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Guide VIII-085

Trudi Schoop's dance therapy

Trudi Schoop1948Los Angeles, USA
A 31 · L 42 · M 2714 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Trudi Schoop's own clinical approach as she developed it with adult psychiatric (mainly chronically psychotic, schizophrenic) inpatients in California, chiefly at Camarillo State Hospital. Her book is Won't You Join the Dance? A Dancer's Essay into the Treatment of Psychosis (Trudi Schoop with Peggy Mitchell, illustrated by her sister Hedi Schoop; Palo Alto: National Press Books, 1974, ISBN 0-87484-229-8; one UK library record lists Mayfield as publisher). The German edition is ... komm und tanz mit mir! Ein Versuch, dem psychotischen Menschen durch die Elemente des Tanzes zu helfen (1981; reissued Zürich: Hug & Co. Musikverlag, 2007, 167 pp., translated by Marigna Gerig and Ursula Zieschang; dewiki gives 2006). Her clinical team papers are May, Wexler, Salkin & Schoop (1963) on nonverbal techniques for re-establishing body image and self-identity, and Goertzel, May, Salkin & Schoop (1965) on the "body-ego technique". [source: Loughborough University and Palucca Hochschule library records; HLS; NDB; dewiki; Maurer-Groeli 1976 reference list] Sources for the bibliography and the biographical dates include the Swiss and German national biographies (HLS, NDB), the UC Irvine archive finding aid and library catalogues. Schoop's book, the 1963 and 1965 papers and Levy's 1988 chapter on her have no open full text or publisher preview, so no step-by-step protocol by Schoop is available here [uncertain]. The procedures below come from secondary accounts (national biographies, encyclopaedia entries, a thesis abstract, a peer-reviewed seminar report, and a student blog reporting DMT programme teaching) plus clearly marked general dance/movement therapy (DMT) practice. Treat the step-by-step detail as a working reconstruction, not Schoop's manual. Book date: 1974 is given by two library records, dewiki and the reference lists of Chodorow et al. 1999 and Wallock 1983; the NDB's 1972 is the outlier, so this guide uses 1974.

What it is. Trudi Schoop (born 9 October 1903, Zürich; died 14 July 1999, Los Angeles) was a Swiss dancer, mime, choreographer and cabaret performer, often called a female Charlie Chaplin. [source: HLS; NDB; UC Irvine finding aid. English Wikipedia gives 1904, but the two national biographies and the archive agree on 1903.] She toured her comic dance pantomimes internationally in the 1930s and performed with the Cabaret Cornichon during the Second World War. [source: HLS] She then settled in Los Angeles and began dancing with psychiatric patients at Camarillo, one of the largest American psychiatric hospitals. [source: NDB] English Wikipedia adds that UCLA neuropsychiatrists who reviewed her ideas recommended her there [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Sources differ on dates: she settled in Los Angeles in 1947 (UC Irvine finding aid; Wikipedia), after her husband's death in 1951 (NDB) or in 1952 (HLS); the HLS dates her dance therapy work from 1957, a Russian encyclopedia from 1948. [uncertain] She had no formal psychological or clinical training at first and developed her approach with Tina Keller-Jenny, drawing on C. G. Jung and Toni Wolff. [source: dewiki, single source; uncertain] From 1972 she also worked in clinics, gave courses and wrote up her experience in Switzerland. [source: NDB] She is counted among the founding "mothers" of DMT with Franziska Boas, Marian Chace, Liljan Espenak and Mary Whitehouse. [source: dewiki; Wojcieszuk 2004 lists her with Chace, Espenak and Whitehouse] It is a historical, founder-centred approach rather than a manualised therapy. Its ideas live on through DMT training and colleagues such as Joan Chodorow, who worked with her in the 1960s. [source: Wikipedia; Pallaro & Fischlein-Rupp 2002] Her papers are held at the Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln. [source: NDB]

Core idea of change. Schoop saw psychosis as being partly lived in the body: withdrawal, a split or fragmented body image, rigid or collapsed posture, and loss of contact. Her method gave structure to the body image as it unfolds in movement and then moved on to improvisation from the patient's own material. [source: Wojcieszuk 2004] By moving with others, patients could join the fragmented images of their body into one whole that works by constantly balancing between relaxation and tension, restoring their connection with themselves and the world. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Cyclowiki; Znanie Russia encyclopedia "Танцевальная терапия", citing Suprunenko 2011] Movement and bodily expression would draw them out of isolation and bring them into communication. [source: NDB] The titles of her 1963 and 1965 team papers name the same targets: body image, self-identity and the "body ego". [source: Maurer-Groeli 1976 reference list; the papers' content is uncertain] She believed dance had helped her overcome her own childhood fears, and that belief shaped the work. [source: NDB] She was among the first to bring depth-psychological theory into dance. [source: psychotherapeutensuche.de]

