AmericanJournalof DanceTherapy

1985,Vol. 8, 17-36

Healing Processesin Group Dance Therapy

Claire Schmais, PhD, ADTR
Professor
Coordinator, Dance/MovementTherapy Program
Hunter College, New York
This paper reviews the literature on curative factors in verbal group
therapy and then develops a rationale for eight healing processes in
group dance therapy: Synchrony, Expression, Rhythm, Vitalization,
Integration, Cohesion, Education, Symbolism.
These factors are discussed in relation to individual and group
development and in terms of the movement correlates of each process. Also addressed is the interrelationship of these healing processes and implications for dance therapy research.

This paper examines the nature of dance therapy by articulating the factors within it which support positive change, growth and health. The task
was undertaken in order to clearly define the salient processes within
group dance therapy, thereby providing a set of assumptions which can
be examined and verified by observational and empirical research. The
concept of "curative factors" (therapeutic mechanisms, sources of improvement, etc.) has been addressed previously by verbal therapists
working both with individuals and groups (Corsini & Rosenberg 1955,
Hill 1975, Kiaus & Bednar 1978, Slipp 1982, Yalom 1975).
In 1955 Corsini and Rosenberg studied 300 articles concerning
group therapy and extrapolated 166 statements that dealt with therapeutic mechanisms. They collapsed this list into nine categories:
Acceptance, Ventilation, Reality Testing, Transference, Intellectualization, Interaction, Universalization, Altruism, and Spectator
Therapy.

Yaiom (1975) also researched the issueof curative factors in group therapy. He postulated that patients gain therapeutic benefit as a result of
the intricate interplay of the following guided human experiences:
Instillation of hope, Universality, Imparting of information, Altruism, Corrective recapitulation of the primary family group, Development of socialization techniques, Imitative behavior, Interpersonal
learning, Group cohesiveness, Catharsis, and Existential factors.
Requestsfor reprints: Dr. Claire Schmais, Dance Therapy Program, Hunter College, 425 E.
25th St., New York, New York 10010.

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SCHMAIS

When Hill (1975) compared the above list with his own and with that of
Corsini & Rosenberg (1955), he found that there was a clear consensus
for the following four factors: Ventilation, Acceptance, Spectator Therapy and Intellectualization.
Another type of categorization was developed by Klaus and Bednar (1978). They clustered "sources of improvement" into four basic
categories:
Participation in a developing social microcosm, Interpersonal
feedback, Consensualvalidation, and Reciprocalfunctioning.
All of the above categorizations were derived from research, writings or clinical experience with verbal groups. In formulating a list for
dance therapy groups, I have selected those concepts that are central to
nonverbal groups. To connote a more dynamic and less medical orientation, I have chosen the term "healing processes" to describe guided
group experiences which lead to therapeutic change. The following list,
based on group therapy theory and clinical experience, is a preliminary categorization of the elements of group dance therapy.

Healing Processes:
Synchrony
Expression
Rhythm
Vitalization
Integration
Cohesion
Education
Symbolism
Though there are some similarities between the above and the other lists, there is a decided shift in emphasis due to the healing processes
in dance therapy that are embedded in the dance. None of the above
processes can be fully understood in isolation since they are functionally
dependent on each other. Nor are they all on the same level: Expression refers to individuals, whereas Cohesion refers to groups. Rhythm
creates the climate for change, while Integration refers to a type of
change. As each process is discussed, the focus is on its unique function
and on its interrelationship with others. This will lead to some redundance, but it can't be avoided since no healing process exists in isolation.

