Customer Reviews

The Art and Practice of Dance/Movement Therapy

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"What is unique about dance/movement therapy is that it is the patients' feelings as expressed through movement, not the therapist, that provides the structure and influences the direction of therapy" (xi, 100, 106, 162, 185). So the therapist engages with and supports patients' expressions of their own inherent healing powers (3, 27-30, 34, 54, 68, 132, 163). Upon this central dynamic truth Linda Behar-Horenstein and Jane Ganet-Sigel begin *The Art and Practice of Dance/Movement Therapy*, with its rich tapestry of commentary and case studies (Needham Heights, Massachusetts:Pearson, 1999, 209 pages). In a sense, I believe, this work is a biography of Jane Ganet-Sigel's magnificent career and contributions. Linda Behar-Horenstein's research underscores this.

Jane Ganet-Sigel, A.D.T.R., C.S.W., began the Graduate Department of Dance/Movement Therapy at Columbia College Chicago in 1982. A charter member in 1966 of the American Dance Therapy Association, she pioneered the organization of dance/movement therapy in the American Midwest and has taught around the world (*Art*, 44, 49-54).

Having just cried and laughed and cheered through the movie *Billy Elliot*, and graduated a few years ago from the dance/movement therapy program under Jane Ganet-Sigel, I appreciate how she has tackled the nitty-gritty problems of clients and of teaching, sometimes absent in neat abstract presentations of processes (*Art*, 98, 110, 132.)

Many people do not like their bodies. They live much of their lifetimes with movements restricted by emotional scenes and scripts within their body parts as much as their minds. Their potential is diminished and discouraged.

Beyond only verbal interchange and proliferation of various cognitive therapies, however, persons today find atmospheres and settings, conducive to body movement, which expand the range of their self-awareness and rhythmic sense of joy (*Art*, 10, 13, 14, 17, 28). They receive and stimulate socialization. The movements are affectively improvisational and not formal steps as such. The therapist facilitates this. This multifaceted process is called dance/movement therapy. The American Dance Therapy Association and others have additional definitions (*Art*, 10, 69, 167, 169).

Though therapists will be more interested in the book's technical sections, its reader will find that the body is her/his primary means of self-expression and a major channel of emotional healing. The value of this book's concrete descriptions far exceeds its recurrent typographical slips (e.g., Chicago Reed for *Read* Hospital, 22, 24, 38, 40, 132; "cannot . . . cannot," 186; "he" for "she . . . Mahler," 143).

And most of all, readers will benefit from the how-to's of working with clients' agendas instead of imposing their own, skills that Jane Ganet-Sigel superbly conveyed to many grateful students including myself.

Review by Dr. Charles G. Yopst, D.Min., D.T.R.

This is a well written review of the best practices in Movement/Dance therapy. Especially for use with special needs clients - I was most taken with the Chapter on the client who was non-verbal - we may have a candidate for this type of therapy in my family. Great writing style!