2. Framework

No published phase model by Schoop is available [uncertain]; her book (1974; German 1981) and Levy's 1988 chapter on her, the likeliest places for one, have no open text. A 1994 Ewha Womans University thesis reviewed the early pioneers (Chace, Evan, Espenak, Whitehouse, Schoop). It identified three stages their sessions shared, and this guide uses them as the working framework [source: Lee 1994, abstract]. A 2004 seminar report likewise describes her method as first structuring the body image in movement and then moving to improvisation from personal material [source: Wojcieszuk 2004]:

  1. Body awareness and loosening. Goal: arrival, safety, waking up the body, reducing rigidity. Schoop's focus on "educating" the patient's body sits here. [source: Lee 1994]
  2. Emotional warm-up. Goal: let feeling enter movement through rhythm, dynamics, posture and shared group movement.
  3. More complex improvisation. Goal: expressive and imaginative movement (Schoop's "Inner Fantasy" work), in which repressed material is externalised and given form. [source: Lee 1994]

These stages work at two levels. Within one session they form the arc of warm-up, theme and improvisation, then closure. Across treatment they move from contact and body awareness, through expanding the range of expression, to symbolic and fantasy work. [synthesis]

Format. Schoop worked mainly in inpatient psychiatric settings, chiefly Camarillo, with chronically psychotic patients, in groups and individually. [source: NDB; dewiki] Her session count, length and frequency are not documented in the sources used [uncertain]. For comparison only: a 1976 Swiss study of body-centred group psychotherapy, which cites the body-ego papers but is not Schoop's method, gave it alongside usual inpatient treatment to acutely schizophrenic patients. [source: Maurer-Groeli 1976, abstract] Practical defaults: closed or slow-open groups of 6 to 10, 45 to 60 minutes, once or twice weekly, for at least 8 to 12 sessions. Individual sessions suit very withdrawn or very disorganised patients. [synthesis]

Criteria for moving on (none found in sources; all [synthesis]):

  • Stage 1 to 2: the client stays in the room and can share the circle or space for most of the session. They make some movement response to the therapist or group, even small, and can tolerate a simple shared rhythm.
  • Stage 2 to 3: the client can change movement quality on invitation (for example, from heavy to light) and return to a neutral, grounded stance. They can name or show a feeling without becoming more disorganised.
  • Step back a stage when there is increased disorganisation, agitation, dissociation or withdrawal, or when imagery becomes literalised (treated as real).

Professional frame. This is DMT, a graduate-level discipline; ADTA treats the master's degree as the field's terminal degree. [source: ADTA, What is Dance/Movement Therapy] Use the method only within that training: in the USA, ADTA credentials (R-DMT, BC-DMT); in the UK, membership of ADMP UK (dance movement psychotherapy); in Germany, the BTD. [source: Pallaro & Fischlein-Rupp 2002 for BTD] Psychotherapists without DMT training should not run fantasy improvisation or touch-based work with psychotic inpatients. They can co-lead with a registered dance movement therapist or refer. [synthesis] No training institute teaches Schoop's method as a separate credential; it is taught as part of DMT history and practice. [uncertain]

Space and physical safety prerequisites [synthesis]:

  • Use a clear, non-slip floor, with furniture removed or pushed to the walls and sharp corners padded or avoided.
  • Have chairs available so anyone can work seated.
  • Ask about footwear: socks on polished floors are a slip risk, so use bare feet or soft-soled shoes.
  • Keep music at a moderate volume.
  • Keep exits visible and unobstructed.
  • Have a second staff member present on inpatient wards.
  • Before starting, check each patient's falls risk, sedation, dizziness on standing, movement side effects of medication, cardiac or orthopaedic limits, and pregnancy. Consult the ward team rather than inferring this yourself.

