Creative dance therapy

1. Introduction

Version followed: Blanche Evan's creative dance and "dance/movement/word" therapy, as documented in legitimately available sources: Harris (2022, open access) for her training, the start (1934) and principles of Functional Technique, the scene titles of her 1935 film and the growth of her children's creative dance into therapy; New York Public Library catalogue records of her writings, including her term "dance/movement/word therapy"; and abstracts by Anne M. Krantz (co-author of a forthcoming book on Evan's method) and by Ambra (1995). [source: Harris 2022; NYPL and AMPA catalogue records; Krantz abstracts; Ambra 1995 abstract] The fullest published clinical account, Bonnie Bernstein's "Dancing beyond Trauma: Women Survivors of Sexual Abuse" (chapter 2 of F. J. Levy (ed., with J. P. Fried & F. Leventhal), Dance and Other Expressive Art Therapies: When Words Are Not Enough, Routledge, 1996), applies the method to adult women survivors of sexual trauma [source: Routledge product page]; its procedural content is not reproduced in this guide [uncertain]. Evan's own writings, compiled by R. G. Benov as Collected Works by and about Blanche Evan (Blanche Evan Dance Foundation, San Francisco, 1991), are known from a catalogue record; Harris cites Evan's 1930s writings from that 1991 reprint. The New York Public Library holds a 1978 packet of Evan's published and unpublished pieces (1945–1978), including "Dance/movement/word therapy" with the normal neurotic client. Quotations from Evan below are second-hand, from Harris. No step-by-step account of Evan's clinical method is available in these sources, so the session sequence and most steps below are the writer's synthesis built on the documented components and general dance/movement therapy (DMT) practice [synthesis].

Who and when. Blanche Evan was a New York modern dancer, teacher and writer [uncertain: birth and death years not verified]. She trained with Bird Larson (d. 1927), whose work inspired her Functional Technique. She took a summer 1934 workshop at the New York Wigman school (with Hanya Holm and Louise Kloepper) and attended the Graham school in summer 1935, and criticised both: Wigman's for free improvisation without technical skill or definite content, Graham's for codified "movement form for its own sake". From 1934 she taught Functional Technique, a body-mechanics training, at her own school, and premiered it in the 1935 film Film Studies of the Dance. After the 1930s she taught creative dance for children, with Functional Technique principles central, and in the 1940s this grew into her dance therapy work. [source: Harris 2022] By 1978 she was titling her work "dance/movement/word therapy". [source: NYPL catalogue record of her 1978 packet]

Core idea of change. Body and feeling are treated as one. An Evan-based model holds that symptoms can disconnect feeling from the body, and that reconnecting them lets the client express her inner world and reach psychophysical unity. [source: Krantz 1999 abstract] Functional Technique trains tension and release and frees useless tension in the body, and improvisation gives a definite content movement form. [source: Harris 2022] Approaches such as physicalization and improvisation bring unconscious embodied states into awareness. [source: Krantz 2012 abstract] Words are joined to the movement, as Evan's later term "dance/movement/word therapy" indicates. [source: NYPL catalogue record]

Status. Evan's method is a named school within dance/movement therapy (DMT), not a separate profession. Bonnie Bernstein and Anne M. Krantz have a book on Evan's approach, The Dance/Movement Therapy of Blanche Evan: Life is Movement (Routledge), listed as "coming soon" with no date [uncertain]. Krantz (1999, American Journal of Dance Therapy) presents an Evan-based model for women with eating disorders: symptoms disconnect affect from the body, and reconnecting them helps the client express her inner world and develop psychophysical unity (abstract). Krantz (2012) links DMT approaches such as physicalization and improvisation to bringing unconscious embodied states into awareness (abstract). In a 1995 interview study of five dance/movement therapists working with adult women incest survivors, one worked from Evan's constructs, and all stressed safety, trust and shame (Ambra 1995, abstract). Palafox (2016, Columbia College Chicago MA thesis) used an Evan-based DMT treatment with children on an inpatient general paediatrics unit, in one-hour sessions (record and abstract). [source: Presto listing; Krantz Academia profile; Ambra 1995 abstract; Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons record]

Professional frame.

