Analytic-structural dance therapy

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Guenter Ammon · 1982 · Munich, Germany

What it is

AST is a psychoanalytic, group-based body psychotherapy, not a free-standing dance method. It is embedded in Ammon's Humanstrukturologie and Identitätstherapie and is delivered alongside verbal group and individual psychotherapy. Its core procedure is simple: the group is opened and closed with a…

Format

• The primary sources describe a session format and a four-phase therapeutic process. The content of the phase model is in Reitz's chapter in Kreative Therapien in der Psychoanalyse (2011). Its table of contents and Rosky's introduction are available as a publisher's sample; the chapter's sections…
• Session format. Group setting in a protected room; opening group meditation → one participant at a time dances spontaneously alone in the middle of the group (music, silence or drums; the dancer chooses their clothing) → group verbal feedback → closing group meditation; routine video recording. The…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Professional frame. AST was developed by Günter Ammon in 1982 as a creative, nonverbal body therapy; Reitz began psychoanalytic training in 1972, the year the Munich DAP institute was founded. Until 2010 dance therapy training was part of the DAP's group concept; afterwards Reitz and colleagues built a dance therapy department (Fachbereich Tanztherapie) in the DGG (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gruppendynamik und…
• Context: the Dynamic Psychiatry movement. AST belongs to Günter Ammon's Dynamic Psychiatry movement (DAP, DGG, WADP), and nearly all published sources on it come from that movement's own journal, institutes and members. No independent, reliable report on controversies about the movement is cited here, and no claim about controversies is made either way. A clinician considering this training should consult…
• Sources include: Reitz's dates and biography, the 1982 origin of AST with Günter Ammon, Reitz's first dance therapy group (1986), the staff self-experience group (2007) and the DAP/DGG training history; the full chapter structure of Reitz 2011 and Rosky's introduction; the editorial summary of Burbiel & Reitz 2016; the socialnet review of Reitz et al. 2011 (Margret Dörr, 17 April 2012); Maria Ammon's 2016 article…

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 intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• 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

• anyone still flooded or absent; arrange a brief check-in or contact with the individual therapist that day.
• shame and harsh self-criticism on seeing one's body on screen; body-image distress in eating-disordered or dysmorphic patients (prepare, keep viewing short, focus on movement quality, not…
• dissociation or rising panic in silence (offer eyes open, feet on the floor, permission to look around); sleepiness or withdrawal. Working: the room settles and attention gathers on the centre.
• pile-on criticism, rivalry or envy in the group, flattening praise; the dancer collapsing or dismissing feedback. Working: the dancer can take in feedback and links it to their life; the group…
• music chosen to hide in or to perform; drums raising arousal too fast. Keep average sound levels moderate and avoid sudden loud peaks; for live drumming in small rooms keep levels comfortable for…

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.