What is DMT

Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT, also known as Creative Movement Therapy) is a psychotherapeutic framework that works with the mind-body connection to use personal movement language and dance for the health and wellness of an individual’s physical, emotional, cognitive, social and behavioral aspects.
- (CMTAI,2019)

Dance Movement Therapy is an alternative therapy through personal body movement. This discipline uses expressive movement & dance as a vehicle, through which people can engage in the process of personal integration and growth. It is founded on the principle that there is a relationship between motion and emotion; by exploring a more varied vocabulary of movement, people experience the possibility of becoming more securely balanced yet increasingly spontaneous and adaptable. It provides an introspective and expressive experience in which the therapeutics of dance, rather than a choreographed product, is of primary importance.

Like all other therapies, DMT is said to be developmental as well as adaptive. Rather than teaching dance, therapists at first try to assess the individual’s needs and issues. Then they initiate and help develop movement patterns, taking off from the physical-emotional-intellectual level of their clients. This is done using informal approaches like movement activities and games. Facilitators try to elicit movements that are considered symbolic of the inner voices of individuals.

Individual ideas, feelings, images, incidents or stories are expressed through movements created by participants themselves. Therapists use both directive and nondirective approaches to help individuals focus on and explore their personal movement vocabulary. Through this experience, people begin to find an authentic movement language to express themselves. As people freely improvise movements, intuition comes into play - the body thinks aloud, brainstorming movements that are based on certain needs or feelings of the individual. These playful experiences become the building blocks on which CMT evolves.