Synchrony
Synchrony generally refers to events happening at the same time. To

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HEALING PROCESSES

understand the concept of synchrony in dance therapy, it is useful to differentiate the rhythmic, spatial and effort* elements of synchronous human activity (Schmais & Felber, 1977). The term "rhythmic synchrony"
describes people who are moving in time with one another. They may
be making different motions, moving different body parts, using different efforts or different areas of space. "Spatial synchrony" describes
people moving in time with one another who are also making the same
spatial design with the same body parts. "Effort synchrony" refers to
people moving in time with one another using the same efforts, irrespective of body parts, for example, one person may be pressing with his
foot while the other may be pressing with a hand to the same rhythm.
Patients moving in rhythm to auditory stimuli, such as the beat of the
music, take a first step towards breaking down the barriers to communication. This relationship can be viewed as a recapitulation of an early
developmental process. Condon and Sander (1974) found that infants
during the first days of life move in precise and sustained movement segments that are synchronous with the structure of adult speech. Rhythmic
synchrony is the initial bond. Later, when people are comfortable
enough to look at each other and at the leader, they can achieve spatial
synchrony. It is interesting to note that at the beginning of a session
when the leader is the focus of attention, the people close to the leader
follow by paralleling (e.g., they all move with the right arm), whereas
those across the circle follow by mirroring (they move the left arm when
the leader moves the right arm). Thus, at this stage the group often
moves in two spatially distinct ways. When group members relate to
one another as well as to the leader they are able to move as one, paralleling each other. Scheflen (1973) views parallel synchronous human
activity as evidence of social unification. Dance therapy encourages
identification with a social group by structuring the activity so that people move together in time and space. People moving in the same rhythm
with the same spatial configuration become identified with one another.
Gradually they assume a common expression, moving with the same
dynamic qualities (effort synchrony), in comparable areas of space
(spatial synchrony), to the same rhythm (rhythm synchrony). In this way
the group achieves a sense of solidarity.
Movement synchrony in any or all of its three forms as discussed
above is often supported by touch, visual contact and/or sounds and
words. This is in keeping with studies of dance therapy groups (Hirsch &
Summit, 1977; Moss 1976) which suggest that cohesion in dance thera*This term was coined by Rudolf Laban (1947) to describe the qualitative aspects of human
movement.

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SCHMAIS

py correlates with touch and synchronous activity. As a collective, people express emotions that seem too powerful or too hideous to perform
alone. After engaging in multiple synchrony, individuals often risk taking on new roles and engaging in new relationships.
Synchrony has implications beyond the therapy session. The capacity to move together in time is a social skill required of people in
communication (Kendon, 1970). Dance therapy, by using simple, expressive, rhythmic and repetitive gestures, creates conditions which
make learning to move in time with one another easier. Thus, the development of synchronous activity is a process that aids resocialization,
activates expression, fosters contact and promotes group cohesion.

Expression
In dance therapy, preverbal experiences, complex emotions and analogically coded events can be symbolically expressed. When internal
states are made conscious through external expression they appear less
ominous. People who have not tested the range of their emotions often
have grandiose notions about the force and impact of their feelings.
Group support, musical accompaniment and a gradual escalation of intensity create a flow of energy which eases people into deeper feelings
and increasing commitments. The group's participation at times of mobilized affect provides a supportive matrix for experiencing shameful
and frightening feelings. By encouraging synchronicity in the group, the
therapist transforms the process of unfolding so that it no longer belongs
to one individual alone, but to the entire group. Tentative expressions of
feeling can thus be transformed into movements with immediate emotional content. The dance therapist works to bring affect into consciousness with an intensity that words could not convey. The insistent structure
of the dance causes excitement to rise and people are infected with the
energy and aesthetic appeal of the dance; repressed feelings start to
emerge and defenses lessen. The repressed anger or hurt that an individual fears to express in his own right frequently becomes possible as
an altruistic gesture supporting someone else.
Since everyday gestures and emotional expressions share the
same neuro-muscular pathways, seemingly simple themes of work or
play often shift into powerful emotional statements. A playful baseball
pitch could transform into a dagger aimed at the heart, and a kitchen
task such as smoothing a table cloth could metamorphosize into covering a coffin.
The dance therapist seeks to develop the intensity required for emotional change by reinforcing those movement patterns which lead to
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HEALING PROCESSES

emotional expressions, and then enhancing and enlarging those gestures which promote physiological change.
Bar Levy (1977) states that:
Clinical observation has repeatedly shown that true personality
change requiresthe undergoing of psychologicalexperienceswith
enough emotional intensity to involve and change previously established physiologicpatterns (p. 462).
Communal action and repetition at each level of intensity reduces the
anxiety associated with the feared affect.
Each emotion is dependent on a particular movement gestalt.
Wolff (1972) describes the expressions of a happy man:
A happy man is expansive. He makes many gestures which enlarge his sphere of influence. He gets up often, walks about the
room, takeshold of things. His gesturesshowemphasisand are at
the sametime direct, decisive, round and full... (p. 9).
Patients who do not have their feet on the ground cannot walk with
assurance; those who do not have the strength to grasp cannot take
hold of things; those who cannot extend into space cannot expand their
sphere of influence; and those who are unfocused cannot produce direct
decisive gestures. It is not surprising that happiness is a rare emotion in
a psychiatric hospital.
Expression is the first step towards identifying one's feelings; the
next is to discover the context in which they occur. From whom are we
cringing? At whom do we wish to lash out? Becoming conscious of the
content and the target of emotions can lead to disassembling old patterns and attempting new ones. A supportive, nonjudgmental group
permits people to weep and not be ridiculed, to talk about sex without
being shamed and to show rage and not feel guilty. Feelings that were
denied in a repressive atmosphere are resurrected in an atmosphere of
acceptance.
There tends to be sequential order in a group's uncovering of emotions. After the therapist helps members work through their depression,
anger is often uncovered. Once this anger is expended, people may acknowledge feelings of dependence and the need for closeness. After
group members have experienced contact and warmth they can deal
with issues of loss and separation. Bar-Levy (1977) discusses the relationship between dependency and rage in schizophrenics.
Patientswith diffuseego boundaries, borderline or schizophrenic,
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SCHMAIS

