Keywords
dance movement therapy, Australia, dance therapists, Dance Movement Therapy Association of Australia
Page #: 51
Authored by: Kim Dunphy, with T. Hearnes & J. Toumbourou
This article reports the results of a survey of 41 dance movement therapy practitioners in Australia. Issues for dance-movement therapy practice in Australia were investigated within the themes of practitioners; programs and clients; and philosophical and industrial concerns. Overall, it was apparent that the dance-movement therapy profession in Australia is both diverse and homogenous: therapists’ professional orientations and backgrounds, and the types of settings in which they work, are very diverse, but therapists are much more similar in their ages, gender, cultural backgrounds and geographic location. The issues raised by the variation and lack of diversity are discussed, along with possible strategies to address them.