Body as Voice: Clinical Application of Dance/Movement Therapy to Treat Survivors of Trauma

Overview: Research in the neurobiology of trauma informs us that healing from trauma must include interventions that attend to the body directly. This presentation will describe the foundations of dance/movement therapy as an expressive arts intervention in social work, with special consideration given to survivors of childhood sexual abuse.Proposal text: Social workers must be aware that sexual abuse is a widespread human rights violation. In the United States, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys experience sexual abuse at some point in their childhoods (CDC, 2021, n.p.). Beyond the physical and mental health toll, survivors suffer social, community, and financial repercussions including loss of relationships, diminished productivity, and quality of life. Given the statistics, social workers will more likely than not encounter survivors of childhood sexual abuse in our clinical work. It is our responsibility then, to be able to provide care that operationalizes the most current trauma research and offer humanizing and holistic treatments.

The trauma that results from childhood sexual abuse ruptures one’s identity and belief system. It impacts “self-worth, personality development, socialization, achievement, and later, intimacy in adolescent and adult relationships'' (Levine & Kline, 2007, p. 239). Research in neuroscience supports working directly with the body and movement for processing trauma (van Der Kolk, 2014). Dance/movement therapy (DMT) is an expressive arts therapy unique in its capacity to treat survivors of childhood sexual abuse because it attends to the body and the inherently healing aspects of dance and movement.

The American Dance Therapy Association defines DMT as “the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers the emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration of the individual” (ADTA, 2017, n.p.). It is considered an effective therapeutic modality for people who have experienced trauma because it accesses trauma responses residing in the body (Dunphy et al., 2014). DMT provides avenues to regulate the nervous system and manage the acute stress response seen in trauma survivors. As a creative process, DMT works with symbolism, metaphor, and unconscious material; it utilizes movement as a language to process experiences for which survivors often have no words, providing experiences that promote safety, agency, and empowerment.

The most primary goal in treating sexual abuse trauma is to create a sense of safety for, and within, the client. Safety in trauma recovery begins in the body, extends to the relationship one has with themselves, and eventually to the relationships they have with others. This safety-trust-relationship continuum is “fundamental to humanity and to dignity” (Gray, 2017, p. 39), the parts of oneself that are most often damaged as a result of sexual abuse. As such, the therapeutic relationship is paramount in the treatment of trauma. As Herman (1998) makes clear, “trauma recovery can take place only within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation” (p. 99). Providing a safe, secure, and flexible therapeutic relationship is rooted in empathy. In DMT, kinesthetic empathy is experienced and communicated somatically and through movement. It provides a means of processing patterns of relating, current feelings, sensations, and the tolerance for connection in the moment (Fraenkel, 2009).

This presentation will: illustrate DMT concepts, and how DMT pairs with clinical social work for recovery from sexual abuse; and describe how expressive arts are necessary for successful trauma treatment.