3. Guiding principles

  • Movement is the way in; meet isolation through the body. The aim is to lead patients out of isolation and into communication through movement and bodily expression. Practical meaning: begin with what the patient is already doing bodily, not with words or demanded steps. [source: NDB (Deutsche Biographie)]
  • Restore communication. Movement and bodily expression are communication. Practical meaning: treat every gesture, including stillness, as a message to be answered in movement. [source: Deutsche Biographie]
  • Integrate the split body image. The goal is to bring fragmented experiences of the body into one functioning whole, by giving the body image structure as it unfolds in movement. Practical meaning: return often to whole-body, grounded, centred movement, and link parts to the whole. [source: Wojcieszuk 2004; Cyclowiki]
  • Move between tension and relaxation. Health includes the ability to shift between the two. Practical meaning: build in deliberate contrasts and always end grounded and regulated. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Cyclowiki]
  • Humour, warmth and play. Schoop came to therapy from comic dance pantomime [source: HLS]. Humour builds group cohesion and an accepting atmosphere, and students remembered her humour, warmth and love [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Wikipedia; Columbia College Chicago Marginalia blog]. Practical meaning: laugh with, never at; lightness lowers threat.
  • Correct without hurting. Schoop exaggerated a posture, and invited the group to share it, rather than instructing the patient to fix it. Practical meaning: make change a shared, playful exploration, never a criticism. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia student blog]
  • Opposites. Experiencing polarities lets clients meet a range of feelings and get to know themselves. Practical meaning: pair every quality with its opposite. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia student blog]
  • Expand the repertoire. A wider range of movement gives access to other sides of the self. Practical meaning: aim at range and choice, not "correct" form. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia student blog]
  • Every person has more than one side. A patient is more than the diagnosis. Practical meaning: invite and name the healthy, funny, strong or gentle sides that show up in movement. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia student blog]
  • Body education. The therapist actively teaches body awareness and use, as well as following the patient. Practical meaning: it is legitimate to demonstrate, structure and teach. [source: Lee 1994]
  • Imagination releases what is held. Her "Inner Fantasy" work aimed to bring out repressed inner impulses. Practical meaning: use imagery only once the patient is grounded enough to stay oriented. [source: Lee 1994; pacing is synthesis]
  • Depth-psychological understanding. Movement is read in the light of depth psychology. Practical meaning: notice symbolic meaning, but do not impose interpretations on psychotic patients. [source: psychotherapeutensuche.de; caution is synthesis]
  • The therapist's own body and feelings are instruments. With schizophrenic patients, dance therapists face omnipotent rescue fantasies, intense emotional demands, difficulty holding back when patients are inactive, and patients' sensitivity to the therapist's unconscious states. Practical meaning: use supervision and self-monitoring. [source: Sandel 1980, abstract; this is a general dance therapy source, not Schoop-specific]

4. Intervention inventory

The secondary sources name the interventions below and their purpose. No step-by-step procedure from Schoop's own texts is available, so steps are the writer's synthesis and are marked [synthesis] unless stated otherwise. Items 4.12 to 4.14 are general safety and structure procedures, not Schoop-specific techniques.

4.1 Meeting the patient in isolation (body-ego contact)

  • Purpose: Draw a withdrawn patient into shared movement and human contact. Use it at the start of treatment and the start of every session, especially with withdrawn, mute or catatonic-appearing patients. [source: NDB (out of isolation into communication); the "body-ego technique" is named in the title of Goertzel, May, Salkin & Schoop 1965, per the Maurer-Groeli 1976 reference list; its procedure is uncertain]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Enter the patient's space slowly, at a distance they tolerate, at eye level or lower. Say who you are.
    2. Observe their current posture, breathing and any small movement.
    3. Take on a gentler version of their rhythm or posture nearby: a foot tap, a rocking, the slump of the shoulders. Do this without staring or mimicking.
    4. Make one small, clear invitation: a hand or arm gesture offered in space, not touch. Wait.
    5. Treat any response as an answer and reply in movement: a glance, a shift of weight, or a lift of a finger.
    6. Keep the first contacts short (a few minutes). End them clearly, with a goodbye gesture and words.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm going to sit here and move a little. You're welcome to join, or just watch." "I saw your hand move then. Here's mine back."
  • Watch for: Increased agitation, fear or turning away means you should increase distance and reduce tempo. Signs it is working: the patient orients toward you, starts or extends movement, stays longer, or joins the circle.

