MA in Dance Movement Psychotherapy

The MA in Dance Movement Psychotherapy programme is made up of 240 credits and provides you with a broad understanding of the theories and practices of Dance Movement Psychotherapy necessary for safe and effective clinical work as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist.

It aims to enhance your self-knowledge and interpersonal relationships and to promote your psychodynamic understanding of individuals, groups and society; working with questions of difference, equality and diversity.

Your learning is underpinned by the principles and practices of psychodynamic psychotherapy within the social, political and multicultural context of mental health care and educational settings, and informed by contemporary dance practice and Laban Movement Analysis (LMA). On successful completion of the MA you will be able to apply to the Association of Dance Movement Psychotherapists UK for registration.

This module aims to give students an understanding of Dance Movement Psychotherapy theory and psychodynamic concepts, relating these to students’ primary discipline of dance/movement. Learning and teaching situates the development of dance movement psychotherapy within its social, cultural, historical and political contexts.

The history and development of the profession in the UK and overseas is described, as is its current socio-political context. The therapeutic skills involved with listening to, being with, and observing the movements of clients are developed, drawing on students working experiences prior to the programme. The origins of dance movement psychotherapy theory in the relationship between client and dance movement psychotherapy are explored, situating these within the context of students’ prior learning and engagement with dance/movement.

The concepts integral to the practice of individual and group dance movement psychotherapy are explored e.g. boundaries, transference and projection, and practice is situated within the ethics and Principles of the Code of Professional Practice as set out by the professional association ADMP UK.

The principles of psychodynamic theory are elaborated, paying particular attention to human development and the importance of early childhood as described by the British Object Relations and Attachment theorists, alongside the importance of working with difference, prejudice and oppression. Study skills develop students’ ability to undertake a bibliographic search, to reference literature within the Harvard system and to write a case study.

This module contains the following elements: Dance Movement Psychotherapy Skills 1 and Movement Studies 1, a lecture series on psychodynamic concepts relevant to individuals and groups a which is shared, in part, with the MA Art Therapy students. In addition, there are a number of guest lectures throughout the year.

Dance Movement Psychotherapy Skills 1

Skills 1 aims to give you the opportunity to acquire and practise the clinical skills required for conducting individual and group dance movement psychotherapy sessions with children and adolescents with a range of needs, including; children with learning difficulties, emotional and behavioural disorders, autism and those who have suffered trauma and abuse. There is an emphasis on practical and experiential learning supplemented by discussion of models from the related fields of child psychotherapy, and play therapy.

Props, games, structured activities, fantasy play, drama, storytelling, and role play are employed and discussed in relation to developmental movement skills, improvisation, creative movement and interpretation. Medical information relating to aetiology of specific diagnoses will also be reviewed. Students are expected to supplement classes with required reading and to apply observational and movement skills acquired in the related module: Movement Studies 1.

Movement Studies 1

Movement Studies 1 provides you with an experimental and theoretical knowledge of the body, including anatomical principles of breath, the musculoskeletal system, structural integration, neuro-muscular and developmental patterning. The module will also equip you via kinaesthetic understanding, with the ability to synthesize knowledge of the body with the understanding with the professional and clinical skills of Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis (LMA).

Experiential learning takes place in small groups from the year group that meet once a week in the first year of the programme, and a large group, where the entire student and staff group meet, which happens twice termly throughout the programme. Students’ own dance movement practice continues throughout the training and support for this is given through twice termly Dance Labs. The experiential groups teach you about the dance movement psychotherapy process, the dynamics of action and speech, psychodynamic processes, the relation between the individual, the family, the institution and society, power relations and the politics of difference, through the experience of moving in a boundaried setting which involves verbal reflection. Dance Movement outside of psychodynamic boundaries provides a contrast and will be a continuation and development in response to the training of your existing dance movement practice.

This module contains the following elements:

• Small Dance Movement Psychotherapy Experiential Groups
• Large Dance Movement Psychotherapy Experiential Group
• Independent and peer movement research
• Dance Labs
• Personal Therapy

This module is also supported by a number of workshop opportunities including ’Difference day’, when the whole student cohort come together to explore experientially an issue of difference, e.g. gender, ethnicity, religion etc., and the introductory and end of year workshops.

Small Dance Movement Psychotherapy Experiential Groups

These groups meet once weekly; full and part-time students are mixed in the groups. In the group you will learn about dance movement psychotherapy processes through the experience of movement and reflecting on it in a setting which is boundaried by time and space.