United States. Practise only as, or under supervision of, a credentialed dance/movement therapist. The Dance/Movement Therapy Certification Board (DMTCB), working with the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA), awards the R-DMT (entry level) and the BC-DMT (advanced). The R-DMT requires a master's degree, either from an ADTA-approved programme or by the Alternate Route, plus a dance or movement background, fieldwork and an internship supervised by a BC-DMT. The Code of Ethics and Standards of the ADTA and DMTCB (revised October 2015) binds ADTA members and all DMTCB credential holders. It requires graduate-level study and supervised fieldwork before practice, extra training and supervision or consultation when working with new client populations, and practice within a supervised team unless the therapist holds an advanced credential or licence (standards 2.1–2.2). [source: ADTA DMTCB page; ADTA R-DMT application page; ADTA Code of Ethics PDF]
United Kingdom. Dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) is not regulated by the HCPC, so the title is not statutorily protected; the HCPC's arts-therapist register covers art, drama and music therapists. The professional body, then ADMT UK and now ADMP UK, applied to the Health Professions Council for statutory regulation of DMT in 2003, when art, drama and music therapy were already on the register; the current ADMP UK pages describe ADMP UK's own professional registers and an optional UKCP route, not HCPC registration. [source: HPC Council papers, March 2004 (ADMT UK application); ADMP UK 'About' and 'UKCP accreditation' pages] Training is an ADMP UK-recognised master's (two years full-time or three part-time; e.g. Goldsmiths, Derby, Roehampton) with personal therapy and supervised placements. Trainees register with ADMP UK during training, and graduates join its professional register as Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapists (RDMP). UKCP registration, through ADMP UK's membership of UKCP's Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy College, is optional, but job adverts, including NHS posts, usually ask for UKCP (or similar) membership. [source: Prospects job profile; ADMP UK pages]
Evan-specific training. No current Evan-specific certification is documented [uncertain]. Treat the method as advanced DMT practice. A verbal psychotherapist without DMT training should not run the improvisation or Functional Technique components. They can use the general principles to inform body-aware verbal work, or co-work with or refer to a credentialed DMT. [synthesis]

2. Framework

No published phase model or session count for Evan's method is available in the sources used (Harris 2022; the Krantz, Ambra and Palafox abstracts) [uncertain]. The only dose reported is Palafox's paediatric study: one-hour sessions, at least one per child, with the number set by availability, medical schedules and discharge. [source: Palafox 2016 record]

Session components (the components are documented as noted; their order is the writer's synthesis) [synthesis]:

Warm-up and body opening. Loosen the joints, widen the range of movement and dynamics, and build body awareness and movement vocabulary, without attaching emotional content too early. [synthesis]
Functional Technique. Body-mechanics work grounded in anatomy and kinesiology: tension and release, extension and flexion, and isolations of body units, aimed at the body areas the session needs. [source: Harris 2022]
Creative dance. Imagery-based movement to express feelings and body states without going straight to painful material. Evan's creative dance began as work with children and grew into her therapy [source: Harris 2022]; its use as a bridge to improvisation is [synthesis].
Improvisation. Movement on a definite theme, usually taken from what the client says or moves; Evan rejected improvisation without definite content [source: Harris 2022]. Physicalization is named among the improvisation-based approaches [source: Krantz 2012 abstract].
Movement and word. Voice, sound and words joined to the movement, and discussion linking the dance to life. [source: NYPL record for "dance/movement/word therapy"; detail is synthesis]
Integration. A small task drawn from session material, applied outside sessions. [synthesis]

Format. Session length is one hour in the inpatient paediatric application, with the number of sessions varying with medical schedule and discharge. [source: Palafox 2016 record] No session length or course length for adult work is published in the sources used [uncertain]. Individual and group formats are both workable [synthesis]. A workable default is 60–90 minutes, weekly, open-ended or in blocks of 12–20 sessions, with review at each block [synthesis].

