Elizabeth Loughlin

Keywords: dance movement therapy, health content relevance, documented practice study

Page #: 12

The article considers how to preserve the arts therapy in institutional and community contexts and how to communicate its outcomes. It asks the question: how do we sustain the dance arts programs in the settings that traditionally employ allied health and education professionals? How do we communicate the actions of the dance arts to those who are not familiar with the arts eld or its therapeutic interventions? The author will respond to these questions, drawing on the notion of the ‘liminal space’ and its ‘liminal space boundary’. She will first describe the broad outcomes arising from her dance movement therapy practice and associated creative arts interventions over twenty years in two different hospital contexts, a paediatric medical clinic, and a mental health clinic for mothers and infants; secondly she will examine other Australian dance movement therapy practice through a Grounded Theory study of articles in the Dance Therapy Association of Australia publications: DTAA Newsletter, 2001 and DTAA Moving On, 2002-2014. Loughlin proposes that key to the future of dance movement therapy is the use of the visible outcomes, and the communication of their relevance to the core business of the institutional and community contexts.

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Keywords: Dance therapy, mother-infant, Winnicott, holding, affect attunement, aesthetic moment

Page #: 37

The article describes significant aspects of dance therapy for mothers and infants who are experiencing difficulties in their relationship. It examines how the pychodynamic notions of “holding” (Winnicott) and “selective affect attunement” (Stern) direct the dance therapy intervention. It outlines how Bollas’ transforming “aesthetic moment” may account for the emotional and different physical patterns of relating that occur within the shared dance between mother and infant.

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Keywords: Winnicott, good-enough mother, potential space, mirroring, mother-baby dance, holding environment,

Page #: 4

This article discusses D.W. Winnicot’s seminal concepts regarding development of a sense of self for both the infant and mother, and implications of these for mother and baby dance groups. The article describes the process of mirroring and identification that occurs between mother and baby and possibilities for supporting this process through dance therapy. The concept of potential space is also described as located both in time and place, in which babies are supported to safely transition to a sense of self as separate from other.

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Keywords: Mahler, separation, individuation, creative dance, parent-infant, early childhood development

Page #: 1

This article focuses on Mahler’s theories regarding the infant’s processes of ‘separation’ and ‘individuation from their primary caregiver, examined in the setting of a parent and child creative dance class as patterns of motility, distancing and rejoining. She discusses key sub-phases that a toddler moves through including initial differentiation, autonomous exploration and a ‘rapprochement’ phase in which the toddlers attention is redirected to his mother (Mahler, Pine and Bergman, 1975:4). Loughlin discusses the implications of these phases for an infant dance class, and important considerations for dance teachers and therapists.

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Keywords
dance therapy, mother-infant therapy, play, Intuitive Mothering, anxiety, postnatal depression

Page #: 70

Intuitive Mothering, an eight week dance therapy program, has evolved as an experiential therapy for infants and their mothers with postnatal depression within a hospital outpatient psychology group program. Key concepts of the Intuitive Mothering model are described: the shared somatic partnership, neurobiological aspects of intuitive learning, and the contribution of mutual play within the liminal space, all of which aim to promote mother-infant responsiveness. Results of an evaluation of the Intuitive Mothering dance therapy intervention demonstrate a reduction in parenting stress, maternal depression and anxiety, and improvement in mother-infant interaction. Discussion of results point to future directions.