In these groups learning happens through the student embodying ways of thinking, responding, and acting in the group that are taken in at an unconscious level; these are made conscious in the more cognitive areas of the programme and evidenced in the Coursework Summary. In this way you learn to use yourself as someone who dances/moves and as a person in the role of dance movement psychotherapist.

Large Dance Movement Psychotherapy Experiential Group

The large dance movement psychotherapy group involves all the students on the MA DMP programme and all the staff, meeting twice termly throughout the programme. The group holds the training as a whole together and acts as a space in which the dynamic interface between the small groups and the institution and wider society can be reflected on.

Students learn to find themselves in relation to the group, which can be paralleled to the organization that provides dance movement psychotherapy and to work with issues of unity, hierarchy power and difference such as they might find there.

The group tends to magnify processes in small dance movement psychotherapy groups in a way that raises questions about the nature of dance movement and its role in a social, boundaried setting. It also magnifies issues about space and time, raising existential concerns which help students place their learning in a personal, embodied context. Inter-year learning takes place through beginnings and endings marked by new students coming and finalists going, creating a constant evaluation of the purpose and meaning of dance movement psychotherapy, the programme and the group itself.

Dance/Movement Practice

You are encouraged to continue your own dance/movement practice throughout the programme and to consider how this is affected by and affects your clinical practice. Support for this is given in occasional Dance Labs (twice per term) and regular opportunities for independent and peer dance/movement research and practice. All these elements contribute to your assessment of the Coursework Summary 1.

30 credits. Clinical Placement 1 Clinical Placement 1 45 credits

All students commence their clinical placement experience by the second half of the autumn term. First year full-time students will undertake two placements and part-time students undertake one placement. The first term is a period of observation, orientation and induction. In the second half of the term you will begin to assess potential clients in preparation for beginning clinical work (with just one or two clients) in January.

Students are expected to take part in the life of their placement and its work through their membership of the multi-disciplinary team and participation in appropriate tasks e.g. individual or family assessments, meeting parents, attending ward rounds and case conferences, attending any in-service specific training etc., all whilst adhering to the professional association’s (ADMP UK) Code of Professional Practice.

Your clinical work is closely and regularly supervised in College (in small groups) and managed by the on-site placement manager. Group supervision 1 takes place in mixed part-time and full-time students groups. In the first year you will bring institutional experiences, observations, and clinical experiences gained from working with clients to the supervision group.

The supervision group is intended to be a safe and confidential space where it is possible to look at all aspects of clinical work in depth. Students are encouraged to reflect on their practice in movement and in words. Issues in clinical work may become magnified in the dynamics of the supervision group enabling learning about the issue through reflection on the dynamics of the group/parallel process.

It is expected that you will develop skills of observation, assessment, establishing boundaries and containing clients and yourself, establishing and maintaining therapeutic relationships and working with the process and content of dance movement therapy. An important aspect of the placement experience is developing your observation skills and deepening your understanding of organisational and individual dynamics. It is strongly encouraged that each student arrange with the placement manager to observe a group or class throughout the year to allow for this development.

Clinical Placements are organised by the Clinical Placement Coordinator. Most placements are in London and the South East of England but can be negotiated elsewhere in the country for those students who live some distance away from College.

45 credits. Theory and Practice of Dance Movement Psychotherapy 2 Theory and Practice of Dance Movement Psychotherapy 2 60 credits

The learning in this module, as with Theory and Practice of Dance Movement Psychotherapy 1, is situated within the social, cultural, and political contexts of Dance Movement Psychotherapy. It explores in-depth the psychodynamic concepts that inform Dance Movement Psychotherapy clinical practice and deepens students’ knowledge base of the range of the profession’s practices. Running throughout this module will be the importance of working with difference, prejudice and oppression in Dance Movement Psychotherapy, exemplified in special events focusing on issues such as race, culture and gender. Lectures on research and EBP methodologies will enhance students’ research awareness and give them the necessary investigative skills with which to undertake their Final Clinical Report.

This module contains two specific elements: Dance Movement Psychotherapy Skills 2 and Movement Studies 2. There is a lecture series on psychodynamic concepts relevant to individuals and groups and dance movement psychotherapy theory and practice which is shared, in part, with the MA Art Therapy students.

Dance Movement Psychotherapy Skills 2

This module aims to equip you with the professional and clinical skills required to work sensitively and effectively as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist with the major client populations encountered in adult mental health care, community and health service settings, in both individual and small group formats. It provides a structured experiential learning process through which skills of the Dance Movement Psychotherapist may be developed and integrated with understanding and knowledge from other aspects of the programme.

