Dance Therapy and Authentic Movement

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The symbols of the self arise in the depths of the body.  --C. G. Jung
 
Our moving bodies have stories to tell. --Suzi Tortora, Ed.D., Dance-Movement Therapist
 

The Healing Power of Dance

 

We know that people have danced to heal themselves and to connect with the sacred since earliest human history. When given safety and permission, the body moves in natural rhythms and unwinds in patterns of wholeness. This is our birthright as humans, yet we have forgotten that dance and movement are one of the most powerful healing forces available to us. This doesn't necessarily mean dance or movement as performance, but rather dance and movement as self expression for what is living in us now—whether known or unknown. Jung records that some of his patients used dance to embody their dreams and to engage in active imagination.

 

Dance-Movement Therapy 

 

The American Dance Therapy Association defines dance-movement therapy as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, mental, social, physical and spiritual integration of an individual or group. There are many ways dance and movement can be used to accomplish this goal and one of these ways is Authentic Movement, which is a main focus of my practice because it allows for the conscious connection between our embodied self and the unconscious.

 

Carl Jung says of the psyche-body connection:

The distinction between mind and body is an artificial one... In fact, so intimate is the intermingling of bodily and psychic traits that not only can we draw far-reaching inferences as to the constitution of the psyche from the constitution of the body, but we can also infer from psychic peculiarities the corresponding bodily characteristics. (CW 6, para. 916)

 

The body means as little to us without the psyche as the [psyche] without the body. (CW 6, para. 918)

 

[The] whole psychic organism corresponds exactly to the body, which, though individually varied, is in all essential features the specifically human body which all [people] have. (CW 8, para. 322)

 
Since psyche and matter [body] are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irrepresentable, transcendental factors, it is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter [body] are two different aspects of one and the same thing. (CW 8, para. 418)
 
Jung encouraged those he worked with to access and interact actively with the contents of their bodies and fantasy life through art, dance, and other modalities as a way to make the contents of the unconscious conscious - and therefore useful and relevant to one's transformation. Referring to this process, he said:

I was able to recognize that in this method I was witnessing the spontaneous manifestation of an unconscious process...to which I later gave the name "individuation process"...In many cases, this brought a large measure of therapeutic success, which encouraged both myself and the patient. (CW 8, para. 400)

 

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Authentic Movement - One path of Dance-Movement Therapy

 

Authentic Movement, as it is now called, is an embodied awareness practice developed in the mid-twentieth century by Mary Starks Whitehouse, a dancer and avid student and teacher of Jungian psychology. Mary focused on using dance and body movement as the medium of the active imagination process referred to by Jung, above. She initially called her work the tao of the body (Whitehouse, 1958) and movement in depth (Whitehouse, 1972).

 

The ground form of Authentic Movement takes place between and within two people, who are identified as the mover and the witness. In the following paragraphs, I will briefly explain these roles and the basic elements of this practice.

 

Authentic Movement takes place in a free and protected space (temenos), which is cleared of all obstacles.  Here, in this safe movement space, the mover closes her eyes and focuses inwardly, holding what Jung described as “the good attitude”  toward her body and psyche. She is listening, opening as fully as she can to her present experience, including all sensations, thoughts, images, emotions, dreams, energies, and symptoms. She opens to the entire range of experience as she can know it in her body at this moment, with interest and friendliness. She waits for an inner impulse or interest to arise, which she then follows into actual movement (posture and gesture). This may lead her into any degree, combination of, or cycling through of movement, stillness, sound, or silence. The mover is free to choose how she will be in relationship to what arises - perhaps following it, perhaps engaging with it in active imagination, or perhaps surrendering to it. During the movement, it is the mover’s intention to practice conscious awareness while simultaneously opening to, choosing, and surrendering to what happens in and through her body; she is both “moving and being moved” (Whitehouse, 1958), exploring the exquisite balance between will and surrender in direct relationship with her body and psyche.

 

During this movement process, the witness sits to the side of the temenos space with her eyes open and tracks what she can see and know of the mover, as well as her own internal experience; she is witnessing the mover as well as herself. Like the mover, the witness practices conscious awareness of her own experience, including thoughts, images, feelings, sensations, and anything else that may arise in the course of witnessing the mover. Like the mover, she tries to hold the “good attitude” toward all that arises in the shared field. It may be apparent that, in many ways, the mover and the witness are participating in the same practice, except that the mover actively engages her experience through movement and expression, while the witness actively engages her experience within the framework of stillness and containment.

 

At the end of a mutually agreed-upon time, which has been arranged together before the movement starts, the witness signals to the mover (by speaking the mover’s name or by sounding a bell) that it is time to bring her movement experience to a close. The mover gradually does so, opens her eyes, and joins the witness.  At this point in the practice, the mover and witness may speak together about their experience, art materials may be used to express or record some aspect of the experience, journal writing may be engaged in, or some combination of the above may occur. The intention here is to capture what has been gleaned from the unconscious (personal or transpersonal) and to ground it in memory and daily life.  There are variations on this ground form, which, for example, would be somewhat different if the mover/witness dyad is engaged in a psychotherapeutic relationship, or if Authentic Movement is being done as a group practice.

 
The images below illustrate aspects of the Authentic Movement experience.

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Important to remember is that the movement happening in the body is not "put on like a coat or a hat" (Whitehouse), nor is it meant to be a performance. It is a simple opening to what is, and then a following of what is living in the body at the present moment into movement.  Authentic Movement offers the possibility of an awake experiencing of one's self in one's body and the holding of one's self in this experience without judgment.

 

Here is a brief  exerpt from Janet Adler's 1990 film  Still Looking about the practice of Authentic Movement:     

                           

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Through the practice of Authentic Movement, dreams can be processed, body symptoms can be listened to and danced, transpersonal healing energy may be received, personal history stored in the body can be witnessed and lovingly held, and the sacred may be embodied through direct experience. The practice of Authentic Movement also fosters a respectful listening to the many voices of one's self and others through the cultivation of witness presence in the body - strengthening and deepening one's capacity to hold and transform all experiences of Life with compassion and mindfulness.

 

Although the practice of Authentic Movement grew directly out of Jungian depth psychology, it also shares deep roots with dance, the healing tradition of shamanism, mindfulness practice, and compassionate communication - spanning many disciplines and offering numerous applications. 

  • In the arts Authentic Movement is used by artists, actors, writers, and dancers to inform, expand, and vitalize their creative process.
  • In psychological and emotional work Authentic Movement provides a direct link to the unconscious - including the archetypes, dreams, and personal history stored in the body - giving form to that which words can’t access, but which must be known.
  • As spiritual practice Authentic Movement offers the possibility of a direct, embodied experience of the numinous, as mystical posture and gesture unfold from deepest Source.
  • In physical healing Authentic Movement creates a space where deep listening to and moving with body symptoms can lead to insight and information, generating meaningful action toward wholeness.
  • In the tradition of compassionate communication Authentic Movement offers a respectful and non-blaming template for speaking from embodied experience. Because Authentic Movement takes place in a context of relationship - between a mover and a witness - it offers the opportunity both to be and to see one’s self more clearly in the presence of another - a Thou.

 Ultimately, the practice of Authentic Movement is about creating, strengthening, and enlarging one's capacity, impeccability and compassion - with self, toward others, and within the larger community - as we aspire toward the wholeness of embodied presence.

 

When we take ourselves seriously,

we accept the responsibility

of knowing and loving our body.

 

(from "Coming Home to Myself" by Marion Woodman and Jill Mellick, Conari Press, 2001)