Dance movement psychotherapy

Dr Jill Bunce has been researching the therapeutic impact of dance movement psychotherapy on people suffering from Parkinson's disease, and body awareness and self-esteem in young people.

Dance and Parkinson's

Coordinated by Jill Bunce, this project addresses aspects of the care and treatment of Parkinson’s. In what is a novel approach, it also seeks to examine the potential of dance movement therapy to enhance quality of life and wellbeing in patients.

Jill has been furthering our knowledge of the therapeutic impact of dance movement psychotherapy through research over the past ten years. During 2012-13, Jill built on her body of work investigating the effects of dance movement psychotherapy on people suffering with Parkinson’s disease.

Working with the Stafford District and the East Midlands branches of Parkinson’s UK, Jill has found that dance movement psychotherapy can be used to alleviate and ‘treat’ some of the physical symptoms of the disease, which can include shaking, slowness of movement and rigidity.

However, sufferers of the disease also suffer from psychological symptoms such as depression, pain, and in some cases, hallucinations.

“The psychological symptoms of Parkinson’s are as destructive as the physical ones,” said Jill. “We are currently developing a research project in which, by working on the body-mind relationship through dance movement psychotherapy, we hope to be able to alleviate some of the psychological symptoms of Parkinson’s as well as the physical ones.”

Gestalt psychotherapy and dance movement therapy 

Paul Rickets continues to develop his body of work examining the impact of professional and self-reflective practice on teaching and learning in higher education. 

Moving Forces 

This project is the collaboration of a team of researchers, academics and practitioners wishing to investigate the effects of dance movement therapy on quality of life, wellbeing and mental health in former UK service personnel. The project aims to evidencedDance movement therapy’s ability to provide a positive wellbeing experience by reducing social withdrawal and anxiety, easing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) symptoms and the reduction of pain. 

Young people's self-esteem

Jill, along with a student on the Masters in Dance Movement Psychotherapy degree and colleagues at Staffordshire University, currently have papers in press on a second strand of research: the impact of a pilot dance movement psychotherapy intervention on young people’s body awareness and self-esteem.

Following a dance movement psychotherapy session, the young participants gave accounts of the experience in focus groups and interviews. Their accounts were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis and themes were identified.

“We found that the dance movement psychotherapy session impacted positively on these young men and women’s body image, leading them to feel more connected to their bodies, freer and less self-conscious, and more accepting of their bodies after the session. It seemed to be equally effective for both the young men and women,” added Jill.