cannot usuallyacknowledgeor work through dependencyneeds

and yearningsuntilthey have openlyexperiencedwith full intensity their internalizedrage, againstthe eruption of which they may
have developedtheir entire pathology (p. 460).
Many patients ward off closeness with physical or verbal aggression.
Once they can unleash their rage at having been abandoned, rejected
or engulfed, then they may again become close.
Dance therapy encourages a whole range of expressive behavior,
with the belief that the pleasure of movement will stimulate a willingness
to change the overall emotional state. Through participation in the varied rhythms, patterns and themes of the collective dance, patients slowly reconstruct a movement vocabulary that permits emotional expression. They find the strength and the posture for assertion, the tenderness
for a caring touch and the flexibility to bend with the situation and literally to reshape themselves.

Rhythm
The reason why so complex a network of events as the life of on individual can possibly go on and on in a continuousdynamicpat-

tern, is that the patternof eventsis rhythmic(Langer,1970, p. 50).

When an individual is troubled, the rhythms that connect him to
himself, to others and to the environment are disrupted. Rhythm, which
is crucial in giving order to life and structure to art, serves to integrate,
inspire and regulate individuals and events in dance therapy. Espenak
(1981) considers rhythm as the most profound catalyst in dance
therapy.
Humphrey (1959) describes four sources of rhythmic organization
inherent in the nature of man: the rhythms of internal function, of breath,
of propulsion and of emotion. We are also constrained and moved by
external rhythms of daily living, of nature, of work and play. Dance
therapy utilizes these rhythms in specific ways.
The fetus' first sensual experiences are derived from the rhythms of
internal function (Meerloo, 1960). Floating in a world of sound and motion, the fetus is beset by the steady beat of the mother's heart and
blood vessels and the quicker pulsations of his or her own. The circulatory system and the other major bodily functions, including brain
waves, peristalsis and muscle action, can be characterized by rhythm.
These rhythms, shared by all people, can be considered universal to the
species. Some anthropologists believe that primitive (in the sense of
first) dance was an external response to internal rhythms (Hanna,
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HEALING PROCESSES

1979). Based on these common rhythms, people from various cultures

can join together in movement.
Vital functional activities such as eating are also governed by
rhythmicity. According to Kestenberg (1965) the sucking rhythm of the
infant, which is necessary for his survival, is all-pervasive during the oral stage of development. This sucking rhythm is not organ-specific. It is
evident in the infant's clenching fists, curling toes and shaking head. Only if the infant maintains the sucking rhythm can he be adequately nurtured, whereby mother and child achieve mutual satisfaction.
There are individuals who, on the basis of early frustration, perseverate in the use of infantile rhythms in their quest for gratification. Others,
who also suffered such frustrations, are afraid to join rhythmic activities
such as those offered in the dance. In the dance therapy session, musical
rhythm is used as the initial stimulus to awaken innate neuro-muscular
responses to music (Gaston, 1968). Rhythms that are reminiscent of early developmental processes may create a basis for symbolic gratification of infantile demands. When the group rocks to a common pulse, it
seems as if they share in a regressive fantasy that binds them together.
Meerloo (1964) posits a direct relationship between the contagion
of particular gestures and their relationship to infantile and even to intrauterine rhythms. This is in keeping with Koestler's (1964) view that
the mind is particularly receptive to messages that are rhythmically coded. Perhaps a combination of these notions answers the question of why
some rhythmic activities seem particularly conducive to casting a spelllike atmosphere that unifies the group.
Breathing is a rhythmic activity that reinforces both verbal and nonverbal activities (Bartenieff, 1980). Song and speech depend on breath
rhythms and all physical actions rely on the accommodation of the
breath for their efficiency. Breathing is essentially a two phasic activity,
consisting of inspiration and expiration. Active expiration leads to
deep inspiration. In patients, both these phases are often disrupted or
incomplete. The inspiration is frequently shallow or held, and the expiration is often foreshortened. Some catatonic patients seem not to be
breathing at all, like humming birds in a state of suspended animation.
Breathing, like any other movement pattern, reflects an individual's
style and emotional state. Braatoy (1954) explains that:
the problemsof respiration focus the attention on a vital function which is always modified, restrictedor blocked in statesof attention, watching, and in suppressedand repressedemotion. For
this reason,the patients' breathing is the best index in gauging the
patient's emotional stage (p. 159).
. .

