What is therapy?
Summary:
Confidentiality is at the heart of therapy. Therapists may never disclose any aspect of what goes on inside a therapy session. This article attempts to demystify the therapeutic relationship and the respective roles of therapist as supportive guide and client as expert in their own experiences. In Dance Movement Therapy, the shift towards client-led processes requires safety, openness, and awareness of broader systemic influences.
What does a therapist do?
Thousands of studies have explored what makes therapy, and a therapist, effective.
Dance Movement Therapy (Movement Therapy) also researches particular effect factors at play in this modality.
Movement Therapy is changing, belatedly recognising that it owes a debt to earlier forms of traditional and community-based healing.
It is also recognising that mental health systems can themselves commit harm (iatrogenic trauma).
As a therapist concerned with how power shows up inside and outside of the therapy room, I am glad that Movement Therapy models often prioritise and support client-led process and observation. In these approaches, informed by phenomenology, cognitive science and other disciplines, the therapist is a kind of “midwife” (a term coined by Christine Caldwell)whose role is to support the restoration of the client’s own bodily authority.
Most researchers agree that, whatever the modality, one of if not the most important element is the quality of the therapeutic relationship.
Below are some thoughts on the role of therapy, the therapist and therapeutic relationship, and the client.
Caption: a close-up image of a peacock feather. Credit Michelle Kirby.
In my current understanding
therapy
holds space for emergence (allowing what is present to emerge and unfold) and awe
is a space in which to practice new actions and ways of being
has certain structures to create safety, such as boundaries of time and place and so on, within which there is radically openness on the part of the therapist to support the client
the client
is the expert of their own life and experience
decides whether or not therapy feels safe
gets to consent, or not, to interventions that are offered within the context of a therapeutic relationship to support client growth
has a worldview that must be honoured that expresses in thoughts, embodiment and feelings
should be supported by the therapist working in partnership to discover, define and reach their goals (for therapy and perhaps for life)
should be supported to access and embody agency, knowing and restoration
needs a therapist that stays informed about their cultural, social, political, legal and economic background
is embedded in wider systems that act, directly and indirectly, in ways that impact client experiences, lives, embodiment and choices in different ways
the therapist
works with openness, curiosity, playfulness, whole body listening, compassionate acceptance and not-knowing, as the basic ground for therapy
protects the creative process from interference or disturbance (such as unhelpful thoughts) (‘creative attunement’)
is responsible for keeping safe structure (timing, place, space, pace)
provides clarity about the mechanics of therapy (payment, place, etc)
works with awareness of embodied state (thoughts, feelings, sensations and associations)
brings radical honesty into relationship
remains creatively resourced
continually undertakes their own personal work and supervision
remains open to feedback, growth and the need to change
adheres to ethical and professional codes of practice and other legal/moral obligations
remains connected to, and works within a context of/appreciation for, culture and community - healing is inter-dependent
works with continuous awareness of how oppression, power, privilege impact their practice and the embodied relationship
models self-compassion and self-acceptance.
the therapeutic relationship
is designed to be the safe container within which therapy occurs
