Alex Owen has an ADA of the performing arts (Southern Cross) and a Grad Dip. of movement and Dance (Melbourne). She has twenty years experience as a speech pathologist, and is currently at Queensland Government disability operations. She has taught dance to children and adults for twelve years and works privately as a dance movement specialist.

Certificate in Dance Movement Therapy IDTIA, Grad Dip Movement and Dance Melb UniADA Performing ArtsLismore CEA, Practising Member Speech Pathology Australia.

Alice Owen trained and worked originally as a Speech Language Pathologist, and has an extensive background both in practicing and teaching creative and improvised dance. By applying her expertise in communication, music, dance and movement, she specialises in working with individuals with severe movement disorders, intellectual impairment, communication disorders and challenging behaviours.  My clients include children and adults with autism, physical disabilities and/or mental health disorders, as well as with adults with movement disorders and dementia.

Her experience also includes adults and children with disabilities, including CP and head injury, autism.

Keywords: dance therapy, autism, Laban Movement Analysis, spontaneous movement, kinaesphere, posture, gait, breath control

Page #: 31

This case study of a man with autism who participated in a dance therapy program over a twelve month period examines his spontaneous dance, comparing two sessions five months apart using scales that were based on Laban movement analysis (LMA). The scales were the movement observation scale by Samuels and Chaiklin (Costonis 1978) and the movement diagnostic scale by Martha Davis (Costonis 1978). A third scale was also devised by the author to indicate improvements in the clients ability to initiate specific movements.

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Keywords
enactment, group consciousness, family therapy, kinaesthetic empathy, professional development, life patterns

Two reflective articles give unique perspectives by participants (Alice, Virginia and Natalie) in the 2 day ‘Weaving the threads’ Conference workshop that was presented by Steve Harvey and Connor Kelly. Moving moments of healing and insight are shared along with experiential processes that could be adapted to family therapy and professional development settings. A descriptive piece embodying the the story with movement, exemplifies the symbolic healing and adaptive potential of story telling and “the many aspects coming into play in the story telling as therapy”. (pp 50-54)

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Keywords
facilitated communication, video analysis, creative writing, Laban Movement Analysis, action research

Alice writes “This paper reports the progress made using dance movement therapy with a nine year old boy with severe autism. The dance movement therapy took place over a seven month period. The boy, whose name is Luke, used and continues to use Facilitated Communication to express himself through typing and his writings from this commentary form an integral part of the report. As Luke’s Speech Pathologist, as well as his dance movement therapist, I worked with him for some time before his behaviour improved to the point where dance movement therapy could became an option. This paper attempts to describe the progress that was evident to me and captured on the video footage. ” (pp 17-21)

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