Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) occupies a singular position within the depth-psychology corpus as the somatic discipline most explicitly indebted to Jungian thought, yet most consistently under-theorized relative to its clinical reach. The passages collected here reveal three overlapping registers of engagement. First, a genealogical register: the creative arts therapies—art therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy—are understood to have emerged from Jung’s early contributions, with DMT’s lineage running specifically through Mary Starks Whitehouse’s synthesis of modern dance and active imagination, carried forward by Joan Chodorow and the Authentic Movement tradition. Second, a neurobiological register: van der Kolk, Ogden, Koch, and Haeyen situate movement-based therapies within embodiment science, polyvagal theory, and the bidirectionality of affect and motor function, positioning DMT as a body-first intervention for trauma and dysregulation. Third, an epistemological register: McNiff, Fogel, and Woodman press the question of whether movement constitutes a form of knowing irreducible to verbal or conceptual mediation. Tensions persist between DMT as a freestanding clinical modality and as an adjunct vehicle for active imagination, and between its empirical validation in trauma literature and its more speculative deployment in individuation-oriented practice. The field is marked by productive hybridity and unfinished systematization.
Dance movement psychotherapy: A creative arts therapy that uses movement an
Fogel’s glossary positions dance movement psychotherapy as a formally recognized creative arts therapy grounded in embodied self-awareness, linking it to coregulation and the broader somatic framework of the volume.
, Body Sense: The Science and Practice of Embodied Self-Awareness, 2009thesis
Art therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy and poetry therapy emerged in the United States as separate professions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Chodorow’s chapter in Papadopoulos establishes the historical derivation of dance therapy from Jung’s foundational contributions, situating DMT within the genealogy of the creative arts therapies and the Authentic Movement tradition.
, The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, 2006thesis
D. A. Harris, ‘Dance/Movement Therapy Approaches to Fostering Resilience and Recovery Among African Adolescent Torture Survivors,’ Torture 17, no. 2 (2007): 134–55
Van der Kolk’s citation of Harris’s research anchors DMT within the trauma-recovery literature as an evidence-cited approach for fostering resilience in severe trauma populations.
, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, 2014thesis
movement feedback can be defined as the afferent feedback from the body periphery to the central nervous system and has been shown to play a causal role in the emotional experience, the formation of attitudes, and behavior regulation
Koch grounds dance and movement therapies in a bidirectional embodiment model, arguing that movement feedback causally shapes affect and cognition, thereby providing a neurobiological rationale for DMT’s therapeutic efficacy.
, Embodied arts therapies, 2011thesis
a dance of joy to activate one’s resilience, or a poem to put a traumatic experience into words
Koch illustrates the therapeutic range of embodied arts therapies, presenting dance as a vehicle for activating resilience alongside other expressive modalities within a unified clinical framework.
, Embodied arts therapies, 2011supporting
self-directed movement tends to develop a relationship to both sensory and imaginal realms. When bodily felt sensation emerges as physical action, an image may appear which will give the movement meaning.
Woodman, citing Chodorow, articulates the depth-psychological rationale for DMT: self-directed movement mediates between somatic sensation and imaginal experience, constituting the philosophical basis for movement-oriented workshop practice.
, Addiction to Perfection: The Still Unravished Bride: A Psychological Study, 1982thesis
The creative arts and psychomotor therapies, conceptualized in line with PVT, facilitate mind–body interventions as tools for restoration of an embodied self, strengthening resilience
Haeyen applies polyvagal theory to the creative arts and psychomotor therapies, positioning DMT within a broader framework of autonomic regulation and embodied self-restoration in trauma treatment.
, A theoretical exploration of polyvagal theory in creative arts and psychomotor therapies for emotion regulation in stress and trauma, 2024supporting
Whitehouse, M. S. (1979). ‘C. G. Jung and dance-therapy: Two major principles’, in Pallaro, P. (ed.) (1999), Authentic Movement: Essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow.
Tozzi’s reference to Whitehouse’s foundational text establishes the Jungian theoretical underpinning of dance therapy, tracing DMT’s intellectual origins directly to two organizing principles drawn from Jung.
, Active Imagination in Theory, Practice and Training, 2017supporting
Whitehouse, 1979, p. 83. Chodorow, 1991, p. 6.
Tozzi’s citation apparatus maps the genealogy of active imagination in movement, linking Whitehouse and Chodorow as the primary transmitters of Jungian dance therapy into contemporary practice.
, Active Imagination in Theory, Practice and Training, 2017supporting
Koch, S. C. (2006). Interdisciplinary embodiment approaches. Implications creative arts therapies. In S. C. Koch, & I. Bräuninger (Eds.), Advances dance/movement therapy. Theoretical perspectives and empirical findings
Koch’s reference to her own edited volume on dance/movement therapy signals the emergence of a coherent interdisciplinary research program integrating embodiment theory with DMT clinical practice.
, Embodied arts therapies, 2011supporting
Dance/movement therapy, music/sound therapy, dramatic
McNiff enumerates DMT alongside allied expressive therapies as a primary subject of videotape-based self-supervisory study, situating it within a multi-modal expressive therapy framework.
, Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul, 2004supporting
Foreword to Artistic Inquiry in Dance/Movement Therapy, by Lenore Wadsworth Hervey. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 2000.
McNiff’s foreword to Hervey’s volume on artistic inquiry in DMT signals scholarly recognition of dance movement therapy as a research-generative discipline within the expressive therapies.
, Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul, 2004supporting
dance can be so restorative. For instance, if a tribe performs a holy dance, it restores its social coherence. It unifies the people in their feeling and in their spirit.
Von Franz articulates an archetypal understanding of dance as a restorative and socially integrating force, providing mythological depth to DMT’s claims about movement and communal healing.
, Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales, 1997supporting
Different patients have told me how much choral singing, aikido, tango dancing, and kickboxing have helped them, and I am delighted to pass their recommendations on to other people I treat.
Van der Kolk’s clinical testimony to the healing power of rhythmic and embodied movement practices including dance provides indirect but significant support for the therapeutic rationale underlying DMT.
, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, 2014supporting
Intentionally changing posture is a way to influence autonomic state. Shifting of posture brings a sense of activation as the vagal brake is relaxed, followed by a sense of calm as the vagal brake reengages
Dana’s polyvagal account of intentional movement and posture as autonomic regulators provides a physiological mechanism that contextualizes DMT’s use of body movement within nervous system regulation.
, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation, 2018aside
Journal of Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 2 (1), 5–16
Levine’s footnote citation of the Journal of Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy situates DMT within the broader history of body psychotherapy running from Reich and Gindler through Somatic Experiencing.
, In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness, 2010aside