In the dance movement therapy program here at Antioch University New England I have had the chance to work with preschool age kids and their care givers. Once a week I engaged in a practicum with preschoolers and their care giver(s) in a creative movement/play class. We used various props like a parachute, stretchy bands, hand drums, scarfs and matts to facilitate play and interaction.

It was very informative to work with the kids having learned KMPwhich looks at movement/dance from a developmental perspective. The book and experiential learning all seemed to make more sense when applied to kids.

Here is some great NPR audio about kids.

Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control

Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills

How Children Cope With the Ongoing Trauma of War

 Playing By the Rules

For Toddlers, a World Laden with Advertising

Toddlers and Robots Teach Scientists

Early Intervention

Baby Scientist

Recently Antioch University New England hosted New Hope/New Horizons, “The Magic in Me”. This show, starring members of the New Hope New Horizons program for adults with developmental delays, performed a seris of movement/dance based skits. Directors of this program were Kim and Addy, two Dance/Movement therapists who have just completed their Master of Arts degree in Dance Movement Therapy and Counseling Psychology from Antioch University New England.

Their supervisor  and Antioch faculty member, Kim B has been conducting Dance movement therapy groups for over a decade with New Hope clients. The performance showcased the strong inter-human connection that has been built at new Hope through the power of dance and music. Dance/Movement Therapy has been a corner stone of the program that bridges the marginalization and isolation of disabled adults, bringing self-expression, togetherness, strength and joy.

The Antioch University New England and the greater community shared the inspiration and warmth as they witnessed the joy and confidence the performers have found through the universal language of movement and dance. 

One of the many reasons I chose Antioch University New England is the tight nit community and intimacy of the classes. No getting lost in a sea of faces here, each and every voice can be heard and acknowledged. All this came to mind after seeing a You-Tube video about students at some big university-where education seems to be homogenized and enormous class sizes prevent individual learning.

My idea of dance/movement therapy (d/mt) is informed by my personal and professional experience. Personal from my own movement experiences studying and participating in movement based expressive/creative arts therapy classes/workshops using mostly the Halprin Method. Personal from my experiences witnessing and supporting others, as they explore/enact in workshop settings. Professionally as an observer, helper, assistant, facilitator of groups of well children through elders using the Halprin Method.

I define d/mt as psychotherapy that is not limited to words but incorporates the entire range of possible human expression. Words, movement, gestures, sounds, written words, drawings are all possible forms of expression. The American Dance Therapy Association definition is: “the psycho-therapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration of the individual”. You can read the full definition here.

How tricking the eye reveals the inner workings of the brain. I recommend viewing the slide show first and than reading the article.

As a student in dance/movement therapy at Antioch University New England, movement and dance is very important to me. I consider every movement of the body to have an emotional aspect to it and every emotion to have a movement.

Much research has been done exploring the under pinning’s of movement. Some of the research that I have looked into include: Laban, who talked of how unconscious and conscious states control movement. Kestenberg did research into the developmental aspects of movement. Ray Birdwhistell examined gestures and facial expressions and the meaning behind them. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen  works with integration and movement re-patterning.

From the end of March through about April 20 I noted articles posted on Psyport related to PTSD, the war(s), and the military. Psyport is a service of the APA which gathers articles related to psychological issues. In that informal survey there were 15 articles listed that met the above criteria. It’s a bit stunning and scary when I think about all of these articles and the countless others that have never made it through the clipping service of the APA’s Psyport. The articles mostly focused on the lack of services and the amount of more services needed by war zone returning military personal.

Another interesting article on Psyport just recently appeared: Private psychiatrists offer free service to troops. It seems that the care givers have noticed the need and are stepping forward to fill the gap.

Here is an interesting story on Mental Health Care at Fort Carson from NPR.

Here is the testimony of Randy Phelps, Ph.D.Deputy Executive Director for Professional Practice of the APA
at the Senate Committtee On Veterans Affairs On “MAKING THE VA THE WORKPLACE OF CHOICE FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS”

Here is a fun little test to see which side of the brain you use more (or less).

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test

The search engine eTBlask is a nifty little program that queries med-line (and some other resources) using up to a whole paragraph of text. It really narrows down the results by looking through abstracts based on the entire text you input. Its not super fast like Yahoo, Goggle Scholar, Clusty, Quintura, or Science-Direct. I  think eTBlast is better for finding exactly what you are looking for in an ocean of info.

eTblask

I try and keep up on the latest news in the world of psychology using RSS feeds on the homepage of my web browser. Lots of articles and tidbits which on occasion lead me to more research on subjects that I care about. All of the feeds listed here can be either read at the site or subscribed to as an RSS feed.

Psycport is an on-line news clipping service from the American Psychological Association (APA) that scans news headlines from around the globe for stories that have a psychological connection. You can either go to the web site: Psycport and read it there or read it as an RSS feed.

Psychology Today has more general interest psychology related stories.

New Scientist: Being Human has interesting stories that range from neuroscience to anthropology that relate to ….. well … being human.

Scientific American Mind and Brain very similar to New Scientist but more neuroscience articles. 

As a student at Antioch I have access to hundreds of journals on-line for free. I  go to the library web site and look up the journal I want ( or key words that describe what I am looking for). From there I can go to the Ohio-Link web site and either find articles I want or subscribe to the journal as an RSS feed. All of the APA journals and many others are available as an RSS feed. I subscribe to:

American Journal of Dance Therapy
Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice
Health Psychology
Journal Of Educational Psychology
International Journal of Play Therapy
Developmental Psychology
Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training