. Peter Levine and Pat Ogden, are some of my favorites masters on the somatic psychology field that has changed the face of how and what therapy can accomplish. Somatic Psychology heals from the the bottom up. From the body, the mind re-organizes and heals.
GESTALT THERAPY
Every Gestalt therapist looks different from one another. The reason for that is because Gestalt Therapy encourages each therapist to be whole in the presence of his or her client. For example, if the therapist loves puppetry, horses, dance or meditation, the therapist will show up with his or her skills in these areas offering that element of themselves to the client as a possible tool for the client’s process. The goal is for client and therapist to be in contact with each other in the present moment as whole people. This is considered the basis of healing through Gestalt Therapy.
Founded in Existential, Humanistic and Zen philosophy, Gestalt Therapy works with the present moment in an experiential way. Once the couple, individual or member of a group becomes aware of how they are in the present moment, they can set up an experiment. For example, if there is a part of you that wants one thing and another that does not, then, we can set an experiment where these two parts dialog with each other without avoiding the conflict. In fact, what we are trying to do is illuminate the conflict. As the intra personal dialog continues, the two parts may find common ground and begin to work together for the well being of the individual. That is actually the definition of Gestalt: A group of elements that are so unified as a whole they can not be described separately.
So, Gestalt Therapy basically seeks to identify the parts of one's psyche and help to unify them. At the same time, it seeks to identify the whole of one's being and facilitate a larger view of the self. This way the clarity of the inner debate can be seen. Like the yin and yang, all aspects of ourselves have something to offer. Occasionally, they come into conflict internally on a sub-conscious level. For example, the things your mother taught you may be very different from the things your father taught you. These aspects of your adult Self have been internalized and may create conflict when you are faced with certain issues in life regarding, for example, career choice or intimacy. Through Gestalt Therapy, I might ask you to choose objects in the room to represent your mother, your father and yourself. Then, I may ask you to tell me what each of them want to say. You begin to own these parts of yourself and, perhaps, find ways in which the teachings of both people can act as useful advise to you in a given situation.
If there is no dialog, both sides are not contributing to the self Instead, they are blocking and holding the flow of your thought processes as well as your actions. An experiment makes the conflict clearer and less confusing. We often find that there are other forces present in the conflict once we begin exploring.
In Gestalt Therapy one is looking to identify areas of one's life that feel incomplete or unresolved. Then, one looks to actively participate in expressive therapy to complete and resolve these feelings. In addition, one begins to develop the means to identify and work through inner conflict outside of therapy.
Read more about Gestalt Therapy at that Gestalt Institute of the Rockies website
EMDR
EMDR was created from a Francine Shapiro’s personal self-healing observation. After research and further investigation it was made into an 8-stage protocol.Now there are more than 150 scientific studies that show the effective results of treating PTSD by healing traumatic events with EMDR. Even though first appointed as a PTSD treatment it is now used for a variety of psychological treatments. As research on EMDR continues, new methods of dual attention stimulation were created, new population has benefited and new hypothesis of why it works have been reported.
Before we even understand the words that compose the acronym EMDR, it is important to understand that there is a whole process to make it safe and effective. Using EMDR as a treatment without the appropriate preparation can be disorganizing instead of healing. The better equipped the individual is, the easier it is going to be the healing process. Preparing a client involves the learning what is a safe place, inner retreat, body scan, progressive relaxation, containment, grounding, boundaries, body-awareness-check-in and building all other resources that might be relevant to each unique case. After disclosing the need to be well prepared for EMDR let’s get back to understanding what this acronym means.
EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.
EM- eye movement was the first method used to simulate the communication between right and left brain creating a natural environment for the digestion of a disturbing memory. Now this eye movement is no longer the only method that has been proven to be effective, now it can be also tactile or audio. In another words, instead of moving eyes from side to side, it could be done by listening to a sound on the right ear and then on the left ear, or feel a vibration stimuli on left hand and than on right hand.
