The Impact of Touch in Dance Movement Psychotherapy

A presentation of clinical outcomes that demonstrate significant new insights into the value of touch to the therapeutic process.

In this book, dance movement psychotherapist Katy Dymoke presents an in-depth case study of work with a client with a profound learning disability. The research stems from a postdoctoral thesis sponsored by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, where Dymoke was employed at the time of the clinical outcomes relayed in The Impact of Touch in Dance Movement Psychotherapy.

The volume includes transcripts of the session content; descriptions of how incidents of touch were initiated and undertaken within the process; subsequent categorizations of the incidents of touch as self-directed, passive, or reciprocal; and commentary and discussion of the therapeutic process. As we see, the incidents of touch contribute to the client’s process of mental distress, trauma, lack of capacity, and more.

Finally, Dymoke includes sections on the ethical issues of this work in the NHS, on doing research with such a client group, and on the theoretical models that emerged.