Treatment-level phases (the writer's synthesis) [synthesis]:

Phase A – Body opening and alliance. Warm-up, Functional Technique and creative dance only, with light verbal reflection. Goals: safety in the room and with the therapist; tolerance of being seen moving; a basic movement vocabulary; the client's own stop signals. Move on when the client can enter and leave imagery-based movement without dissociating or flooding, can name body sensations, and asks for or accepts more personal themes.
Phase B – Thematic improvisation. Physicalizing and dancing dreams or images on client-generated themes, plus moving spoken statements. Goals: give form to unexpressed feeling; link movement to biography; build insight. Move on when the client regulates within sessions (can slow, ground and come back) and can turn movement experience into words.
Phase C – Working through. Deeper improvisation on significant life themes, only when Phase B criteria are stable and the client consents. Re-enacting traumatic events is not part of this guide (see 4.10). Goals: express previously held-back feeling; strengthen boundaries and agency in the body. Repeat Phase A work whenever regulation drops.
Phase D – Rehearsal and ending. Rehearsing new responses and between-session tasks for work, family and relationships. Then a consolidating ending that reviews the changes in the body.

3. Guiding principles

Psycho-physical unity. Feeling and body are reconnected so the client can express her inner world. → Treat any body change as psychological material, and any psychological theme as something that can be moved. [source: Krantz 1999 abstract; practical meaning is synthesis]
Improvisation with definite content. In the 1930s Evan criticised the Wigman school's improvisation as "an indefinite activity divorced from the definite content" (Evan 1936, quoted by Harris). → Give every improvisation a definite theme, usually the client's own words or movement. [source: Harris 2022]
Technique as part of therapy. Functional Technique principles were central to Evan's creative dance for children, from which her therapy grew. → Include body-mechanics work in therapy sessions, not only in a separate class. [source: Harris 2022]
Neutral, non-stylised movement form. Evan saw Functional Technique as a "neutral form" studying the functional laws common to all human movement, meant to retrain awareness of the body's unity and let people express feelings and ideas without learned stylised dance forms (Bernstein 2020, cited by Harris). → Avoid teaching a dance style's vocabulary; let the client's movement be their own. [source: Harris 2022]
Movement, then word. Evan named her later work "dance/movement/word therapy". → Join voice and language to movement, and put insight into words that can be taken into life. [source: NYPL catalogue record; practical meaning is synthesis]
Consent, choice and safety govern touch and space. No touch rule specific to Evan's method is documented [uncertain]. For credentialed DMTs the ADTA/DMTCB Code (2015, standard 1.5) applies: touch only where it can reasonably be expected to benefit the client, parameters agreed through informed consent, responsiveness to nonverbal signals, no touch when there is any discomfort or question, never sexual touch. → Apply the protocol in 4.2 and the space and fall rules in 4.1. [source: ADTA Code of Ethics PDF]

4. Intervention inventory

The first two items are safety procedures that every session needs; the Evan sources used do not cover them [synthesis], and 4.2 follows the ADTA/DMTCB Code on touch. Items 4.3–4.15 cover the components documented for Evan's method (Functional Technique, creative dance, improvisation with definite content, physicalization, movement joined to words) and general DMT procedures around them. Steps are the writer's synthesis unless a source is named. All example language is the author's own wording, labelled (illustrative), unless shown as a short quotation.

