[Adta] Response to Heather, Lora re: neuroscience

Sat Oct 6 19:30:47 EDT 2007

Dani - thank you for placing this discussion in its historical context which I found really helpful.  I guess my reason for introducting "ideological hegemony" was also to call on a larger context, in order to make meaning of our particular and individual struggles in our workplaces and in dance therapy generally.

Thank you for your inspiring words and a strong statement about the heart of the work of dance therapy.

Best wishes,
Heather
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kinections 
  To: adta at adta.org 
  Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 1:48 AM
  Subject: Re: [Adta] Response to Heather, Lora re: neuroscience

  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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