Psychoanalytic dance therapy

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Elaine V. Siegel · 1973 · USA

What it is

Siegel trained as both a dance therapist and a psychoanalyst. She belongs to the US "second generation" of dance therapy, after Chace, Schoop, Espenak and Whitehouse. She integrated classical psychoanalytic concepts into dance-movement therapy and treated movement as a psychotherapeutic tool in its…

Format

• No published phase model was found. None of the sources gives a numbered phase sequence, session count or progression criteria for Siegel's method. The framework below arranges her six guidelines and her psychoanalytic process concepts (transference, resistance, regression to the fixation point,…
• Settings and format

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Experiential group. Used for self-experience and training. Size and length were not found.
• She adjusted her technique to each format. She also wrote about children with affective disorders and about incest (Siegel 1991, and a German book titled Inzest); neither book is drawn on here. In Germany, DITAT (Deutsches Institut für tiefenpsychologische Tanztherapie und Ausdruckstherapie, Bonn) bases its training on Siegel's concept.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Members exposing more than they can hold in front of peers. It is working when shared themes become visible and can be discussed.
• Watch for helplessness or waiting for you to lead: dependency transference to interpret. It is working when the patient initiates and reflects without prompting.
• Merging, exhaustion, or erotic or aggressive countertransference. It is working when your bodily reactions help you anticipate themes the patient later confirms.
• Perfectionism or performance anxiety: keep it private if needed. It is working when the patient owns the dance, varies it freely and links it to her current life.
• Watch for over-activation in fragile patients, or under-challenge that keeps the work superficial. It is working when the patient can increasingly tolerate the next level.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.