4.2 Exaggeration of posture or movement, shared by the group

  • Purpose: Gently work on a rigid, collapsed or distorted posture without criticism, so the patient becomes aware of it and finds alternatives. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia student blog: Schoop exaggerated a patient's posture and invited others to move with it as a "less hurtful way of correcting" posture.] Use it once there is a basic group alliance and some humour in the room.
  • Steps [synthesis beyond the source's description]:
    1. Choose a posture the patient already shows and that is safe to amplify, such as hunched shoulders or a stiff walk.
    2. Ask or check that the patient agrees to the group trying "your way of standing". Accept a no.
    3. Take it on yourself first and exaggerate it a little, then more. Keep it warm and playful, never a caricature.
    4. Invite the whole group, the patient included, to try it together. Ask everyone to notice how it feels: breath, mood, view of the room.
    5. Gradually reduce it back to neutral. Then try one alternative, such as lengthening or widening. Compare the two.
    6. Let the patient choose which version to keep for now.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's all try Sam's walk. Bigger, heavier... how does the world look from here?" "Now let's find the opposite. What changes?"
  • Watch for: Shame, or a sense of being mocked. Stop immediately, own it ("That was too much, I'm sorry") and return to neutral. It is working when the patient laughs with the group, tries the alternative, or carries it into later movement.

4.3 Polarities and opposites

  • Purpose: Let clients experience a range of feelings and get to know themselves through contrasting movement qualities. Also restores the ability to move between tension and relaxation. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia student blog; Cyclowiki] Use it in stage 2, and in stage 1 with simple pairs.
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Choose one polarity: tight/loose, big/small, fast/slow, heavy/light, high/low, open/closed, strong/soft.
    2. Explore the first pole for 30 to 60 seconds, then the other.
    3. Move several times between the two at the group's pace.
    4. Find a "middle" or preferred point.
    5. Ask briefly what each pole was like and which felt familiar or new.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Squeeze everything tight like a fist... and let it go. Again. Now find the in-between." "Which one felt more like you today?"
  • Watch for: Patients stuck at one pole (for example, unable to soften). Reduce to a smaller body part, such as only the hands. It is working when transitions become smoother and patients can choose a pole on request.

4.4 Expanding the movement repertoire

  • Purpose: Widen a restricted range of movement so other sides of the self become reachable. [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia student blog] Use it across all stages, especially with stereotyped or very limited movement.
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Note the patient's habitual movements, such as small, low, repetitive or fast ones.
    2. Start inside that range.
    3. Add one new element at a time: direction, level, size, speed or weight.
    4. Offer choices rather than commands.
    5. Return to the familiar movement as a safe base between new ones.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Keep your rocking, and let's see if it can go side to side as well." "Pick one: reach high or reach far."
  • Watch for: Overload from too many changes. It is working when the patient starts movements of their own outside the old range.

4.5 Exploring different sides of the self

  • Purpose: Help patients experience themselves as more than the diagnosis by embodying different qualities or "sides". [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia student blog] Use it in stage 2 to 3 with patients who are reasonably oriented.
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Use qualities found in 4.3 and 4.4: the strong side, the gentle side, the playful side.
    2. Give each a short movement phrase.
    3. Let patients move between them and name which they would like more of.
    4. Reflect strengths observed in movement back to them.
  • Example language (illustrative): "That was a really steady, strong side of you." "Is there a side of you that didn't get a turn today?"
  • Watch for: Patients with fragile identity or persecutory ideas may experience "different selves" as confirming fragmentation. Keep it concrete (qualities, not personas) and end with one integrated whole-body movement. [synthesis] It is working when patients name positive qualities in themselves.

4.6 Tension-relaxation and body-image integration

  • Purpose: Bring a split or fragmented body image together into one functioning whole, able to alternate between relaxation and tension. [source: Wojcieszuk 2004 (structuring the body image in movement); the relaxation–tension balance is uncertain: secondary, unverified (Cyclowiki)] Use it in stage 1, and at the end of any session as regulation.
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Standing or seated, contract one area (hands, arms, shoulders, face, legs), hold briefly, release.
    2. Name each area as you go.
    3. Join areas: hands and arms together, then the upper body, then the whole body.
    4. Finish with whole-body movements that link the centre to the limbs, such as reaching out from the centre and gathering back in, and with weight felt through the feet or seat.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Feel your hands... your arms... now hands and arms are one long reach." "Feel your feet holding the floor."
  • Watch for: Breath-holding, dizziness, or distress at noticing body parts (possible somatic hallucinations or depersonalisation). Shift to external, task-focused movement such as passing a ball. It is working when movements become more coordinated and connected, and patients can describe body sensations without distress.

