Marian Chace: Kinesthetic Empathy
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Unit: Marian Chace
Theme: Kinesthetic Empathy
Introduction
Created in the 1940s by Marian Chace, dance/movement therapy (DMT) is a psychotherapeutic practice. .The term 'Chacian circle comes from Marian Chace's approach to Dance Movement therapy. Since she created this approach, the Chacian Circle has become a very frequent and popular way of doing group therapy by DM therapists. Today's class introduces Marian Chace as the creator of the field of Dance Therapy in the East Coast.
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Learning Objectives
- Understand the importance of making eye contact
- Explain why the term reflecting is more accurate than mirroring when using it in Dance Movement Therapy.
- Gain an awareness of attunement & kinesthetic empathy
- Experience what would be like to be a client or therapist through role playing
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Check In
IV
Main Lesson
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Video
Dr. Arredondo is an expert on neurological or
mental dysfunction and gauging the contribution of those causes to an
individual's emotional, vocational, family, serving the greater San Francisco metropolitan area including San Jose,
Silicon Valley and the Peninsula. He is a treating clinician also
provides psychotherapy for adults including those who struggle with
divorce, depression, anxiety, chemical dependency, substance abuse and a
wide range of other personal and interpersonal issues. He is a graduate
of Harvard College (cum laude) and Harvard Medical School.
In addition to his private practice, he has helped organizations develop effective models of service delivery for disenfranchised and underserved children and families facing multiple adversities. His primary focus is the transferring of knowledge of childhood development, autism, the effects of emotional trauma, and current thinking about the importance of human connectedness to practitioners from multiple disciplines. He is an experienced psychologist.
He is also the founding director of The Children's Program, Solomon, Compassionate Neuroscience and The Office of Child Development. An author, expert witness, lecturer, and consultant, David's work has been featured in the New Yorker, PBS and NPR; He has testified on behalf of children for the ACLU. Most recently he has translated recent advances in developmental neuroscience into a practice improvement model that is child and family friendly.
Question 1
Write your response to the information given in the video in reference to eye to eye contact.
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Article
Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/6/1/14/htm
Mirroring
Although mirroring is
generally defined as the subconscious replication of another person's
nonverbal signals, in Dance/Movement Therapy, mirroring or reflecting
other person's movement is a conscious attempt at developing a
connection with that person through the language of the body. Mirroring
is the preliminary step in understanding atunement and kinesthetic
empathy.
Question 2
Why would you say some therapists prefer to use the term reflecting as opposed to mirroring.
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Attunement
Attunement: The results of the study show that successful attunement in dance movement therapy draws
the client's attention to the present moment; it encourages individual
spontaneity, playfulness, and creativity; promotes embodiment, and thus
the integration of mind and body.
Question 3
What exercise from class would you classify as an example of attunement?
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Marian Chace
Marian
Chace is one of the founders of modern dance therapy. She was born 31
October 1896 in Providence, Rhode Island. She thought of herself first
as a dancer and maintained that one needed to have the art form well
integrated within oneself in order to then make use of it as a
therapeutic modality. From her own experiences, she extrapolated those
concepts and principles which are basic to facilitating therapeutic
change.
She
understood the essence of the art form of dance and how it relates to
the needs of human beings for communication and understanding. Her
ability to observe these communications in movement led to responses
that answered confusion and isolation.
Chace
offered dignity and compassion in surroundings bereft of such. Her
intuitive trust of the body and its expression in movement led to a way
of thinking that evolved into structures that could be taught to
others.
She was a woman of conviction and courage and she unflinchingly shared her truths despite personal insecurities. She died on July 19, 1970.
Question 4
Who was Marian Chace?
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Contributions to DMT
One
of the important ideas that Chace evolved was that tensions and
distortions of the body are reflections of traumatic experience.
However,
there is a relationship between change and readiness for change and
“only when he is ready for it will it become meaningful to him and
effect a change in his body image…”
She
understood that movement was symbolic of the unconscious and by
reflecting and building on the movement offered, the patient could begin
to claim the expression as his own and explore new possibilities.
She
understood how to integrate the verbal and non-verbal in a way that
flowed one to the other without awkward shifts. Her use of kinesthetic
empathy was basic to the process.
These
principles and structures have since been elaborated on by others and
modified to meet different problems. However, her vision of dance as
therapy and the concepts she evolved, remain core precepts which can be
applied to behavioral theory.
Question 5
Which contribution you think was the most important for the field of Dance Therapy?
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A Note to Remember
Making
eye contact leads clients and therapists to establish a deep
connection. Doing so makes it easier to reflect on each other's
movements as clients express feelings, images and traumatic memories
through their bodies. Reflecting the movement of clients allows the
therapist to attune to the clients' movements and what they express.
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Case Study
Danielle Fraenkel
Dr. Danielle L. Fraenkel founded Kinections in 1984 to bring dance/movement therapy to people struggling with eating disorders, depression, creative blocks, etc. Dr. Fraenkel teaches GSWS 242 - Dance/Movement Therapy Foundations at the University of Rochester (U of R) in Rochester, New York.
Kinesthetic Empathy
Question 6
According to Danielle Fraenkel, why is kinesthetic empathy the keystone of Dance Movement Therapy?
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Activity 1
1.
Find a private space in the room, close your eyes, focus on your
breath, and begin to express in movement what you feel, what you think,
what you sense.
2. Continue moving. Identify movement that repeats and establish that movement as a motif or theme.
3. Expand on that movement and make it bigger, more abstract, a movement metaphor.
4. Keep that movement metaphor handy to use it in the next part of the exercise.
5. Find a partner. Take turns to role play. One plays
therapist and the other plays client. Use the concepts discussed by
Danielle Fraenkel to create a muck session in which you join,
reflect, echo, your partners' themes in movement through attunement and
kinesthetic empathy.
6.
Sit down together to verbally reflect on the experience through
dialoguing with each other. Write about it and post it on Discussion
Board.
7. Share with the class your experience.
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VIII
Journaling
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Glossary
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Sources
David Arredondo. https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidarredondo?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
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Students' Work
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