D- By using these different ways to move, feel or hear, one can desensitize from a disturbing thought or image. It is like one can digest a yucky feeling, instead of keeping it inside of the body. Some clients report feeling the yuck move from inside of the body to an extremity until it dissipates, other feel that the charge they had in a certain place in their body is suddenly gone, and they do not feel disturbed by the memory that has hunted them for so many years.
R- It is not enough to desensitize a person’s negative feelings, it is also important to put a new positive feeling in that place. strong>Reprocessing stands for the procedure to process the negative manifestations of a particular event change and the ability to install a new positive one.
How does trauma becomes PTSD?
Even though the understanding of trauma is constantly evolving there is currently a largely accepted hypothesis about trauma. In the presence of a threat, our brain and body responds to the event by activating our sympathetic nervous system, this activation puts our organism ready for fight, flight or freeze. In case of arousal of the parasympathetic nervous system, our organism will faint. Everyone seem to have a certain preference for one of the reactions above, however, all of us is capable of feeling one of them in different times in our lives.
When danger is present, our body responds quickly and acts in response to the event in a certain fashion due to the activation of our nervous system. When the threat ends there is a natural discharge of energy through movement such as body shaking, crying and heavy breathing. Sometimes the discharge is visible, sometimes it is more private, but no matter what the event seem to be absorbed into a long term memory bank with a sense of self not being disturbed by the event, here there is no trauma.
When circumstances are such that there is no resources and safety enough for a discharge, the event gets stuck in the body and short term memory bank. The event is kept as a present reality, and the diagnosis given to that individual is currently called PTSD or post- traumatic stress disorder. This charge that is kept stored in the body is easily triggered and re-activate into the forefront. It can be triggered by similar sensory stimulation such as a loud sound, a certain season, certain smell and so on. The body’s job is to make sure the body is safe, so it is looking out for danger and trying its best to avoid a similar threat. When a trauma does not find a way to discharge, EMDR can be very effective in getting that memory unstuck and the sense of self before the trauma recovered and sometimes improved. Once resources are in place and a safe environment is in place, the charge can finally be released.
How does EMDR can help?
EMDR helps the person find a way to bring the nervous system not only back to its parasympathetic and sympathetic healthy homeostasis, but it seems to put the event and triggers into a healthy adapted memory bank. Through EMDR, the information, image, emotion, sensation and beliefs are digested and metabolized and a new positive manifestation of that memory is installed and becomes more vivid and present.
Through EMDR, the client is asked to bring the memory of the original event to their mind's eye and feel the sensation, emotion and physiological arousal. In the desensitization process, it is common to have previously associated material arise with the first target until an adaptive resolution is achieved. By stimulating both sides of the brain the nervous system seem to unblock and move the trauma into an adaptive resolution, the body releases its tension and activation and the person seem to find a new positive belief linked to that event.
Conclusion
EMDR is not a miracle cure drug but a psychotherapeutic process that involves all the elements of any other counseling method: clinical assessment, preparation, physical health, client and therapist relationship and rapport, developing ability to self regulates, etc. Therefore, EMDR is not a one-time session or a therapy that only involves eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, but an integrated procedure and psychotherapeutic process. Even though EMDR today is used for many issues ranging from addiction to performance enhancement, originally it was created to heal trauma and PTSD clients.
For some clients, EMDR comes very natural, for others, it is not recommended, for some it becomes relevant after years of preparation. So, no, I can not foresee how long it might take, but I can guarantee that I will bring it up if I think it is appropriate. Therefore, it is not a quick fix, but an effect treatment choice for the prepared client dealing with trauma and PTSD, panic, depression, addiction and performance enhancement for sport and business. Having that as a resource has been extremely helpful and complementary to my gestalt dance approach. A lot of times it comes as a final element for a trauma treatment, and sometimes it comes as a great crisis intervention in the beginning of a treatment. I do not think it is necessary for every person I see, but for some it is the one technique that makes a huge difference and I am glad to be able to provide EMDR in my practice.