4.1 Space, body and fall safety set-up [synthesis]

Purpose / when: Before the first movement session and at every session. Large, fast or explosive movements and intense improvisation all create risk of falls, collisions and strain.
Steps:
1. Screen health. Ask about medical and orthopaedic conditions, pregnancy, recent surgery, dizziness or fainting, seizures, cardiac or respiratory limits, hypermobility, osteoporosis, pain, current medication effects on balance, and eating-disorder medical status. Get medical clearance where indicated. Set no exercise or intensity targets.
2. Prepare the room. Use a clear, non-slip floor (sprung or wooden if possible) and no rugs or loose cables. Move furniture back, pad or cover sharp corners, keep mirrors and glass out of the movement path, and keep the room temperature comfortable. Keep water available.
3. Set footwear and clothing. Bare feet or non-slip dance shoes, not socks on smooth floors. Clothing that allows movement. Remove jewellery that could catch.
4. Set space per person. Give each mover at least arm-span clearance in every direction. Limit group size to the room; in a small room, assign travelling movement one person or one line at a time.
5. Grade intensity. Introduce leaps, slides, floor work and back bends only after a warm-up and in graded form. Offer a seated or supported version of every directive (chair or wall).
6. Teach safe falling and lowering. Before any falling, collapsing or "exploding" imagery, practise lowering to the floor through bent knees and hands and rolling. Never use trust-falls or unannounced off-balance moves.
7. Set a stop signal (a word or gesture) that ends movement at once for anyone, and the therapist's own freeze cue.
8. Watch eyes-closed work. Eyes closed is allowed only when the mover stays in one place or the therapist clears the path. Offer "soft focus on the floor" as an alternative.
9. Know the emergency plan. First-aid kit, emergency contact, and a phone in the room.
Example language (illustrative): "Before we move, let's check the space together. If anything hurts or feels too much, say 'pause' or raise a hand and everything stops."
Watch for: Breath-holding and strain, pain behaviour, dizziness after spinning or fast tempo, collisions in groups, and over-exertion driven by perfectionism or self-punishment (especially in eating-disorder or trauma work). If any of these appear, slow down, ground, and switch to the seated version.

4.2 Touch consent and opt-out protocol [synthesis]

Purpose / when: No touch technique is documented for Evan's method in the sources used [uncertain]. Touch may still arise: hands-on alignment cues in Functional Technique, partner work in groups, or a client reaching for the therapist. Evan-based work has been used with adult women incest survivors, where safety, trust and shame are central themes (Ambra 1995, abstract), which makes explicit consent essential. For credentialed DMTs the ADTA/DMTCB Code of Ethics and Standards (revised October 2015) governs touch in standard 1.5: touch is used only where it can reasonably be expected to benefit the client; its parameters are agreed in an oral or written informed-consent process, and consent is revisited throughout therapy (1.2); the therapist watches and responds to the client's nonverbal communication about touch; touch is not used when there is any discomfort or question, or when institutional policy or law prohibits it; sexual touch is prohibited. The steps below are consistent with these standards, but their detail is [synthesis]. [source: ADTA Code of Ethics PDF]
Steps:
1. Default to no touch. Use verbal and visual cues, and props such as a scarf, a ball or the wall, instead of hands-on correction.
2. Agree touch in advance at intake, separately from session content: whether touch is ever acceptable, where (for example hands, shoulders, upper back), by whom (therapist or group members), and what kind (contact, pressure, support). Record the agreement.
3. Ask every time. Before each touch, describe it, ask, and wait for a clear verbal yes. A nod or silence is not consent. Offer the alternative of the client placing their own hand.
4. Make opt-out easy. "No", "stop" or the stop gesture ends contact at once, without question or comment, and the agreement can change at any time.
5. Never touch sexually or genitally, and never touch the chest, buttocks or inner thighs. Do not touch during improvisation on traumatic material, during intense improvisation, or while the client is dissociated.
6. In groups, partner contact is opt-in only. Offer a no-contact version of every partner exercise (mirroring at a distance, contact through a prop). Brief the group that declining is always respected.
7. Respect culture, faith and gender. Ask about norms on touch and on mixed-gender or same-gender partnering, and on clothing and head coverings, and adapt.
8. Children: follow the setting's safeguarding policy on touch. Explain touch to both child and carer, and get assent from the child and consent from the carer.
9. Document any touch that happened and the consent for it.
Example language (illustrative): "I could show you this by placing my hand lightly on your upper back. Or you can put your own hand there. Which would you prefer, or neither?"
Watch for: Freezing, compliance without real agreement, flinching, a change in breath, gaze aversion. Any of these means stop touching, check in verbally, and go back to the no-touch version.

4.3 Warm-up and body opening

Purpose / when: At the start of every session. It builds body awareness and movement vocabulary by exploring rhythm, space, intensity and body parts, without attaching emotional content too early. [synthesis; general DMT warm-up practice]
Steps:
1. Start with joint-by-joint loosening and breath.
2. Explore the spine's range of motion: flexion, extension, side bend, rotation.
3. Vary tempo from fast to slow and back.
4. Vary space (small and large, near and far, levels) and intensity (light and strong).
5. Introduce new dynamics that the client's movement lacks, such as leaping, sliding or lunging (grade these; see 4.1).
6. Note which ranges or dynamics are restricted or avoided. These suggest later themes. Do not interpret them aloud yet. [steps: synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Let your spine curl forward slowly… now find the opposite. Try that same movement as fast as you can, then as slowly as you can. Notice which you prefer."
Watch for: Range and ease increasing over sessions; the client starting movement on their own. Holding patterns (a locked pelvis, a collapsed chest, held breath) are information. Respect them; do not force them.

