BMDJ has issued a new Call for Papers focused on Power, privilege and difference in embodied psychotherapies. Their guest editor is Dr. Rae Johnson, Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, USA
They welcome articles that explore innovative approaches to working with issues of social justice and the embodied experiences of oppression, power and difference through body, movement, and dance in psychotherapy.
The deadline: 7th May 2021. For more information:
http://bit.ly/Body_Movement_Dance_Psychotherapy
To acknowledge Dr. Kim Dunphy’s substantial contribution to the development of dance movement psychotherapy, her recent article authored with Paula Lebre and Soraia Juma is free to download for a 6 month period. Dr. Dunphy died in October 2020. You can read more about Dr Dunphy here:
https://finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au/about-us/news/vale-kim-dunphy
And access the article: Exploring use of the Outcomes Framework for Dance Movement Therapy to establish a group profile and objectives for psychomotor therapy interventions, here:
Paula Lebre, Kim Dunphy & Soraia Juma
BMDJ is also delighted to share some free articles from their Spring 2021 issue, a Special Issue on Embodied psychotherapies in the digital age. Many of the articles in the issue are free to download:
Editorial – Embodied intersubjectivity as online psychotherapy becomes mainstream by Roz Carroll
Dear Readers,
Coronavirus measures have stimulated a re-organisation of the field of psychotherapy demanding a new level of technological skill, creativity and revision of established practice. This issue celebrates the resilience and adaptability of therapists and clients who have found new ways to stay connected, with contributions from Israel, Italy and Finland and the UK. It explores the new dimensions of online psychotherapy, offering vivid case studies of individuals and groups. The authors share their journeys of learning, re-thinking and reconnecting with sometimes unanticipated benefits for the work.
It is important, however, to acknowledge what has been lost or profoundly changed before considering the gains in terms of resourcefulness and resilience in the face of challenge. One of the difficulties with online therapy is that for some of our clients there is no safe space to talk, no place where they can feel comfortable to speak openly about what is on their mind without fear of being overheard. This is linked to privacy: both in terms of who is at home, and whether they will respect the boundaries of the session, and also the risk of being hacked or stalked online.
When conducting sessions online there is the loss of physical proximity which supports the felt sense of intimacy. The body of the therapist with all s/he offers is no longer ‘there’ in the same room as the client. Nor is the holding environment created by offerings of props, blankets, art materials, a comfortable chair, mattress or a studio space which are part of a greater sense of provision. These absences are keenly felt by many clients, whose space feels empty, or cramped, or threatening. In the online meeting, time and space are different, it is not just an intersubjective meeting, but an inter-local (i.e. two venues) meeting.
To read more of the editorial, please click here
Other articles available for free download follow, please click on the article title to access the PDF
Being seen digitally: exploring macro and micro perspectives
By Eila Goldhahn
ABSTRACT
This essay examines how camera-witnessing, a practice derived from the silent witness of Adler’s Discipline of Authentic Movement, can inform and enhance the way in which digital media are used for therapy and teaching. The author offers some theoretical considerations to explain why it is important to understand the way digital media work, and what they do and don’t achieve. It is argued that the use of digital media in DMP and somatic work, in particular, requires conscious reflection and that a thoughtful, practical application of therapeutic ethics and practices to digital encounters can enhance and aid these.
Remaining held: dance/movement therapy with children during lockdown
By Einat Shuper Engelhard &Avital Yael Furlager
ABSTRACT
In this article, we will try to creatively expand the boundaries of our imagination, in an attempt to recognise the potential transitional space in remote dance/movement therapy (DMT) work with children that occurs from ‘afar’ in digital space due to the current global COVID19 pandemic. We propose that an observing arena via the digital screen offers a framework that acts as a playground, in which the client can hide, attack, get close, back off, and so on, despite the lack of an actual in-person meeting. Special emphasis will be placed on the kinaesthetic and sensory playfulness, which develops between therapist and client despite the physical distance, and on the understanding of the psychodynamic meanings within the therapy sessions. We will present two case studies that will demonstrate the scope of the psychodynamic work through the body, which is possible in remote dance/movement therapy.
Reflections on individual webcam dance/movement therapy (DMT) for adults
By Anat Yariv, Yifat Shalem-Zafari, Hilda Wengrower, Nira Shahaf &Dalia Zylbertal
ABSTRACT
Dance/movement therapy (DMT) has been forced to find alternative ways to operate amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Due to the restrictions of isolation, therapy sessions have begun to be held through online means, in an attempt to preserve the therapeutic relationship whilst meetings take place in separate physical spaces. Inevitably, various components of the therapy session have been impacted and altered. DMT is based uniquely on an ongoing focus on body-movements, thus enabling the therapist to gather data on personal and interpersonal processes and to assess, intervene, and interpret such data. The shift to webcam-DMT has had an influence on the manner in which the emotional body-movement ‘text’ of patients is revealed. This article attempts to illuminate the adversities affecting DMT during the pandemic and to expound ways to maintain DMT’s unique contribution despite the detriment caused to body-movement textual space in webcam sessions.
By Sheerie Lotan Mesika,Hilda Wengrower & Hagai Maoz
ABSTRACT
This article introduces a dance movement therapy group model used with adults diagnosed with depression and its adaptation to the conditions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic that helped preserve continuity of the therapeutic group and the therapeutic relationships. The model was initially researched as a pilot project and was offered as an option in the available treatment plan. The evaluation indicates that the DMT group model increased patients’ motivation to play, which then led to an increased experience of affective vitality and alleviated symptoms of depression. All participants in the groups were recruited from psychiatric units and an outpatient clinic. Because of the pandemic, the meeting spaces moved to virtual spaces allowed by mobile phone videos, online therapy and the outdoors. Work in the open air inspired new interventions that were welcomed by the groups.
Acute crisis states as a presenting issue and some psychophysiological interventions
By Tom Warnecke
ABSTRACT
Crisis intervention has become a widespread concern during the Covid-19 pandemic for psychotherapists seeking to support people acutely affected by this crisis. This article aims to introduce core principles of the crisis intervention conception as well as expanding these with relevant contemporary psychophysiological perspectives on somatic crisis phenomena and interventions. Conceptions and interventions are relevant and applicable in face to face, digital and telephone settings. The author draws on the contents of a virtual workshop, held multiple times from March to May 2020, which was created to assist psychotherapists who volunteered for online psychological initiatives and projects aiming to support frontline medical staff during the pandemic and assist with Covid-19 related acute psychological stress issues. The article clarifies distinctions between crisis and trauma and offers perspectives on recognising crisis states as well as ideas and conceptions that may guide psychotherapists seeking to support, contain and resource clients during a crisis.
By Monica Re
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 lockdown plunged everyone into an unknown state of isolation and standstill. The aim of this article is to reflect on the impact of a dance/movement teleintervention performed in Italy during the 2020 Covid global lockdown aimed at children and elderly people. The purpose was to counter the trauma of the pandemic and to promote and empower well-being and relationships within a resilient community though all of the restrictions.
