Dance Therapy: Communicating Through One’s Own Body

The relationship between arts and therapy shows itself as a dynamic process that acts at psychological, cognitive and social-relational level, generating an open communication enhanced and supported by the creative, symbolic and metaphorical modalities suggested by arts. The use of arts as a therapy can explore the subject's feelings by reducing his emotional conflicts, stimulating greater awareness and enhancing a better management his of social behaviors. Dance therapy, as a form of art therapy, represents an alternative channel of expression, in which the subject’s psychological and emotional aspects are involved. This type of therapy supports and strengthens the conscious use of one's own body, which takes on the role of main communication and expression channel of one's own emotions and sensations, managing to reach fragments hidden and preserved in every subject. Dance therapy aims at solving certain issues through the body, using it as a means of communication. The body, like the word used in traditional therapy, can represent an intimate channel expressing feelings and emotions: we act on our body to break down certain mental barriers and unleash places hidden by the resistance through a metaphoric, non- verbal language of great emotional and relational impact.