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SCHMAIS

in dance therapy, breathing patterns are altered and emotional

states are shifted. Simply focusing on the motions of the breath itself can
foster the inward attention to calm an agitated individual, or to energize a lethargic one. Images, such as widening like a peacock on display, can visibly deepen the inhalation phase, and hissing like a snake
poised to attack, can lengthen the exhalation phase. Work themes lend
themselves to meshing breath and action, e.g., when the group's
pounding with an imaginary hammer is accompanied by deep grunts.
Breath rhythms can be used to support actions in various body parts,
e.g., to sustain a leg lift or an open-armed welcome. The image of the
breath (expansion and contraction) can help people to grow and shrink
in space, preparing them to move towards and away from each other
and from life situations.
The rhythm of propulsion--of walking feet--is fundamental to the
dance. The alteration of fall and recovery is the essence of walking.
Humphrey (1959) saw fall and recovery as a metaphor for life and used
that principle as the basis for her dance technique:
All life fluctuatesbetweenthe resistanceand the yieldingto gravity... youthis down as little as possible;gravity holdshimlightlyto
the earth. Old age gradually takes over and the spring vanishes
from the step until the final yielding to the death (p. 106).
Gauged by their walk, many of the mentally ill are old beyond their
years. Shuffling along, they don't risk the falling phase of the walk. As
dance therapists assist patients to rediscover "walking," they regain a
sense of their weight, which Laban (1960) considered a prerequisite for
stability and assertiveness.
in dance therapy, rhythms of work, play and social discourse are
crystallized to form themes. Patients rhythmically throw and catch imaginary balls tossed high into the air, they chop kindling for fires and
extend their hands in greeting. Guided by the therapist, movements are
lengthened or compressed, and accents are placed at the beginning,
middle or end of the phrase to create the rhythm of the theme. Feelings
too are structured into metric rhythms that suit the symbolic content.
Rhythmic repetition both contains and clarifies the expression. When
the group rhythm is rooted in the group emotion, the accents and duration of the phrases are inherently satisfying.

Vitalization
A positive quality of alivenessis present in the group of dancers
which is in strong contrastto the patientswho are sitting listlessly

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HEALING PROCESSES

absorbed in no activity; withdrawn from all others in loneliness.It

is exciting to see one of those passively still people rise as though
drawn by a magnet and move towards the living group (Chace,
t975, p. 203).
Vitalization--investing people with the power to live. The aliveness
that is evident at birth often gets diverted or blocked in the process of
growing up. A characteristic of many patients is their lack of vitality,
whereas the earmark of infancy is animation. Activity, moving or being
moved, is inherently satisfying to the human organism. Mittelman
(1957) considers motility on a par with oral, excretory and genital
urges. The fetus lives in a moving environment, inutero. And it is with
powerful motion that he or she is thrust into the world. Motion is one of
the first entertaining interactions between adults and infants. Babies are
jiggled, balanced, rocked and hoisted into the air. Storr (1969) believes
that the infant's spontaneous motility is the first evidence of the positive,
aggressive drives that lead to mastery and, eventually, to independence. The inability of patients to function can be linked to their misdirected use of energy. Whether the flow of vital force is encased by their
defenses or dissipated by their anxiety, the result is the same: powerlessness. They have hardly enough energy for survival, let alone for living.
Some patients hold back impulses so long that they no longer feel their
tension or sense their immobility. This blocked muscular force not only
wastes energy, but also results in distorted bodies and in awkward, inefficient movements.
Dance therapy, because its medium is motion, can relieve anxiety
and loosen the rigidity that Wilhelm Reich (1949) aptly called "armor."
Repetition of a rhythmic phrase (within a group situation) gradually
reduces physical inhibitions and permits covert feelings to come into
awareness, freeing the impulse to act and the energy to do so. The flow
of motion connects limbs to torso and feelings to actions.
Probably the most striking aspect of the dance therapy session is to
witness the energy that is liberated with the expression of angry feelings. So much vitality is contained by holding in anger and holding back
rage. Winnicott (1958) sees aggression as synonymous with activity.
Aggression can be a positive source of energy causing the blood to flow
and the breath to deepen; a source of strength that can be used to grasp
reality and master interaction. Often, during this process, patients recall the situation in which the original repression occurred.
In the dance therapy session there is a synergistic effect resulting
from the stimulation of being in a group situation and from the activation
that is caused by moving. There is evidence that people are more moti25