4.7 Body education and body awareness

  • Purpose: Actively teach patients awareness and use of their bodies: alignment, breath, weight and balance. This corresponds to Schoop's educating of patients' bodies by various methods. [source: Lee 1994] Use it in stage 1, and whenever a patient is ungrounded.
  • Steps [synthesis; Schoop's specific methods are not documented in the sources used — uncertain]:
    1. Demonstrate a simple element, such as standing with weight even on both feet, or a slow full breath.
    2. Have the group copy it.
    3. Give one sensory focus at a time.
    4. Repeat across sessions so it becomes familiar and can be used for self-regulation.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Watch me first, then we'll do it together." "Let your weight sink, as if the floor is holding you."
  • Watch for: Breathing exercises can trigger panic or dizziness. Keep them short, natural and never forced. It is working when patients use a grounding stance or breath on their own when distressed.

4.8 "Inner Fantasy" (imaginative improvisation)

  • Purpose: Bring out repressed inner impulses through imagery-led movement. [source: Lee 1994 names the technique; Wojcieszuk 2004 describes improvisation from the patient's personal material] Schoop's own "Inner Fantasy" procedure is not described in the biographies (HLS, NDB) or encyclopaedia entries [uncertain]. The procedure below is general DMT imagery practice, not Schoop's method. Use it only in stage 3, with patients who stay oriented to the room. [synthesis]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Ground first (4.6 or 4.7).
    2. Offer a concrete, everyday image with clear edges, such as walking through deep snow, or carrying something precious.
    3. Let patients improvise for one to three minutes.
    4. Invite a variation that comes from the patient.
    5. Stop clearly: "And freeze... shake it out... back in this room."
    6. Do a reality-orienting check: name the date, place and people present.
    7. Talk briefly about what the image was like.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Imagine the floor is deep snow. How do you move through it?" "Let's leave the snow behind and come back to this room."
  • Watch for: Images treated as real, increased hallucinatory activity, sexualised or violent escalation, or dissociation. If any appears, end the image, ground, and give a concrete task. Avoid open-ended or threatening imagery with actively psychotic patients. It is working when patients play with the image and can step out of it easily.

4.9 Humour and play

  • Purpose: Build group cohesion and an accepting atmosphere, and lower threat. This draws on Schoop's comic-mime background [source: HLS] and her remembered humour and warmth [uncertain: secondary, unverified; source: Columbia Marginalia; Wikipedia]. Use it throughout, carefully calibrated.
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Use self-directed humour from the therapist first: playful clumsiness, or exaggeration of your own movement.
    2. Use rhythm games and surprise in movement.
    3. Join and amplify patients' own humour.
    4. Never use humour about a patient's symptoms, body or delusions.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Well, my left foot clearly has its own plans today."
  • Watch for: Paranoid patients may hear laughter as being about them. Name what the laughter is about. It is working when there is shared laughter and spontaneous playful contributions from patients.

4.10 Shared rhythm and group movement communication

  • Purpose: Restore communication and the ability to communicate through bodily expression. [source: Deutsche Biographie] Dance is used here without technical rules or set forms, for self-expression and communication. [source: psychotherapeutensuche.de, on DMT generally] Use it in stage 2.
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Form a circle, standing or seated.
    2. Establish a simple shared beat by clapping or stepping.
    3. Each person in turn offers a movement and the group answers it.
    4. Move to pairs: question and answer in movement, without touch.
    5. Return to the whole circle.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Give us a movement, any movement, and we'll send it back to you."
  • Watch for: Patients freezing when it is their turn. Allow "pass" or "same as the last person". It is working when patients watch and answer each other rather than only the therapist.

4.11 Verbal reflection and closure

  • Purpose: Link movement experience to words, consolidate gains, and end regulated. Verbalisation and reflection are listed DMT techniques. [source: psychotherapeutensuche.de] Their place in Schoop's sessions is not documented in the sources used [uncertain]. Use it at the end of every session.
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Use slowing movement and whole-body grounding (4.6).
    2. Make a closing circle.
    3. Offer one word or one gesture each to sum up the session.
    4. The therapist summarises briefly.
    5. Give a clear ending ritual and say the next session time.
    6. Hand over to ward staff with any concerns.
  • Example language (illustrative): "One word, or one movement, for how you're leaving today."
  • Watch for: Patients leaving still aroused. Extend grounding and inform staff. It is working when the ending is calm and patients anticipate the next session.

