[Adta] Response to Heather, Lora re: neuroscience

Sat Oct 6 11:48:16 EDT 2007

Jenn and Lora, (and everyone else too),

Much of the frustration that you express is just how I felt in 1974 when 
I read an article in Psychology Today extolling the virtues of 
Neurolinguistic Programming and its brilliant use of mirroring to build 
relationships. I had been in the first class at Hunter (1971-1973) and 
did not understand why the writers had failed to say anything about the 
mother ship, dance/movement therapy. I mention this to show that our 
field's drive for acknowledgment and acceptance by others is not new, 
and that this (the mirror neuron discovery) is not the first time we 
have been upstaged. Sadly, DMT is the only profession I know of where 
people new to the field continue to think of themselves as pioneers. 
(How many of your remember Elissa White's Chace lecture, Always a 
Showcase, Never a Star?)

I agree. This is a vital discussion; however we must put it in context. 
The struggle to get people to understand and accept dance/movement 
therapy (dmt) as a bona fide method of  assessment and intervention is, 
as I said, not new.  Initially located in recreation departments, having 
only a few mainstream supporters in psychiatry and psychology (e.g. 
Zwerling, Geller, Davis), and being a profession dominated by women, 
dance/movement therapy got stuck in the basement--literally at Overbrook 
Psychiatric in New Jersey. Climbing out of that basement has not been 
easy. I remember, for example, the days in the late 70's early 80's, 
when I earned $2.34 an hour bringing dmt to elders at Senior Centers in 
Rochester, NY, and that was with a master's degree in dance/movement 
therapy from Hunter and three years of dmt work experience in and around 
NYC.

Penny Bernstein tried to help us out of the basement by writing books 
that highlighted the many theoretical frameworks that dmt could hold. 
She and others saw this as a route to legitimization. If we could show 
how dance/movement therapy literally embodied a spectrum of 
psychological constructs, people would recognize the field. That 
backfired. Instead of becoming more accepted, dance/movement therapists 
began thinking about themselves as vehicles for embodying the 
psychological constructs to which they adhered. Eager to please and to 
have a bigger tent, we took another step in 1984 that, in my view, 
diffused the pioneers' belief in the healing inherent in dance. We 
changed our name from dance therapy to dance/movement therapy.  Add the 
quest for research to the search for legitimization, and we find the 
dance in dance/movement therapy sitting back stage, appearing only in a 
few key articles.

Now we are jumping on the neuroscience band wagon--me included.  I, too, 
read Damasio's books and became, Jenn, what you named a "neuro-phile." 
I  went to Alan Schore seminars and read his articles.  I was on an old 
path. As long ago as the late 70's  I looked to other mainstream 
professionals for support, e.g. Barrett-Lennard a counselor who 
introduced the word resonance into the counseling literature in the 
early 70's. Barertt-Lenard's brilliant article on the cyclical stages of 
empathy, an article that captures the essence of our field's 
cornerstone--movement empathy--made me feel validated just as mirror 
neurons are doing for us today. Eventually, though,  I realized that I 
had to look at the healing inherent in dance itself.  Support from other 
disciplines, whether psychology, counseling, or neuroscience can 
buttress our work, but we still have to look at the dance itself.

Just as our clients have to learn that healing ultimately rests within 
themselves, dance/movement therapists must remember that it is the 
healing inherent in dance that makes our profession unique.  This is 
especially  true now that body psychotherapies have become so popular. 
While they may understand the importance of mirror neurons and the 
relationship between the plasticity of the brain and attachment issues, 
body psychotherapies do not address the creative and aesthetic processes 
that characterize dance/movement therapy. Nor do they look at the 
elements of dance movement, the relationship between dance and music, or 
the powerhouse of skills that dancers as performers, teachers, and 
choreographers bring to the facilitative process.

Dani Fraenkel
______________________________________________
Danielle L. Fraenkel, Ph.D., ADTR, NCC, LCAT, LMHC
Director
Kinections http://www.kinections.com
at Imagine Square
718 University Avenue
Rochester, NY 14607
USA
Tel: 585.473.5050
Tel &  FAX: 585.442.8499

Jenn Frank wrote:

> What a great discussion we've got going here! 
>  
> .....
>  
> I have become quite a neuro-phile as of late, and I've been wondering, 
> like Heather, why we feel the need to somehow prove something to the 
> neuroscientists.  (If that is what you meant, Heather?). We do have so 
> much more to offer in research styles, etc...do we have to jump on the 
> bandwagon? 
>  
> Well...It couldn't hurt, could it?
>  
> It makes me furious that some guy (okay, a really smart guy whose 
> worked on this stuff for decades) comes up with the word, "mirror 
> neurons" when Dance Therapists have been using the term, "mirroring" 
> for fifty years!!!  Something is wrong with this picture.
>  
> I think we owe ourselves, as progressive, intelligent and creative 
> professionals, the opportunity to find a way into this world to make 
> ourselves known; not because we already know this stuff, but because 
> we can add to it! 
>  
> Neuroscience is still studying the movement within the brain 
> (attachment, as it is processed inside the brain, etc...). We're 
> already using the clinical application of movement of the body. 
>  
> Proprioceptive memory is our greatest asset as dance therapists, and 
> they haven't even touched it yet!  Let's find a way to work together!  
> I think that we'll all benefit from it...
>  
> OKay.  Off my soapbox.  Anyone else?
>  
> ~Jenn
>  
>  
> Heather wrote:
>  
>
>  
>
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