WE ARE BORN TO MOVE. Every heartbeat and every breath we take from the moment we enter the world activates and settles our bodies. In trauma-informed practice, including somatic body work and dance and movement therapy, we learn how to awaken our bodies and emotions when they’ve become shut down, and how to settle our system when it has become overwhelmed. We’re born to move, but how we move is dependent on us as individuals and our circumstances.
Building trust through shared power Dance Movement Therapy has no end goal in terms of learning steps or improving technique. It is very much guided by the group with a big focus on building trust and a safe environ- ment. A therapeutic contract and guiding rules for the space are agreed on from the beginning by the whole group, including the therapist. These are not static but change as the group evolves. There is no classic hierar- chy of the teacher and their students, everyone is equal including the thera- pist. Power dynamics are a particularly important aspect of Amna’s identi- ty-informed approach which under- pins all our work. All sessions begin with a check in to see what energy, feelings and emotions participants are bringing to the space. It can be verbal or use movement as well. Then, depending on the responses, the therapist invites engagement through movement activities. Group members always have a choice about how and if they participate. The group also has freedom to use the space with little intervention from the therapist and are invited to improvise, play, dance, move together and explore how and what they need, being led by their bodies. The sessions close with a check out, an opportunity to reflect and give mean- ing to what happened during the ses- sion, verbally, through art or through movement again. The therapist is there to support without making their own interpretations or judgements.
and where is dependent on each per- son and community. That’s why Dance Movement Therapy must also be used with respect to the uniqueness of each person’s pace, particular needs and cir- cumstances. Amna means “safe and
by the group with the support of the therapist, group members often leave the session feeling a sense of release, reporting feeling lighter emotionally and physically, with more clarity of mind and openness in their bodies.
War is dislocating Amna is an organization dedicated to supporting the psychosocial wellbeing of refugees and other displaced com- munities. Our story began in 2016 on the border of Greece and North Macedonia where thousands of refu- gees had become stranded. We set up a tent and started providing therapeu- tic group sessions for men, women and children who experienced vio- lence, displacement and torture. As refugees continued to arrive, we grew to meet the need of displaced commu- nities in Greece. We worked in camps and community centres with refugees and psychosocial experts to develop our current programming – nonclin- ical community-based interventions that help people who have experi- enced violence and forced displace- ment feel safer again. 100 million people are forcibly dis- placed around the world 1 , a new and grim record. Those who are forcibly displaced are more likely to suffer from PTSD, depression and anxiety symptoms. 2 Throughout their dis- placement and journeys to safety, ref- ugees are repeatedly traumatised and retraumatised. The compounding lay- ers of stress experienced through liv- ing in a war zone, having to make the decision to leave your home, country and loved ones, unknown perilous journeys and hostile experiences in transit and host countries, can result in trauma responses that leave refugees feeling unsafe in their own bodies. 1 https://www.unhcr.org/news/ press/2022/5/628a389e4/unhcr-ukraine-other-con- flicts-push-forcibly-displaced-total-100-million.html 2 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/de- tail/mental-health-and-forced-displacement
Trauma can impact our ability to cope with daily life even when in a relatively safe environment. This is because, unless it’s released, trauma can continue to live on in our bodies following a traumatic event, causing a part of us to remain in the past, reliving fear and our trauma response. Without the right support, refugees can live with unpro- cessed trauma throughout their lives. Joy, playfulness, creativity and con- fidence can become casualties to trauma. People may feel an injured version of themselves even after they’ve arrived in a place of relative safety. We saw this clearly through the stories told in our SADA story- telling project – the emotional impact of displacement is huge and so often misunderstood.
Movement practices have long been recommended to help deal with psy- chological challenges. Exercise can release serotonin, a mood ‘stabiliser’ or so-called ‘happy chemical’. Mov- ing in communities – whether dancing, drumming, or group bonding activities involving movement in a collective – are practices that promote expression, connection, release and often process- ing. In many parts of the world, move- ment, music and rhythm are a part of celebration and grief rituals in births, weddings and funerals. Movement therapy can help people connect to, make sense of, and express memories and experiences held in their bodies, helping the body release what is no longer useful. It can help us regain a sense of control, feel seen and recognised, relax, have fun, play and practice ways to ground ourselves when we feel overwhelmed or trig- gered. All of these experiences can help the mind and body to heal. While movement of all forms can help people, Dance Movement Ther- apy is a specific form of movement therapy that is often used at Amna. We work with groups including teenagers, women, men and children, for short or long term interventions, creating a safe space where people can communi- cate, express themselves and heal. The precise tools and ways practices are engaged with is unique in response to the group’s needs, abilities and desires, and how they shape the process and respond to the medium. Dance Move- ment Therapy is a practice that is built around each participant/client and/or group, with respect to each person’s individuality and the collective.
caring” in Arabic. We believe, when worked with in a safe and caring, trau- ma-sensitive and identity-informed way, the impact of Dance Movement Therapy can be life-changing. GABRIELLA BRENT is Amna’s Head of Pro- grammes and a transpersonal counsellor and psychotherapist. She oversees Amna’s training and capacity strengthening programmes; Baytna, Dinami, therapeutic work with men and wom- en and Amna’s humanitarian wellbeing capaci- ty-building work - providing training and wellbe- ing support to other humanitarian organisations working with refugees. Before working with Amna, Gabriella worked across the UK piloting and im- plementing more humane and trauma-informed models of care. MARIANNA FIOTAKI is a freelance Dance and Movement Therapist. She runs psychosocial and healing groups for youth and women and is pas- sionate about developing psychosocial support spaces in respectful, equitable contexts, where the community is the central agent and holds the power. She has worked with groups at risk of social exclusion in various settings, from daycare centres to hospitals. Marianna is currently studying Exis- tential Psychotherapy and has a Master´s degree in Dance Movement Therapy.
In one session we used movement to explore strength and vulnerabil- ity. Together we connected with each part of our body to understand what it means to be strong in our legs, our feet, our hands and so on. We ended in a pose that we called our ‘statue of strength’. It was a breakthrough ses- sion for one of our group members who began to find clarity in the dif- ferent meanings of strength and the expectations that she had attached to strength. She shared that she felt she had lost her confidence and through this exercise was able to start recon- necting with her body and mind. We continued working with her to explore how to incorporate this in her every- day life, through ‘confident’ poses and other ways she can bring this sensation into her body. Everything in life is movement. Our bodies are always moving, even when we think we are still, our organs and breath continue moving and keep us alive. We’re born to move but how
Reconnecting and releasing through movement
At Amna, dance, movement and work- ing with rhythm are some of the psy- chosocial tools we use, and train oth- ers to use, to promote healing from trauma. Marianna is a freelance Dance Movement Therapist and for- mer Amna facilitator and Gabriella is Head of Programmes at Amna. Together, we’ve seen the dislocating impact that war and displacement can have on people’s bodies. Many of the communities we’ve worked with describe pains in their bodies, a somatisation of the grief and loss they continue to experience. The field of epi-genetics research shows that our memories and experiences are stored in every cell of our body and can be passed across generations.
Recovering confidence and reshaping lives
Dance Movement Therapy can be a powerful tool for healing. Our bodies are affected by our experiences even if we are not conscious of it. In our experiences running Dance Movement Therapy groups, we’ve seen groups have moments of intense expression emotionally, mentally and physically as they process emotions that were hidden deep inside themselves. When these experiences can be safely held
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In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
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