4.12 Touch consent and opt-out procedure (applies to every contact)

  • Purpose: Some partner or group contact (holding hands in a circle, back-to-back, offering an arm for balance) can support contact and grounding. With psychotic and traumatised patients it also carries a real risk of misinterpretation, fear and retraumatisation. Whether or how Schoop used touch is not described in the sources used [uncertain]. This procedure is [synthesis] based on general ethical practice.
  • Steps:
    1. Default to no touch. Use props such as a scarf, a stretch band or a ball, or contact through space (mirroring at a distance), first.
    2. Before any touch, describe exactly what it would be (where on the body, how long, why) and ask each person individually.
    3. Check that the person has capacity to agree at this moment. If acutely psychotic, agitated or sedated, do not use touch.
    4. Offer a visible, easy no and an alternative, such as holding the two ends of a scarf instead of hands.
    5. Re-ask each session, and whenever the form of contact changes.
    6. Touch hands, forearms, shoulders or upper back only. Never touch the chest, buttocks, genital area or inner thighs. Touch is never sexual.
    7. Let the patient control the contact: they can let go or step away at any moment. Agree a stop signal, such as letting go or raising a hand.
    8. Respect cultural, gender and religious norms; ask rather than assume.
    9. Record the consent, and any refusal, in the notes.
    10. In inpatient settings, follow ward policy and keep a second staff member present.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would you be OK holding hands in the circle? You can also hold the scarf instead, or just stand with us." "Let go any time, no need to explain."
  • Watch for: Flinching, freezing, sexualised responses, persecutory ideas about touch, or a trauma history. Withdraw touch and return to distance-based contact. It is working when contact is chosen freely and the patient shows no distress afterwards.

4.13 Space, falls and physical safety procedure

  • Purpose: Prevent injury in groups that may include sedated, elderly, orthostatic or disorganised patients. [synthesis]
  • Steps:
    1. Before each session, check the floor, clear obstacles, and adjust lighting and temperature.
    2. Check the falls-risk list and medication changes with nursing staff.
    3. Provide chairs in the circle and offer seated versions of every exercise.
    4. Build tempo gradually, and avoid spinning, rapid level changes and jumping with at-risk patients.
    5. Get up from the floor slowly, through kneeling, and with a pause.
    6. Keep moving bodies spaced at least an arm's length apart in fast or travelling work.
    7. Keep water available.
    8. Know the emergency procedure and alarm.
    9. Stop any exercise that causes dizziness, pain or shortness of breath.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Anyone can do this sitting. Your chair is always part of the dance." "Come up slowly, via your knees."
  • Watch for: Unsteadiness, pallor, breathlessness, or agitation-driven speed. Stop the movement, seat the patient, and get medical help if needed.

4.14 Assessment through observation

  • Purpose: Track change. In DMT, movement serves as both assessment tool and intervention. [source: ADTA] No Schoop-specific assessment instrument is documented [uncertain].
  • Steps [synthesis]: After each session, note posture, range, tension-relaxation capacity, ability to make contact, rhythm-sharing, and use of imagery. Compare these across sessions.
  • Watch for: Movement observations are clinical impressions. They are not diagnostic evidence of a disorder, abuse or trauma history, and must not be reported as such.

5. Handling problems

The sources give almost no problem-handling guidance specific to Schoop. Everything below is [synthesis] unless a source is named.

