Dance/Movement Therapy: About the Program

"Students learn to encourage movement responses and interaction from patients and clients in individual or group settings using movement improvisation."

Established in 1974, the 60-semester-hour Dance/Movement Therapy program is approved by the American Dance Therapy Association. Didactic, clinical, and supervisory aspects are balanced to provide a foundation of theoretical knowledge and practical application. The curriculum integrates knowledge of dance/movement therapy with current theory and approaches to assessment, and treatment. Faculty members are selected for their knowledge of and interest in the field and for their ability to assist students in integrating creative arts therapies with general mental health practices. Through observation and intervention techniques, coupled with an understanding of pertinent literature in dance/movement therapy, students acquire expertise in eliciting client responses and addressing those responses with an organized, systematic, and purposeful approach. All three Creative Arts Therapy disciplines stress the importance of the therapist's function on a treatment team and recognize that his or her expertise often contributes understanding that may be difficult to obtain through strictly verbal treatment approaches.

Dance/movement therapists use Laban Movement Analysis and other movement systems in evaluating individual and group functioning. They may design tasks structured to foster group interaction and cohesiveness or to guide an individual through a personal conflict or issue.

The program stresses the importance of the art therapist’s functioning as part of a socio-cultural and organizational system. This philosophy emphasizes cultivation of the student’s awareness of how dance/movement therapy services might be compatible within a particular facility or agency culture as well as considering the adaptation of dance/movement therapy approaches to culturally diverse populations.  Within this context, the dance/movement therapist can often contribute to the recovery of the patient/client by  presenting pertinent information gathered in the dance/movement therapy process to the  treatment team and in some cases family members, social service agencies, and healthcare providers.

The program places equal emphasis on the art and the science of dance/movement therapy. Dance/movement therapy is defined as the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process that furthers the individual's emotional, cognitive, social, and physical integration. The goal of the program is to graduate clinicians who can work with sensitivity, empathy, and intuition while exercising their skills, sound judgment, and theoretical knowledge. The program focuses on developing and integrating the students' personal, cognitive, and movement resources so that they can facilitate access to those resources in clients.

Program components include:

• Experienced and dedicated faculty who are active in clinical practice and who contribute their expertise to the educational process.
• Ongoing integration of theory and practice in both the classroom and clinical education setting.
• Specialty elective coursework in medical applications of dance/movement therapy.
• Learning enrichment derived from interaction with students and faculty from other creative arts therapy disciplines. 
• Clinical education experience in three different clinical settings, with Drexel University’s affiliates throughout Philadelphia and the tri-state area.
• Research opportunities guided by a selected multidisciplinary advisory committee.
• Opportunity to audit dance classes in Drexel’s undergraduate dance program and to choreograph and perform with the Drexel Dance Ensemble.
• An extensive, automated library system and computer labs with free internet access for students.