title: The role of dance movement psychotherapy for expression and integration of the self in palliative care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore clients' experiences of dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) in a day hospice setting.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  DMP is a creative arts therapy, enabling people to use movement to express themselves and promote physical, emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing. This is the first known research about DMP in palliative care in the UK.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case study approach explored four clients' experiences of DMP in depth.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants' ill bodies had become obstacles to them expressing their sense of self. The safe therapeutic conditions, gentle movement, music, words and props in DMP enabled them to express interconnected physical and emotional pain and loss of sense of self. DMP enabled them to reintegrate with their estranged bodies, releasing tension by expressing themselves as a whole person.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Wider practice of DMP could relieve holistic pain by enabling people with terminal illnesses to express a complete sense of who they are as a human being.
authors.affiliation: Dance Movement Psychotherapist, Weston Hospicecare, UK.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Woolf
authors.affiliation: Course Director, Dance Voice Therapy and Education Centre, Bristol, UK, a collaborative partner of Canterbury Christ Church University.
authors.forename: Pam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fisher
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003614:Dance Therapy; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000523:psychology*; D011613:Psychotherapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Dance movement; Hospice; Palliative; Psychotherapy; Self-identity; Therapy; Total pain