4.4 Functional Technique

Purpose / when: Movement education grounded in anatomy and kinesiology, training tension and release, extension and flexion, and isolations of the spine, feet, hips, shoulders, upper back and hands, to free useless tension. Its principles were central to the creative dance work from which Evan's therapy grew. [source: Harris 2022] Use it after the warm-up, aimed at the body area the session or client needs (for example the back and spine when posture collapses; feet and legs for grounding and standing one's ground) [synthesis].
Content reported: Evan's 1935 film Film Studies of the Dance (first screened June 1935 and billed as technical studies for teaching) has scenes titled "Contrasting Useless Tension and Resiliency", "Basic Body Arcs" (opposing directions in body masses giving maximum extension), "Applying Body Arc Principles: Back Bend without Strain", "Continuity, Strength, and Flow in a Vertical Spiral", "Elevation in Slow Motion", "Foot Mechanics of Elevation" and "Tension and Spring in Feet", then "Isolation of Movement Units", "Hand Improvisations" and a closing film-dance fragment. Harris describes the technique as grounded in anatomy and kinesiology and as training tension and release, extension and flexion, and isolations of the spine, feet, hips, shoulders, upper back and hands. Bernstein (2020, cited by Harris) reports that the body arcs later developed into a swing with full extension from the toes through the head; Bernstein (2021, cited by Harris) mentions a technique for jumping. The detailed instructions for these exercises are not published in the sources used [uncertain]; only the titles are reported. Do not reconstruct them as Evan's exercises. [source: Harris 2022] Krantz has a paper linking Functional Technique to current practice ("A Living Kinesis", PsycEXTRA 2000); its content is not summarised here [uncertain].
Steps (generic body-mechanics progression consistent with the principles above) [synthesis]:
1. Choose one area (feet, spine, pelvis, shoulders).
2. Isolate it: move that unit alone with the rest still.
3. Contrast tension and release in it.
4. Add a spring or rebound quality (bending and straightening of knees and ankles).
5. Link it into whole-body movement (spiral, arc, rise).
6. Ask what the client notices emotionally as the area frees.
Example language (illustrative): "Just your feet now: press into the floor, then release. Feel the spring come up through your knees. What does it feel like to stand on feet that push back?"
Watch for: Back bends and elevation work can strain backs and joints: no forced range, no bouncing at end range. Watch that technique does not become performance or self-criticism. The work is functioning when strength and ease become available later in the session's improvisation (for example, a firmer stance during assertion themes).

4.5 Creative dance (imagery-based)

Purpose / when: Imagery-based movement lets the client express feelings and body states without going straight to painful material. Evan's creative dance began as work with children and grew into her therapy [source: Harris 2022]. Using it as a bridge to improvisation, early in treatment and whenever direct personal content is too much, is [synthesis].
Steps:
1. Offer an image whose dynamics fit the session's material (for example, a storm for unexpressed anger).
2. Let the client move it in their own way, with the therapist observing.
3. Vary the image's intensity (a gathering storm, a full storm, the calm after).
4. Ask what the image felt like in the body.
5. Bridge only if the client links the image to life themselves. [steps: synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Be a wave far out at sea, building slowly… let it grow and break… and pull back out. What part of that felt familiar?"
Watch for: Images that spontaneously become personal ("this is my father's temper"). That is a sign of readiness for improvisation, or a sign to slow down if arousal spikes.

