Janey's plain language summary blog: Dance therapy for schizophrenia

30 December 2009 | 04:54 PM
Janey
Topics: Someone who has experienced mental illness, Medication and therapies

The Cochrane Collaboration will review all treatments for an illness, not just medication, providing they are based on randomized control trials.

So I’ve just completed a review on dance therapy for schizophrenia.  It is in the ‘living with mental illness’ section under ‘treatment and therapy’ of the Rethink website and also on the Cochrane Collaboration website.

When people doing dance therapy were compared to those who had supportive counseling, there mostly wasn’t a difference between the two groups.  However after the ten weeks of dance therapy the mental state of those with the negative symptoms of schizophrenia were improved.  This is good – especially since medication usually does not work for this group of people.  Trouble with dance therapy in the UK is there are not many therapists who offer it – it’s certainly not available in my mental health Trust.  Of course the other good thing about dance therapy is you get some exercise at the same time.  Maybe the powers-that-be should think about this.     

Comments

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1. At 11:59 AM on 27 July 2010 Janey Antoniou wrote:

Dance therapy

About dance movement therapy Last year I was at a conference for the arts-based therapies that are used for mental health problems. In the afternoon there were taster sessions on the different types of arts therapies – music, art and dance movement. I chose the dance class. It lasted 90 minutes and had a format of four different sections: • Preparation: this was the warm-up stage where safety was established. There were chairs at the side of the room where we were told we could go and sit, one if we were upset and wanted to talk about it, and one for being quiet on our own. • Incubation: this was relaxed and gave us a chance to let go of conscious control so movements became symbolic. We did part of this on our own which I enjoyed, but then we did some work in pairs which I found very difficult and in the end sat on my own at the side of the room. • Illumination: meanings of feelings become apparent in a positive or negative way. At one stage we were dancing how we felt at different times of a normal working day and I noticed I was feeling tense and stiff when dancing specific time periods. • Evaluation: we discussed the significance of the process and prepared to end therapy by cooling down and sitting on the floor to talk about our experience. This was a one-off class and there was a lot about it with which I felt quite uncomfortable, but I can see that if I was to interact with the same people for ten weeks, I would settle down and start trusting people.
2. At 07:14 PM on 14 June 2010 KathyC wrote:

Dance Therapy

I read this blog post with interest, as I have a dear friend whose young adult son has schizophrenia. The various therapies available today are very promising. I'm not clear on how dance therapy works, though. I engage in conscious dance http://www.naturalrhythms.org (URL provided in case the term is not self explanatory), which has really caused me to perceive myself and the world around me in different (and I think productive) ways. Is this how researchers think dance therapy works?

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