  • Withdrawn, mute or immobile patient (stuck).
    • Do not demand movement. Sit nearby and work with breath, rocking or the smallest observable movement (4.1).
    • Accept watching as participation, and invite again each session.
    • With catatonic features, check with the medical team before any active work, because this can be a medical emergency.
  • Your own urge to "get them moving" (countertransference). Dance therapists working with schizophrenic patients can struggle to hold back when patients are inactive. They may cover a sense of hopelessness with omnipotent rescue fantasies. [source: Sandel 1980, abstract] Response: lower your expectations to small signs of contact, and take it to supervision.
  • Feeling mocked during exaggeration or humour.
    • Stop, apologise and name your intent.
    • Return to the patient's preferred movement, and give them control ("you lead, we follow").
    • Use exaggeration only with your own posture until trust is rebuilt.
  • Resistance or refusal ("dancing is stupid", "I'm not a dancer").
    • Reframe it as moving, not dancing. Offer seated and very small options, and let people pass.
    • Use a familiar activity such as passing a ball, stretching or walking.
    • Non-dancers may be uncomfortable moving in front of others [source: Columbia Marginalia], so reduce visibility: all move at once and nobody watches.
  • Overwhelm, agitation or psychotic escalation.
    • Stop the exercise.
    • Reduce stimulation: lower or stop the music, slow down, give more space.
    • Ground with concrete, external tasks: feel the feet, name objects in the room.
    • Offer the option to sit out with staff support. If risk rises, follow the ward's de-escalation and risk procedures.
    • Afterwards, step back to stage 1 work for the next sessions.
  • Imagery becomes literal, or hallucinations increase (4.8). End the image, re-orient to time and place, and drop fantasy work until the patient is stable. Tell the treating team.
  • Trauma triggers. Body-focused work, being watched, closed eyes, lying on the floor, certain postures and touch can all trigger traumatised patients. Use eyes-open work, choice of position and exit, and no touch by default (4.12). Watch for freezing or dissociation and respond with grounding.
  • Sexualised behaviour or misread touch. End contact immediately and calmly. Restate boundaries plainly, without shaming. Move to distance-based work. Document it and inform the team.
  • Non-attendance or non-adherence. Ask ward staff to remind and accompany patients. Keep the session time and room fixed. Start each session with a short, predictable ritual. Accept attendance-only sessions as progress.
  • Ruptures (a patient feels laughed at, ignored or forced). Name what happened. Take responsibility for your part, invite the patient's view in words or movement, and agree what to do differently next time. Follow up one-to-one if needed.
  • Disorganised or dangerous movement (flailing, running, throwing). Narrow the space. Use a slower shared rhythm that you set clearly, and hand the patient a contained task, such as holding one end of a stretch band. Stop the group if safety is at risk.
  • Medication side effects (sedation, unsteadiness, dizziness on standing, movement disorders). Offer seated options and slow transitions. Report new or worsening movement problems to the prescriber. Never interpret them as "resistance" or psychological expression.
  • Falls or injury. Do not lift the person. Make the area safe, call for medical help per ward protocol, keep the group seated, and document the incident.
  • Children and young people. Schoop's documented work was with adult psychiatric patients, and no paediatric adaptation was found. If adapting for children and young people:
    • Obtain parent or carer consent and the child's own assent.
    • Follow safeguarding and mandatory-reporting duties.
    • Use shorter, more structured, play-based sessions.
    • Use touch only with explicit assent and within policy.
    • Never treat a child's movement as evidence of abuse.
  • Cultural sensitivity. Norms about the body, gender mixing, music and touch vary. Ask about them, adapt dress and contact expectations, and choose music with the group.

Sources

Web pages:

Books and papers cited (bibliographic details as given in the pages above; their content is cited only through the secondary sources above [uncertain]):

  • Schoop, T., with Mitchell, P.; illustrated by Hedi Schoop (1974). Won't You Join the Dance? A Dancer's Essay into the Treatment of Psychosis. Palo Alto: National Press Books (ISBN 0-87484-229-8; the Loughborough record lists Mayfield). The NDB gives 1972 (outlier). German edition: ... komm und tanz mit mir! Ein Versuch, dem psychotischen Menschen durch die Elemente des Tanzes zu helfen (1981); reissued Zürich: Hug & Co. Musikverlag, 2007 (ISBN 978-3-909415-97-7; 2006 in dewiki), translated by Marigna Gerig and Ursula Zieschang.
  • Goertzel, May, Salkin & Schoop (1965). Body-ego technique: An approach to the schizophrenic patient. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 141, 53–60.
  • May, P. R., Wexler, M., Salkin, J. & Schoop, T. (1963). Nonverbal techniques in the re-establishment of body image and self identity. Psychiatric Research Report 16.
  • Wilke, M. (1999). Trudi Schoops Leben und ihr tänzerisches und therapeutisches Werk. INFO 37/38, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tanztherapie, 25–97 (cited in HLS).
  • Schoop, T. (1978). Motion and Emotion; reprinted in American Journal of Dance Therapy 22(2), 2000.
  • Levy, F. J. (1988). Dance/Movement Therapy: A Healing Art. Reston, VA: National Dance Association / AAHPERD (ISBN 0-88314-380-1). Contains a section on Schoop.
  • Chodorow, J. (1991). Dance Therapy and Depth Psychology: The Moving Imagination. [title order uncertain]
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