4.6 Music and dance from the client's cultures

Purpose / when: Music and movement forms from the client's own or chosen cultures can evoke feeling and widen the movement repertoire. This is general DMT practice; its place in Evan's method is not documented in the sources used [uncertain] [synthesis].
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Pick music and movement forms the client or group can relate to, or is curious about.
2. Use simple, repeatable movement motifs, not a taught choreography.
3. Invite the feeling the music evokes.
4. Discuss the cultural meanings that arise.
Example language (illustrative): "Let this rhythm come into your feet first. What does it make you want to do?"
Watch for: Cultural appropriation or misrepresentation. Do not stage sacred or ceremonial dances; describe and respect them instead. Watch for a client's own cultural material bringing up grief, pride or conflict about identity. [synthesis]

4.7 Choosing the improvisation theme

Purpose / when: Evan held that improvisation needs a definite content [source: Harris 2022]. Here the therapist suggests a psychological, physical or psycho-physical theme from what the client says or moves [synthesis].
Steps:
1. Listen for charged words, images, dreams and memories in check-in.
2. Watch for repeated, restricted or avoided movement in the warm-up.
3. Offer one theme in the client's own words.
4. Let the client accept, modify or refuse it.
5. Choose the improvisation type (4.8, 4.9, 4.11) to match their readiness. [steps: synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "You said 'I'm always shrinking.' Would you be willing to move 'shrinking'… and see where it wants to go?"
Watch for: Themes the client chooses are usually safer and more alive than themes the therapist imposes.

4.8 Physicalizing

Purpose / when: Putting a stored idea, memory or feeling into movement. Krantz names physicalization among the approaches that bring unconscious embodied states into awareness [source: Krantz 2012 abstract]. Using it as the standard entry into personal material is [synthesis].
Steps [synthesis on sequencing]:
1. Ask the client to locate the feeling or idea in the body.
2. Let that place start the movement.
3. Amplify it (bigger, smaller, faster, slower).
4. Let it change into whatever comes next.
5. Find an ending shape.
6. Verbalise (4.13).
Example language (illustrative): "Where in your body is the guilt? Let that place begin to move… let it grow… and see what it does next."
Watch for: Movement that is honest rather than performed. Spontaneous shifts in quality often bring insight. [synthesis]

4.9 Dancing a dream or image

Purpose / when: Dancing out a dream, fantasy or image. Use it when a client brings a dream or image, or a body memory without a clear story. General DMT practice; not documented as a named Evan technique in the sources used [uncertain] [synthesis].
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Have the client tell the dream or image briefly.
2. Pick its strongest moment or figure.
3. The client moves it, or moves different figures in turn.
4. Ask what was discovered.
Example language (illustrative): "Dance the part of the dream where the door wouldn't open. Then, if you want, be the door."
Watch for: Fragmenting or confusion in body-memory work. If they appear, ground (4.15 closure steps) and move back to imagery.

4.10 Re-enacting traumatic events (not included)

Recreating a traumatic event, such as an assault, in movement is not set out in this guide. No procedure for it is documented for Evan's method in the sources used [uncertain], and the risk of retraumatisation is high. Work with traumatic memories belongs with a credentialed DMT using a trauma-informed approach: build regulation first through body opening, creative dance and grounding (4.3–4.5, 4.15); work with present-day themes and boundary movements the client chooses; and stop and orient at any sign of flooding or dissociation (section 5). [synthesis]

4.11 Rehearsing new responses

Purpose / when: Practising alternative responses in movement, and later in words, to prepare for change outside sessions, for example a stance that holds one's ground before a difficult conversation. Use it in later treatment. General DMT practice; not documented as a named Evan technique in the sources used [uncertain] [synthesis].
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Identify the situation.
2. Move the old response.
3. Find a new posture, stance, spatial distance and voice.
4. Repeat the new response until it feels the client's own.
5. Link it to a between-session task (4.14).
Example language (illustrative): "Show me how you usually stand when your boss criticises you… now find a stance that holds your ground. Add your voice: 'I need to finish my point.'"
Watch for: The new stance appearing spontaneously in later sessions and in reported real-life behaviour.

4.12 Freeing the voice (sound with movement)

Purpose / when: Evan joined voice and words to movement in what she called dance/movement/word therapy [source: NYPL catalogue record]. Use sound with movement when the client is silenced, constricted or blocked from expressing feeling [synthesis].
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Start with breath.
2. Add sighs and vowels on the exhale.
3. Join sound to a movement.
4. Increase volume only as the client is ready.
5. Move toward single words.
Example language (illustrative): "Let a sound come out with that push, any sound, even a small one."
Watch for: Shame about being heard; dizziness from over-breathing (slow it down); noise limits for neighbours or clinical settings.

