The impact of dance movement therapy on women with an experience of family and domestic violence: A controlled feasibility study

A trauma and violence informed framework which was developed based on the voices of women with FDV, as well as clinician’s voices (Hegarty et al., 2017) will be used to guide service provision in this study. The framework will focus on: relationship building, integrated co-ordinated care, reflective system, and environmental scan. The DMT intervention sessions will be based on the clinical implications for DMT for trauma survivors by Liang and Bryant (2024). The intervention will be delivered by an academically qualified dance movement therapist, who is also the researcher in this study. Each session will have the following elements: opening check-in and warm-up before proceeding to the main theme and a closing activity. The intervention will be delivered in a group setting ( of max 8 participants ), at a community setting. There will be six overall intervention sessions, spread over six weeks. Each session will be 60min, on a weekly basis. Attendance will be monitored by a session attendance checklist. Check in: Few examples of check in activities: Participants will be sitting in a group circle where the therapist will check in with each participant, both verbally and non-verbally to understand their mood and concerns (Koch & Hervey, 2012). Focus on breathing and specific body parts may be used as well (Chaiklin & Schmais; 1993 Levy, 1988). Warm up: The group and therapist will decide on the music to be played, and warm up will begin. Everyone will take turns with doing one warm up movement (Chaiklin & Schmais, 1993). One person will move, and the rest of the group will imitate this movement (Koch & Harvey, 2012, Baum, 1991). The group will move rhythmically together (Chaiklin & Schmais, 1993). The therapist’s movements will reflect the participants’ expressions and will be instrumental in forming a therapeutic relationship, rapport and empathy (Baum, 1991; Chaiklin & Schmais, 1993). Participants will be led through simple exercises focusing on exploring simple movements that will access different emotions (eg: moving fast vs moving slow, moving with weight vs moving with lightness, moving in different directions etc). Another method could include a Chacian approach (Chaiklin & Schmais,1993), which includes playing music to match the tempo of the participants in the room, moving in unison with the participants, expanding movement patterns, encouraging participants to lead movements using rhythm. Main theme: Every session, 1-2 participants will be encouraged to bring their own music to the session and move to help express their feelings (Koch & Harvey, 2012). The participants who bring the music will be known as the “movers”. During each group session, each mover will be encouraged to improvise their movements to their chosen music by following their inner movement impulses and thoughts and feelings (Koch & Harvey, 2012). The rest of the participants in the group will watch and try to follow the movement quality of the mover through a process of imitation (Koch & Harvey, 2012). The therapist will observe the movements elicited and elaborate these verbally using imagery and symbolism. Closure: After the main part of the session, the therapist will invite the group to come together to reflect and exchange their experiences while moving (Koch & Harvey, 2012). The therapist will encourage the use of metaphors (figurative language), and symbolism (images/symbols) as a way of verbally expressing their feelings and thoughts. The session will close with some relaxation breathing and quiet time, and personal reflection by journal writing. The overall session uses a bottom-up approach for the women to express traumatic content that they may not be able to express verbally, using movement and dance, and thereby gaining control over their body and appreciate it as a source of strength (Koch & Harvey, 2012). References: Baum, E. Z. (1991). Movement therapy with multiple personality disorder patients. Dissociation, 4(2), 99–104. Chaiklin, S., & Schmais, C. (1993). The Chace approach to dance therapy. In Sandel, S. L., Chaiklin, S., & Lohn, A. Foundation of Dance/Movement Therapy: The Life and Work of Marian Chace (pp.75-97). The Marian Chace Memorial Fund Hegarty, K., Tarzia, L., Rees, S., Fooks, A., Forsdike, K., Woodlock, D., Simpson, L., McCormack, C., Amanatidis, S. (2017). Women’s Input to a Trauma-informed systems model of care in Health settings: The WITH study. Koch, S. C., & Harvey, S. (2012). Dance/movement therapy with traumatized dissociative patients. In S. C. Koch, T. Fuchs, M. Summa, & C. Müller (Eds.), Advances in Consciousness Research (Vol. 84, pp. 369–385). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/aicr.84.27koc Liang, C. X., & Bryant, T. (2024). The use of dance and movement for the embodied healing of interpersonal trauma in women and girls: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 25(4), 3241–3253. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380241243399 Levy, F. J. (1988). Dance/Movement Therapy. A Healing Art. AAHPERD Publications, P. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED291746