Participation in experiential sessions enables you to engage in an ‘as if’ experience of therapy through which you deepen your learning about the way groups form and operate and the role and function of movement in the Dance Movement Psychotherapy process. Opportunities for further exploration of the role of the Dance Movement Psychotherapist are offered with peers in individual and small groups, practising leadership skills and receiving feedback through video replay and from peers and tutors.

You develop the therapeutic skills of structuring and conducting Dance Movement Psychotherapy sessions with attention to warm up, facilitating engagement, transitions, development of thematic material, discovering the impact of movement interventions, working with movement metaphor and imagery, exploring the significance of expressive movement and movement interactions, developing kinetic memory, facilitating verbal process, and fostering the emergence of insight in clients. The module examines the facilitation styles needed for work with adults in psychiatric hospitals, day centres, and community settings, work with elderly clients, with clients with eating disorders and sufferers of chronic pain.

Movement Studies 2

Movement Studies 2 aims to build on the teaching and learning of Movement Skills 1 developing a comprehensive and systematic skill in the understanding, observation and description of human body movement and an increased ability to harness these skills clinically for the assessment and analysis of individual and group dynamics in Dance Movement Psychotherapy.

60 credits. Experiential Learning 2 Experiential Learning 2 15 credits

Experiential learning takes place in the small experiential group and large group, comprising the entire student and staff group, which meets twice per term. Students’ own dance movement practice continues throughout the training and support for this is given through Dance Labs twice per term.

The experiential groups teach you about the dance movement psychotherapy process, the dynamics of action and speech, psychodynamic processes, the relation between the individual, the family, the institution and society, power relations and the politics of difference, through the experience of moving in a boundaried setting which involves verbal reflection. Dance Movement outside of psychodynamic boundaries provides a contrast and will be a continuation and development in response to the training of your existing dance movement practice.

In Part Two of the programme you will have a clearer idea about the role of the large dance movement therapy group and will begin to consider experimenting with your role within it. You continue to develop your dance/movement practice to a more sophisticated level. Your learning from Part One of the programme will be consolidated.

This module contains two elements:

• Small Experiential Group (year 2)
• Large Dance Movement Psychotherapy Experiential Group
• Dance/Movement Practice
• Dance Labs
• Personal therapy

It is also supported by ’Difference day’ in the spring term, when the whole student cohort come together to explore experientially an issue of difference, e.g. gender, ethnicity, religion etc.

Small Dance Movement Psychotherapy Experiential Groups

This group occurs throughout the year; full and part-time students are mixed in the groups. In the group you will build on the dance movement psychotherapy processes learned in year 1. In these groups learning happens through embodying ways of thinking, responding, and acting in the group that are taken in at an unconscious level; these are made conscious in the more cognitive areas of the programme and evidenced in the Coursework Summary 2. In this way you continue to learn to use yourself as someone who dances/moves and as a person in the role of dance movement psychotherapist.

Large Dance Movement Psychotherapy group

The large dance movement psychotherapy group involves all the students on the MA DMP programme and all the staff, meeting twice termly throughout the programme. The group holds the training as a whole together and acts as a space in which the dynamic interface between the small groups and the institution and wider society can be reflected on. Students learn to find themselves in relation to the group, which can be paralleled to the organisation that provides dance movement psychotherapy and to work with issues of unity, hierarchy power and difference such as they might find there.

The group tends to magnify processes in small dance movement psychotherapy groups in a way that raises questions about the nature of dance movement and its role in a social, boundaried setting. It also magnifies issues about space and time, raising existential concerns which help students place their learning in a personal, embodied context. Inter-year learning takes place through beginnings and endings marked by new students coming and finalists going, creating a constant evaluation of the purpose and meaning of dance movement psychotherapy, the programme and the group itself.

In Part Two of the programme you will have a clearer idea about the role of the large dance movement therapy group and will begin to consider experimenting with your role within it. Your learning from Part One of the programme will be consolidated.

Dance/Movement practice

In Part Two of the programme you continue to develop your dance/movement practice to a more sophisticated level. You are encouraged to continue your own dance/movement practice throughout the programme and to consider how this is affected by and affects your clinical practice.

Support for this is given in occasional Dance Labs and regular opportunities for peer dance/movement practice. Whilst the weekly peer movement sessions are NOT tutor led, you are expected to attend each week as it contributes to your assessment of the Coursework Summary.

15 credits.