4.13 Moving a spoken statement, and verbal processing

Purpose / when: The client moves a strong verbal statement they have just made, then talks about it; verbal processing, individually or in group discussion, links the dance experience to life. This follows from Evan's joining of movement and word [source: NYPL catalogue record]; the procedure is [synthesis]. Use it at the end of improvisation and whenever a strong verbal statement appears.
Steps:
1. Catch the client's statement.
2. Ask them to repeat it and then move it.
3. After the movement, ask what they noticed in the body, what it reminded them of, and what it means for their life now.
4. In groups, invite witnesses to share what they saw and felt, without interpreting or advising. [steps: synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Say that again: 'I feel trapped.' Now let your body say it." Afterwards: "What did your body know that the words didn't?"
Watch for: Intellectualising that avoids the felt experience (bring it back to the body), and premature interpretation by therapist or group.

4.14 Between-session tasks

Purpose / when: A small task based on session material and aimed at life outside therapy, such as noticing one's own posture in a recurring situation. General DMT practice; not documented for Evan's method in the sources used [uncertain] [synthesis].
Steps:
1. Pick one small, specific observation or practice task from the session.
2. Agree when and where it will happen.
3. Review it at the next check-in and use it as material for the warm-up or the theme. [steps: synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "This week, just notice what your shoulders do when your sister phones. No need to change it, only notice."
Watch for: Make tasks observational before they ask for change. Never set exercise volume or weight-related targets.

4.15 Therapist stance: observing, selective demonstration, closure

Purpose / when: Throughout. The therapist watches closely and demonstrates or joins in only at chosen moments, which supports autonomy and keeps the movement the client's own (see the neutral-form principle in section 3). [synthesis]
Steps:
1. Give the directive, then step back and observe.
2. Demonstrate only to unblock a client who cannot start, or to show a safe technique, and then withdraw.
3. Close every session with grounding: slower tempo, weight into the floor, breath, eyes open, orientation to the room, and a check of arousal and safety before the client leaves. [steps 2–3: synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "I'll watch from here. You don't need to do it 'right'; I'm interested in what your body chooses."
Watch for: Clients copying the therapist; clients who feel scrutinised by being watched (sit at their level, soften your gaze, or move alongside briefly).

4.16 Adaptations [synthesis unless cited]

Children and young people: Evan's work began in creative dance for children before it developed into therapy. [source: Harris 2022] An Evan-based approach has been used with children on an inpatient general paediatrics unit in one-hour sessions; the number of sessions per child depended on availability, medical schedules and discharge, and children and carers were interviewed about mood afterwards. [source: Palafox 2016 Digital Commons record] Use more imagery and creative dance, shorter improvisations and play-based themes. Get carer consent and child assent. Follow local safeguarding and mandatory-reporting duties. Never treat a child's movement or dance content as evidence of abuse; respond to disclosures through safeguarding procedures.
Eating disorders: Krantz describes an Evan-based model for women with eating disorders (1999; abstract). Coordinate with the medical team on physical safety, avoid calorie-burning framing and exertion targets, and watch for compulsive over-exercise.
Assessment: No validated Evan-specific movement assessment is documented [uncertain]. Observe movement range and qualities to guide themes, not to diagnose.
Medical settings: Use seated and bed-based adaptations, and get clearance from the treating team. DMT here is an adjunct to medical care.

5. Handling problems

The sources used do not address problem-handling. Everything below is [synthesis].

