Dance Movement Therapy is a form of psychotherapy and a holistic type of therapy that uses both verbal tools and movement, creative play and dance as mediums of communication.

Dance Movement Therapy focuses on both verbal communication and the use of our bodies. Movement and creativity act as a reflection of inner thoughts and feelings and how we relate to the people and world around us. Dance Movement Therapy can be a more familiar and accessible approach for children, teenagers and people with disabilities and autism as play and movement are two of the main mediums of communication and expression for them and they can support them to gradually understand, share and address their feelings, thoughts and behaviours.

The element that makes Dance Movement Therapy unique for people with disabilities and autism who find difficult to communicate verbally or have different developmental styles is the fact that we can meet their own emotional and developmental needs, by attuning to their individual movement and sensory experience. Τhis helps us to enter the person’s emotional world using his/her movement patterns and emotional vocabulary that comes to the surface through movement and play. Thus, we create a two-way street of relating that makes the person feel understood and can lead to potential new patterns of relating that can be helpful to the individuals daily relational patterns. This is extremely important due to the complexity of needs in people with disabilities and autism given that no ‘one shoe’ fits for everybody.

Dance Movement Therapy is an alternative way for adults to express themselves, release stress, explore different parts of their identities and share thoughts and feelings. Dance Movement Psychotherapy support adults to use their creativity to enhance self-awareness and self-development.