My core training in dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) was the foundation for how I understand humanistic integration in my work and what I now bring into psychotherapy and supervision. The training integrated several frameworks and emphasised the creative role of curiosity and a ‘not knowing’ position, a respect for difference, and an appreciation of the effects of mutual influences in relationships.

 

DMP taught me that psychotherapy is not only something that happens through words, but something that happens through the whole person, through body, movement, emotion, imagination and relationship. Because DMP is inherently embodied and relational, it grounded my practice in a deep appreciation of body-mind integration, embodied memory, emotional expression and kinaesthetic empathy.

 

These constituent elements remain present in my clinical work but, over time, I have also expanded onto other psychotherapeutic approaches to develop a more explicitly integrative approach. This has been part of my professional growth: recognising that integration is not about moving away from my DMP base, but allowing it to continue to evolve as the core of a wider therapeutic orientation. My interventions and interpretations are influenced by humanistic psychotherapy with a special emphasis on the person-centred approach, relational approaches and process-oriented psychology.

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In some spaces I describe myself as an embodied (movement) psychotherapist, and this identity has developed in response to making my approach more accessible and inclusive for people who might find the idea of dancing ‘off-putting’ or threatening in their embodied expression. My practice invites a broad continuum of embodiment, from subtle sensation and gesture through to movement, creative expression, art-making and language. My core DMP training also offered an integrative approach to practice which encouraged me to privilege neither language nor movement but to work with both equally and according to the context. 

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Within relational thinking, the emphasis on the creative potential of the therapeutic relationship, and the way both therapist and client contribute to the change process, resonates deeply with my embodied training. I understand therapy as a 'two-persons space' - two minds, two moving bodies - where supervision becomes a vital place to reflect on how the therapist is part of the relational field. This has supported me in moving away from models where the therapist is positioned as the authority, and towards an approach which values multiplicity, mutuality and shared meaning. In supervision, this translates into what I offer supervisees: a space that is both supportive and enquiring, grounded in humanistic values and embodied awareness. I encourage supervisees to stay close to lived experience (their clients' and their own) and to notice what is happening in the body-mind and in the relationship. I aim to support supervisees to work creatively and integratively, helping them to reflect not only on technique but on presence, process and the relational dynamics that shape therapy.

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