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Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Dance/Movement
Therapy? |
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Dance Movement Therapy is defined as the therapeutic use of movement in a process working toward health and the integration of Body, Mind and Spirit. Therapists work with individuals and groups in many different contexts.
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How does the Centre for the Arts in Human Development make use of Dance/Movement Therapy in its programs? |
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At The Centre for the Arts in Human Development, group sessions in Dance Movement Therapy are offered to the Centre’s participants. The weekly sessions of one and a half hours are led by a professional dance / movement therapist, and assisted by interns from Creative Arts Therapies. Some of the primary goals which contribute to the form of sessions are for clients to experience pleasure in physical expression; to interact with one another and others with increased confidence and articulation; and to acquire skills which can support them in daily living. One such skill is the strengthening of a sense of self and a clarity of body boundaries and definition. Another is to experience modulation of movement and energy so necessary in adapting to daily situations.
In the safety of the session clients can have this experience which can eventually be transferred to their workshops, group homes, social events and families. Last summer we saw them work together in rehearsing and performing "The Winds of Oz", and return this fall with new confidence in their abilities to succeed.
Dance Movement Therapy sessions often begin with a movement transition from the week into the group. This can take the form of a gesture and "physical moment", representing an experience from each client’s week. Sessions always include a full movement warm-up with movement contributions from participants. This fall it has also included exercises for various physical problems experienced by clients (sore knees, painful shoulders, poor balance, back pain etc.) We also try to experience movement in a variety of efforts and energies. For example, the group works with variation in the use of:
TIME (slow to quick)
SPACE (indirect to direct)
FLOW (free flow to bound muscular tension) and
STRENGTH (lightness to use of force).
Our clients frequently have a movement repertoire which is limited and further restricts their abilities to interact with one another. Dance Movement Therapy encourages them to expand their repertoires and consequent possibilities for expression.
Relaxation time, with attention to breathing, imagery and the actual practice of planning action while resting, is an important part of each session. This segment is usually followed by group movement and the opportunity to take movement into dance.
The centre provides a unique opportunity to complement and be complemented and reinforced by other Creative Arts Therapies. Dialogue with the therapists and the interns provides feedback and room for sharing discoveries from each session. This fall, the Movement Therapy sessions have revealed that clients have often not experienced a movement, an activity, or a combination of movements which we take for granted. For example, washing a window, taking a photograph, hammering a nail. . . . We can now incorporate these basic life experiences into the movement, drama , art, and music in a way which will reinforce and enrich the gains made from week to week.
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What is Music Therapy? |
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Music Therapy utilizes music as a primary tool in promoting therapeutic change, growth, and/or development in people on psychological, physical, and spiritual levels, within the context of a client-therapist relationship.
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How does the Centre for the Arts in Human Development make use of Music Therapy in its programs? |
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At The Centre for the Arts in Human Development, music therapy is conducted in weekly group sessions with adult developmentally disabled clients. A certified, master’s level clinician employed as a consultant to the Centre conducts the groups.
The enhancement of self-esteem and socialization skills are primary goals of the groups. Individual goals are also set for each person in the groups. Group musical improvisation, in which clients express their own rhythms, melodies and songs, comprises the primary mode of expression in the groups. How clients express themselves, including which instruments they choose to play, gives the music therapist valuable information about each individual. A wide variety of music therapy techniques are utilized to work with this material to achieve individual and group goals. Both directive and non-directive approaches are used in the group process.
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How does the Centre for the Arts in Human Development make use of Drama Therapy in its programs? |
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Drama therapy has played an important role in the evolution of The Centre for the Arts in Human Development. The concept for the Centre grew out of an innovative university class which modeled the utilization of developmental Drama methods for the purpose of enhancing the expressive potential and communication skills of persons with developmental disabilities. This led to several successful theatre productions ( hot link back to Aladdin and Winds of Oz) in which the central goal was to promote the growth of self-confidence and self-esteem in the developmentally disabled participants.
Today, the clients of the Centre engage in a full range of the therapeutic processes of drama therapy, including dramatic play, improvisational role-playing, guided imagery, storytelling, projective techniques with puppets and masks, and psychodramatic methods. The bi-weekly drama therapy sessions are facilitated by graduate students from Concordia University’s new Drama Therapy Graduate Program. These student interns are in turn supervised by a faculty member who is a registered drama therapist. The purpose of these sessions is to help the clients improve in all spheres of functioning, especially the expressive and communicative; to aid them in working through personal issues by means of role-playing; and to afford them opportunities for behavioral practice through acting out real-life situations within the safe context of drama.
The Centre offers drama therapy in both individual and group formats. Student interns both co-lead groups and work one-to-one with individual clients. Drama therapy is employed for psychotherapeutic purposes and for the development of human potential. As with all the Creative Arts Therapies at The Centre for the Arts in Human Development, the essential aim of drama therapy is to enhance the capacity of each client for greater social integration.
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How does the Centre for the Arts in Human Development make use of Art Therapy in its programs? |
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At present, The Centre for the Arts in Human Development serves adults with developmental delays. Participants in art therapy at the Centre engage in art-making experiences facilitated by student interns from Concordia University’s graduate program in Art Therapy. The global goals of these sessions are increased self-expression, self-esteem and authentic communications with others. Beginning by validating each participant’s current use of art media, student interns support the development of basic competencies to enhance expressive skills and expand symbolic repertoires so that feelings, fantasies and wishes can be shared. They facilitate both non-directive and directed art expressions to meet goals presented by the range of functioning of Centre participants. Even in directed art-making experiences, students ensure that choices are made available to provide experiences of autonomy that enhance self-esteem. Students may also facilitate clients in the symbolic expression of their intrapsychic and interpersonal worlds through sandplay therapy. Under both academic and on-site supervision, art therapy interns formulate further individual goals for each client appropriate to his or her levels of ability and disability, and they develop art media and process interventions that serve these goals.
The Centre offers art therapy in both individual and small group formats which are maintained for the academic year. Interns co-lead groups, fostering interpersonal skills by supporting participants as they share their art process and products in verbal and non-verbal ways, promoting active involvement in our creative community.
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Is there a research component to the Centre's activities? |
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One of the jobs
of the Centre is to provide ongoing research, both current and
longitudinal, on behavior and self-esteem changes in the participants
of the Centre. In our first year - 1996-97, creative arts sessions
in art, music, dance and drama were videotaped and catalogued,
with concurrent observation methodologies in order to establish
baseline behaviours. Graduate students from Concordia's Education
Department under the supervision of Dr. Miranda D'Amico developed
an original measurement scale for behavioural observation as
a result of our first year's work. This year we are engaged
in systematic observations of behaviour change in selected candidates
in order to qualitatively measure the therapeutic effects of
the integrated use of the four types of creative arts therapies.
Plans for next year and beyond include repeating the research format with different participants of varying levels of functioning, in order to validate the Centre's research results. We also plan to track the progress of our current participants, should we have adequate funding, in order to measure the long-term effects of the creative arts therapies.
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What results have your researchers observed to date? |
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In general, the clients' behaviours at the Centre during the second year were constant and consistent appearing to have increased in frequency. The most predominant behaviours elicited by the group as a whole were positive affect and interaction. These behaviours were highly correlated with each other. That is, as positive affect increased throughout the year, the frequency of interaction increased at the same rate. Moreover, positive affect was also highly correlated with self-confidence. This suggests that as positive affect increased, the group displayed more self-confidence. Interaction was also related to self-confidence. Finally, there seems to have been a general downward trend in off-task behaviour during the second semester of the second year.
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