SCHMAIS

vated to act and to communicate when in the close company of others

than when they are alone (Berelson & Steiner, 1964). In dance therapy,
patients are in both a close and a moving group. Malamud and Machover (1965) created a comparable situation when they introduced a motoric task in an outpatient group. They describe the effects as follows:
"Never before has there been in this group such a sense of provocative
stimulation and so swift a flow of currents and cross currents" (p. 71).
The very essence of dance therapy is maintaining the group in motion. Synchronous expressions of deep feelings to concordant rhythms
vitalize the individual and the group, generating a reservoir of physical
and psychic strength that can be used to further expression, communication and competence.

Integration
Integration in therapy implies achieving a sense of unity within the individual and a sense of community between internal and external reality.
it is conceived here as a continuously changing dynamic state of balance rather than as a finite static condition. In dance therapy, integration occurs simultaneously at many different levels. It therefore seems
contradictory to discuss each type of synthesis separately; nevertheless
this is the only way to deal with a complex phenomenon in a discursive
mode. The very nature of this problem exemplifies why dance therapy
must use the symbolic, metaphorical approach--in addition to a verbal
analytic mode--to achieve integration.
A major goal in dance therapy is to effect various kinds of integration. Patients manifest disintegrated, dysfunctional and/or disorganized
behaviors. Typical patterns include: double messages, inappropriate
movements, incomplete phrases, multiple rhythms, shallow breathing,
isolated actions, mechanical movements, unwarranted stillness. The
therapist strives to integrate body actions, facial expression and verbalization; thought and expression; feelings and words; breathing and
activity; past and present; and self-image and self-presentation.
Five basic premises underlying the integrative function of dance
therapy are:
1) An isomorphic relationship exists between mental
acts and neuro-muscular activity.
2) Integrative connections can be made by slow accretion or by instantaneous revelations.
3) Integration implies commitment.
4) Integration requires that experiences are both felt

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HEALING PROCESSES

and symbolically represented.

5) Integration of self requires validation by others.
The first premise has complementary implications, namely that there
are incipient or overt motor adjustments with each feeling or idea and
conversely each motor action incurs a specific psychic attitude. This premise can be viewed from a developmental perspective. Motor responses
are the infant's first meanings, and throughout human life all thoughts
and feelings are experienced in muscle action, i.e., impulses to respond.
Jacobsen (1955) demonstrated that " . . . action potentials arise in
muscles simultaneously with the meaning processes with which the activity of the muscle, if overtly carried out, would correspond" (p. 567). For
example, the thought of running will initiate motor tendencies in the
legs. The therapist helps the patient to integrate thought and action by
reflecting and acknowledging each minute movement, until a full expression, with its attending emotions and attitudinal equivalents, can be
brought to fruition.
The converse proposition, that motor actions cause changes in psychic attitudes, is equally important for the work of the dance therapist.
According to Schilder (1950), " . . . every sequence of tensions and relaxations provokes a specific attitude. When there is a specific motor sequence, it changes the inner situations and attitudes and even provokes
a fantasy situation which fits the muscular sequence" (p. 205). Nina Bull
(1951), working with hypnotic subjects, came to a similar conclusion.
She found that hypnotized subjects could not obey the suggestion to
change feelings and at the same time obey the suggestion not to shift
their postures. She concluded that without somatic changes, there could
be no new affect. Emotional shifts require postural shifts. Dance therapy motivates muscle actions and postural changes, and thereby, elicits
attitudinal changes.
The second premise alludes to the time element of integrative activities. Most often the process is slow buildup of verbal, visual and kinesthetic experiences. Occasionally, given certain conditions, a patient
may arrive at a flash of insight leading to a dramatic change in his understanding and in his behavior.
For most patients, the accretive process begins with a simple motion, perhaps a flick of the wrist. The therapist repeats the movement,
adding descriptive phrases and poetic images to enhance the meaning
and crystallize the action. As the energy level rises, the gesture of a single joint can become a postural motion spreading throughout the entire
body, cutting through tension and engaging inert areas. The facial ex27

