How Dance Movement Therapy Heals Trauma
By Orit Krug | November 22nd, 2018
Dance movement therapy heals trauma in magical ways.
Do you remember when you were a kid and you were just prancing around and dancing everywhere and you didn’t have a care in the world?
Or fast forward to 20 years later, and you were out in the club, maybe a little bit intoxicated, dancing with your peeps and you were having the best time in the world, just freely expressing yourself? Totally uninhibited and totally feeling into YOU.
If you’ve answered yes to these questions, then you already know how amazing it feels it out. So let’s talk about why dance is the perfect way for you to access your past trauma and HEAL it.
First of all, trauma is stored in the body. When we experience trauma, our higher brain that uses and processes verbal language goes offline.
So we can’t actually remember most of our trauma in thoughts and words. When we can’t remember, it doesn’t mean that the trauma isn’t there or that it didn’t happen. We’re just storing the majority of the memory in our bodies.
Access the trauma through your body and release it through dance and movement.
You may have heard of somatic therapy that can help unpack the trauma, but dance/movement therapy is unique in the way that we heal trauma through movement in the therapeutic relationship.
There’s playfulness and spontaneity in the way you connect to your therapist through movement. This helps your nervous system regulate and stay calm even in times of stress or remembering a traumatic event. This doesn’t mean that you shut down a feeling that comes up. With dance therapy, you get the opportunity to MOVE through the FEAR and signal to your body that you CAN stay present and engaged even when old triggers come up.
Create new neural pathways through movement and dance.
You can break old, stubborn unhealthy patterns as you try on new behaviors and expressions in your body through movement. This happens in a way that talking often cannot achieve. Learning new behaviors through your physical body is more effective than repeating to a talk therapist how you want to theoretically change.
Even if your mind’s intention to change is strong, your body will keep doing the same old thing until it knows HOW to change.
The body is our vehicle for all actions, behaviors, and literal movements. For example, if you want to be more open with your partner, but your physical body is closed – your body will win and the behavior will not change.
As you create change on a whole-body level, you create change in your brain. New neural pathways are formed by repeating new, healthier behaviors. Eventually, your new behaviors become so embedded in your wiring that you don’t even have to think about how to open up to your partner. It just happens naturally and easily.
Dance movement therapy is way more fun than talking about the past!
Are you tired of telling the same old stories about your past? I don’t blame you. It’s heavy, it’s not fun, and it gets tiring when you gain cognitive awareness but don’t see REAL changes in your patterns.
Just because you suffered through your trauma doesn’t mean you have to suffer through your healing. Stop putting off fun and joy because you haven’t healed yet! You can have fun AND heal at the same time. Your nervous system will thank you for this.
If your body and soul are getting excited just at the thought of healing through this unique way, then why not try dance therapy to heal your trauma?
Dance movement therapy heals trauma quickly and effectively without negative patterns repeating in your life and relationships.
If you’re tired of talking about what happened to you, and you’d like to finally heal through an enjoyable process, then it’s important that you first prepare your body & nervous system for this transformation.
Sign up for my online course (ranges from free to $20 USD) to begin a unique, body-based learning experience that will teach you:
- Science-backed education about how trauma is stored in your body and nervous system. You’ll gain an understanding why it has NOT been your fault you haven’t healed yet from past trauma.
- Gentle, guided body-based movement that is necessary for integrated healing. This is crucial if you want your mind’s intentions to match your body’s behaviors in relationships.
- An embodied approach to healing that has helped hundreds of clients break unhealthy relationship patterns and let in healthy, lasting love.
