Dance/MovementTherapy At Prisim
Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) & Counseling is the psychotherapeutic use of movement to further emotional, social, physical, spiritual, and cognitive integration. It is relies on the principle that the body, mind, and spirit are connected – so to create a shift in one, you may access it through the other. Dancers and non-dancers of all ages can reap the benefits of DMT.
Therapist
Ruchi Shah
Ruchi Shah, MA, R-DMT, is a registered dance/movement therapist & counselor who recently completed her Masters from Columbia College Chicago. Ruchi uses movement as an assessment and intervention tool to further emotional expression, communication, and healing. She believes that healing happens in a non-judgemental and empathic relationship between the therapist and client.
Testimonial
You’re hurtling through space right now, movement is so natural that life would not exist without it. If part of being human is healing, healing can only exist while moving. Thus we find that we have this innate yearning to travel, to find and integrate new parts of our being and soul; in the same way, movement of body is the microcosm of movement of Earth. Not only is it a necessity of individual expression just as being human is a divine expression, but also helps bring to life and move that which is stuck. That which is stored. That which is suppressed. Along with breath work which gives light to what is hidden in a sense, this stuff needs some help in finally moving up and out of the system. (It’s important to be properly guided in this process because not everyone knows how to deal with the ‘overload.’) The movement allows your body to be fluid and with specific sounds your body tends to tune in through movement almost unconsciously to the beat. This movement helps show where we store our emotions (energy-in-motion) and hence allows us to express and release them. I recently learned that this is mirrored in nature – Shamans in the Amazon studied animal of prey and noticed what they did after traumatic events such as being chased at length by a predator or seeing their offspring being hunted down. The key to their healing was specific movement within hours of their trauma – it’s time we looked at dance as not just an expression but also a form of emotional/energetic release buried in movement. I also learned in one of the sessions about urban PTSD, the anxiety of living in urban, over simulated environments. More tools, like DMT, and outlets to cope with these environments and the trauma they may instill are needed. However, this works only with a proper knowledge of the mental processes involved (psychology and neurobiology) as it allows one to use movement therapy in a patient specific, guided manner.