SCHMAIS

pressions, sounds and words become congruent with the body actions.
Body parts connect, discordant rhythms disappear and distracting gestures dissolve.
There are times in dance therapy when individuals have a flash of
insight, i.e., they suddenly understand a current state, or relate to a past
event. Rugg (1963) theorizes that, for artists, the creative flash occurs at
the threshold of the conscious and unconscious state. It seems likely that
a therapeutic insight occurs during a similar state, one that is brought
about in dance therapy by rhythmic repetitious movements. Entranced
by the music and the group mood, people become more open to internal and external stimuli. Conditions for insight include: 1) a receptive
state of mind, 2) perceptual inputs such as hearing music or watching
dancers, 3) verbal inputs and 4) a flow of motor images from one's own
motion. As unconscious material surfaces, it can mesh with perceptual
inputs to generate new conceptions and locate old connections.
The third premise is that integration requires a commitment which is
not quantifiable. It is in the quality of the total gesture that the commitment is evident. Lowen (1975) defines an individual as emotionally
healthy when he has " . . . ability to involve all of himself in his actions
and his behavior" (p. 390). People disassociate from painful experiences by holding their breath or tensing their muscles. If we conceive of
motor adjustments as either "felt thought" (Rugg, 1963), "felt experience" (Gendlin, 1962) or "knowing on a body level," we can understand how people can render themselves ignorant on a body level by
blocking motor images. Muscular rigidity is the somatic side of repression (Reich, 1949). Movement loosens the rigidity and frees the impulses to act, allowing people to "re-own" their experience and connect it to other experiences.
Commitment involves breathing as well as muscle action. Each
emotion appears to have a breath pattern of its own. People suppress
laughter, tears and anger by holding on to their breath. Shallow
breathing cannot support exertion. Todd (1937) discusses the integral
relationship between breathing and activity in animals:
Breathing and moving rhythms must be coincident in the function
for survival if the fighting animal is to hold his stance. . . . To accomplish this the breathing rhythm must be able to harmonize so
perfectly with locomotor rhythmsthat the mechanismsfor locomotion and the mechanismsfor breathing, may servethe commonpurpose for survival (p. 249).
This integration of inner and outer functions can be seen as a commitment to survival.
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HEALING PROCESSES

The fourth premise concerns the need to use both symbolic and felt
experience in any therapeutic model (Gendlin 1962). As chaotic, repressed or unidentified feelings are expressed, it is important for patients to think about their experience, to evaluate it, identify and recognize similarities with other experiences, and to have their experiences
verified by others. May (1958) quotes Kierkegaard as saying:
Truth becomesreality only when the individual produces it in action, which includes producing it in his own consciousness..,we
cannot even see a particular truth unless we have some commitment to it (p. 28).
As was discussed earlier, the metaphoric dance symbol can externalize the internal state. With verbal symbols we can label, classify,
discuss and reflect on this internal state. Schacter (1964) believes that
all somatic therapies must include cognitive work. This is particularly
true for emotional states which are often mislabeled. Some patients
cannot distinguish between excitement and sexuality or between anger
and exertion. The dance therapist labels the affect as it appears. Words
may lead to associations and images that alter the movements and each
alteration in movement evokes new verbal associations and ideas. This
interaction of words and movement escalates affect and provides an associative matrix from which integrative dance symbols can arise. In one
session a movement of self-touch followed by the arms reaching out
was translated by one patient into a statement of "1 am me and you are
you." Other voices joined in and the words grew louder, the actions
clearer and the rhythm sharper. This simple phrase, performed in unison, became a symbol of both individuality and of group commitment.
The last premise relates to the development of an integrated sense
of self. The self arises in social experience, as the individual becomes
aware of how others view him/her. The self also disintegrates in social
experience, as one experiences one's actions denigrated, devalued
and despised by others. The dance therapy group allows for controlled
regression in that people can re-experience repressed and disassociated feelings which are then valued and accepted by the group. The individual begins to arrive at a realistic estimate of himself as he sees himself
reflected in the actions of others. The group, by their words and their
movements, validate his varied experiences. As self esteem rises, one is
willing to reclaim those parts of herself/himself that were hidden from
others. The interrelationship of all the components of one's experience
are the bases for a dynamically evolving, unitary and integrated sense
of self.