Stuck or blank client ("I don't know what to do"). Narrow the directive: one body part, one quality, a 30-second limit. Offer two images to choose between. Use Functional Technique as a non-personal structure. Move alongside briefly and then withdraw (4.15). Present stuckness as a theme in itself ("move 'stuck'") only if the client finds that inviting. [synthesis]
Self-consciousness or performance anxiety. Turn down the light, turn the client away from mirrors, sit lower or look away while they move, start seated, and keep movements small. Say plainly that the work is not judged as dance. [synthesis]
Resistance or defensive movement patterns. Do not strip defences. Amplify the defensive pattern itself (more holding, more closing) and let the client explore it until it shifts on its own. [synthesis]
Overwhelm, flooding or dissociation. Stop the improvisation. Orient the client: eyes open, name objects, feet pressing into the floor, hands pushing against the wall, slow exhale. Speak in short, present-tense sentences. Do not touch unless touch was pre-agreed and the client asks for it (4.2). Go back to warm-up or creative dance for the following sessions. Reassess readiness before any further intense improvisation, and review the treatment plan with the client. [synthesis]
Retraumatisation after intense improvisation. Follow up within 24–48 hours if possible. Review sleep, intrusions and self-harm urges. Return to Phase A, and consider joint work with a trauma-focused verbal therapist. [synthesis]
Self-harm or suicide risk surfacing in movement or words. Pause the movement work. Carry out a standard risk assessment and safety planning according to the service's protocol, and liaise with the care team. Resume body work only when the client is stable. [synthesis]
Disclosure of abuse (adult or child). Respond calmly, follow safeguarding and mandatory-reporting procedures, and document the client's words, not interpretations of their movement. Never present a movement or dance image as evidence of abuse. [synthesis]
Non-adherence to between-session tasks. Make the task smaller and observational, link it to a moment that occurs every day, and explore without blame what got in the way. Present the obstacle as material for the next session's theme. [synthesis]
Rupture (feeling watched or judged, a touch misstep, a directive felt as intrusive). Name it, take your share of responsibility, and invite the client to show in movement how it felt. Agree what will change: more distance, less observation, no touch, a different theme. Repair openly before resuming content work. [synthesis]
Physical problems (pain, fatigue, injury, dizziness). Stop and assess. Use seated or supported versions; get medical advice if pain persists. Record any fall or injury according to the setting's policy. Never push through pain to "release" something emotionally. [synthesis]
Over-exertion or compulsive movement (eating disorders, mania, self-punishment). Lower the intensity and add pauses and stillness. Shift from vigorous dynamics to awareness, and coordinate with the medical team. [synthesis]
Group problems. One member's intense improvisation can flood others. Brief the group in advance on witnessing, allow members to step out, keep work on personal trauma themes to individual sessions unless the group is cohesive and screened, and close with group grounding. Agree in advance that personal material shared in the group stays confidential. [synthesis]
Cultural mismatch. Music, touch, mixed-gender partnering, expansive or sexualised-seeming movement, and loud voicing may conflict with the client's norms. Ask, and offer alternatives (own music, single-gender groups, no partner work). [synthesis]
Therapist demonstrates too much, or the client copies the therapist. Return to the observer stance (4.15) and use verbal directives. [synthesis]

Sources

Web pages:

Books and papers cited (bibliographic details from the pages above):

Bernstein, B. (1996). Dancing beyond trauma: Women survivors of sexual abuse. In F. J. Levy (Ed.), Dance and Other Expressive Art Therapies: When Words Are Not Enough (ch. 2). New York: Routledge. [content not reproduced in this guide; uncertain]
Benov, R. G. (comp.) (1991). Collected Works by and about Blanche Evan. San Francisco: Blanche Evan Dance Foundation. [catalogue record only]
Bernstein, B., & Krantz, A. M. The Dance/Movement Therapy of Blanche Evan: Life is Movement. Routledge. [listed as "coming soon", no date]
Krantz, A. M. (1999). Growing into her body: Dance/movement therapy for women with eating disorders. American Journal of Dance Therapy. [abstract only]
Krantz, A. M. (2000). "A Living Kinesis": Connecting Blanche Evan's Functional Technique to 21st century dance therapy practice. PsycEXTRA. [content not summarised; uncertain]
Krantz, A. M. (2012). Let the body speak: Commentary on paper by Jon Sletvold. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. [abstract only]
Palafox, A. (2016). Embodied Narratives (MA thesis, Columbia College Chicago). [record and abstract]
Evan, B. (1930s writings): cited in Harris 2022 from the 1991 Collected Works reprint [uncertain: cited second-hand].

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