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SCHMAIS

Cohesion*
The term cohesion generally means a sense of belonging to, and an attraction for, a group. In dance therapy, this social bond exists as both
the content and the form of the dance.
It is a tedious and difficult task to promote cohesiveness among isolate and alienated people in a psychiatric facility. Dance therapy utilizes all available channels of communication to effect continuous and
meaningful contact. During a session, the first link to another human being occurs when people are guided to connect via the rhythmic beat.
Rhythm helps to stimulate and to organize the individual's behavior, as
well as to put him in time and in step with others. According to Kendon
(1970), if the capacity to be in time with another person is restored, the
patient regains "a skill of critical importance to his capacity as a social
interactant" (p. 65).
Initial contact is reinforced by auditory and visual feedback. As
each person experiences himself moving, he simultaneously hears the
sounds of stamping feet, clapping hands or rustling clothes and he sees
the group moving together. People are literally brought closer together
through synchronous dance actions or stretching, reaching, pushing
and bending. Formations such as condensed circles or parallel lines facilitate visual and verbal contact.
Physical closeness- moving side by side, sharing a common
rhythm and a common activity--in addition to verbal communication
prepares people for direct contact through touch. In dance therapy,
contact through auditory and visual channels precedes touch, which is a
reversal of the developmental process. For infants, touch is a means of
developing trust, whereas for adults, if trust is lost, it must be regained
before accepting touch.
The dance therapist first motivates clients to touch their own bodies:
to pat, rub and massage themselves. In this way they become aware of
themselves and experience "self-sentience"--the sense of simultaneously
touching and being touched. Buytendijk (1950) considers touch as the
primary means of discovering our real existence and its own limitations:
It reveals at the same time the physical self as touched, moved and
something that is touched by our self movement. Touching is the most
original mode of the experience of participation and feeling (p. 131).

Later people may begin to touch each other in brief, rhythmic, peripheral encounters such as a light tapping of each other's shoulders, or
*This is the one term that is also in Yalom's list (Yalom, 1975, 1983).

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HEALING PROCESSES

clapping a neighbor's hands. As they become more involved with one

another, the touch is less peripheral, more sustained and includes eye
contact. Patients rarely perceive this type of touching as threatening or
sexually provocative because as part of the dance it is spatially structured, rhythmic and highly visible.
Being a part of the dance by sharing and repeating simple steps
and rhythms builds a sense of community, but it is not until people actively participate in each other's symbolic statements that group cohesiveness takes root. According to Merton (1949), cohesiveness results from
the scope and intensity of the member's involvement. The participants
should become physically and emotionally sensitive to each other.
When moved by themes of rage, danger and despair, they find a commonality of experience. They discover that their shameful secrets are
universal; turmoil and rage are shared and expanded; and they find
that others are equally vindictive, fearful and despondent. As they
dance out each person's private story, the story teller finds acceptance
and sees himself as acceptable. Barriers of isolation dissolve, and people feel that they can once again enter a social world.
Education

In dance therapy, patients learn from their own experiences and from
watching and modeling others, as well as from the statements, questions and imagery with which the therapist accompanies the dance. Mutual participation in each other's symbolic expressions is the crux of the
learning process.
While engaged in movement experiences, patients learn about
themselves, relationships and life. These three areas of knowledge are
not discrete. For example, when a patient mirrors someone else dancing out a theme of sorrow, he may encounter his own unfinished mourning, he may learn about the many ways people deal with loss and he
may become aware of the necessity of accepting the inevitability of
death, in dancing out each other's themes patients accumulate knowledge of their own capacities and recognize what they like to do and
what they don't, what comes easy and what seems hard, what feels innate and what feels alien. They recognize that while some people have
patterns similar to their own, others move in a manner that seems rooted
in another way of being. Looking at how other people move, they can
distinguish their own unique qualities, and looking at the group as a
whole they find a commonality of experience.
As the group affect escalates, patients see others change and realize that they too are changing, and that change is possible. They need
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SCHMAIS

not remain in the same place doing the same thing. A new act in a new
space is available to them. When the group is cohesive, new motions
are attempted and motions from a time past are resurrected.
Coming to the sessions with anxiety, annoyance and little enthusiasm, patients learn that the act of moving itself can reduce tensions, diminish depression and increase energy. As they engage in creating a
dance, patients discover that their movements are acceptable and that
their contributions are valued. By being trusted to support someone else
or to lead the group, they learn to trust themselves and to take initiative.
And when powerful feelings are exposed as part of the dance, patients
learn that expressing emotions does not necessarily lead to disaster.
Even murderous feelings symbolically enacted can be controlled.
When trust is established, people try new tasks and play new roles.
They learn the behaviors of daily living, such as conventions of introductions, greetings and departures. They learn to take turns, to initiate, to
support and to follow. Often the patient who enacts a role on behalf of
someone else, ends up with unexpected personal gains. For example,
Mrs. M., who was suffering from postpartum depression, was chosen
by the group to mother Tom, an angry adolescent who had been shunted from foster home to foster home. Holding him, she started to experience feelings of caring and connection to her own newborn son.
Some of the most important information that people can glean from
the group experience is the knowledge of how they relate to others and
the reactions they evoke. A recent study by Butler & Furman (Dies and
MacKenzie, 1983) found that feedback is central to therapeutic
change. Given honest feedback, people learn to differentiate between
the attitudes that they are holding onto from the past and behaviors that
relate to the immediate situation. Old attitudes towards parents, siblings and authority figures are invariably reenacted in the group.Yalom
(1975) states that, "given enough time, every patient will begin to be
himself, to interact with the group members as he interacts with others in
his social sphere, to create in the group the same interpersonal universe
which he has always inhabited" (p. 29).
Sometimes the group can provide experiences that the family could
not. For example, Mrs. F., who feared abandonment, would hold
hands with the people on either side of her so tightly that she would
court rejection. People regularly moved away from her. When one patient finally said, "It hurts. Can't you find another way to remain
close?" Mrs. F. gained some understanding of her behavior. She
stopped clutching and the group stopped running away from her.

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HEALING PROCESSES

As patients encounter each other and the therapist, they also come
to terms with some of the realities of life. This does not ease their burdens, but it does help them to see and to react to the world as it can be-harsh, unpredictable and unfair. They begin to realize that they all face
the same exigencies of life.

Symbolism
Symbolism is probably the least understood and most valuable process
in dance therapy. Rooted in dreams and nurtured in fantasy, symbols,
in dance as in all art, abstract, abbreviate and structure what is seen,
felt and imagined. The therapeutic implications of the dance symbol are
threefold: in its creation, in the illumination it affords and in the actual
participation in the collective product.
Producing any art requires some degree of skill for structure and
symbolism. Even the most elementary dance symbol requires certain
technical mastery. Transforming self-expressive gestures into moving
images that represent the group's needs depends on discipline. To participate~in the creation of the dance, patients must pay attention to the
therapist/choreographer, to the music and to each other. Impulses must
be restrained and energy ordered while learning the steps, patterns
and timing of the dance. The self must be aligned with the whole.
There is an isomorphic relationship between the structural components of the dance and the message it conveys. To enact a joyous encounter symbolically requires that patients have a cognitive and kinesthetic understanding of reaching out and of being uplifted. Likewise, to
enact a sorrowful scene, they must have a notion of sinking, closing and
retreating. William James (1950) understood the intrinsic relationship
between motion and mood. "Not only temporal succession but such attributes as intensity, volume, simplicity or complication, smooth or impeded change, rest or agitation are habitually predicated on both
physical and mental facts" (p. 147).
Symbolic expressions in dance therapy form the bridge between
the patient's internal and external worlds as they transfer energy from
one realm to the other in a social context. Patients living in a world of
personal chaos and terror find order and meaning in shared symbolic
expression. Subsumed by the symbolic significance of the dance, they
become part of an event that transcends the self. In this regard, Gough
stated, "The work of arts.., reorders and brings into balance the tensions of form and space and in so doing moderates the inner tensions of
the observer giving him a sense of encounter and fulfillment" (Storr,
1972, pp. 151-152).
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SCHMAIS

Probably the most important feature of symbolism is that it allows

for psychic distance from private preoccupations. Once it has been
structurally represented, an idea or emotion can be apprehended, contemplated, analyzed or connected to other symbolic material. The symbol can shed light on old issues, articulate current concerns and anticipate the future.
The symbol as metaphor can be a key to past and to present conflicts. By wedding unlike objects and events it can lead to insight and
understanding. Bateson (1972) compares metaphoric thinking to primary process:
In primary processthe things or personsare usually not identified,
and the focus of the discourse is upon the relationships which are
assertedto obtain betweenthem. Thisis really only anotherway of
saying that the discourseof primary processis metaphoric. Reaching back into consciousnessfor material that is not coded by rational speechcan be facilitated by the art symbol, which is essentially
a non-logical mode. Both preverbal memoriesand the complexities of emotion defy rational linear discourse (p. 139).
Symbols not only reach into the past but also extend into the future.
Patients can rehearse ways of behaving in a new situation and imagine
new ways of behaving in familiar contexts. Symbols in dance link man
to society by externalizing and universalizing experience. With group
support, people can symbolically move through transitional stages, endure emotion and master skills.
Conclusion
The above listing of healing processes is an initial formulation and needs
to be subjected to systematic investigation. For example, it must be determined whether or not there is agreement among dance therapists that
these eight factors are generic to all groups. If so, what is the relative importance of each process? Do therapists and patients have the same perceptions? What is the relationship between each factor and type of
group, the:apists, orientation and techniques used? These are some of
the questions that need to be asked.
The identification of nonverbal processes which heal and the subsequent confirmation by research are essential ingredients in confirming
dance therapy as a "healing method."

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HEALING PROCESSES

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