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Guide VIII-093

Psychoanalytic dance-movement therapy

Elaine V. Siegel1973United States
A 34 · L 37 · M 2917 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Elaine V. Siegel's psychoanalytic dance-movement therapy as it continues in German-language "analytische Bewegungs- und Tanztherapie" (Siegel, Trautmann-Voigt & Voigt 1997, retitled 1999), with the Chace circle as the group format Siegel herself used in institutions. Bibliographic sources include PEP-Web, Springer and library records (Siegel 1973, 1984, 1995; the German volumes). Siegel's dates were checked against the AJDT 2014 notice and Bender 2020, which disagree on the death year. Zoë Avstreih's identity and publications were checked against book listings. Not drawn on: the full text of Siegel's 1973 paper (PEP-Web, subscription only), her 1984 book, the 1997/1999 German volume, the 1998 training curriculum and any Avstreih text. So the phase structure, almost all step-by-step procedures and all example wording remain [synthesis], built on concepts named in abstracts, keywords, tables of contents and reading samples. Read it as an orientation to the method, not a replacement for the primary texts and supervised training. [uncertain]

  • What it is. A dance/movement therapy that works inside a psychoanalytic frame. Elaine V. Siegel was a US dance/movement therapy pioneer [source: AJDT 2014 editorial] who later also worked as a psychoanalyst. Her later books concern the analyst's countertransference in psychoanalytic treatment, and a German review calls her a former dance therapist [source: Siegel 2019 listing; Perlentaucher record of Inzest, 1999]. Her dates are given as 1928–2014 in the AJDT In Memoria notice (by Anita Luck and colleagues, AJDT 36(1), 2014) and as 1928–2013 in Bender 2020 (table of contents §4.5, which places her in the "second generation" of US dance therapists). The death year is therefore 2013 or 2014 [uncertain]. She is sometimes listed as "von Siegel"; she published as Elaine V. Siegel. Key works: "Movement Therapy as a Psychotherapeutic Tool", Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 21 (1973), 333–343 [source: PEP-Web record]; Dance-Movement Therapy: Mirror of Our Selves – The Psychoanalytic Approach (New York: Human Sciences Press, 1984; about 216 pages) [source: TAMU and Patras library catalogues; Goodreads listing]; German edition Tanztherapie (Klett-Cotta 1986) [source: Thieme overview reference list].
  • Germany. Her method passed into German practice mainly through Sabine Trautmann-Voigt and Bernd Voigt. Together with Siegel they wrote Tanz- und Bewegungstherapie in Theorie und Praxis (psychoanalytic dance movement therapy nach E. V. Siegel) (Fischer 1997), reissued as Analytische Bewegungs- und Tanztherapie (Reinhardt 1999). They also edited Freud lernt laufen (Brandes & Apsel 1997), which includes contributions by Daniel Stern. [source: TUM catalogue records; Palucca library record]
  • Avstreih. Siegel is paired with Zoë Avstreih, a US dance/movement therapist who writes within the Authentic Movement tradition. Her verified writings are:
    • "The emerging self: Psychoanalytic concepts of self development and their implications for dance therapy", American Journal of Dance Therapy. The title comes from the ISTEX AJDT bibliographic index; the year, volume and pages are unverified [uncertain].
    • Two chapters in P. Pallaro (Ed.), Authentic Movement: Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved, Volume Two (Jessica Kingsley, 2007): "Achieving body permanence: Authentic Movement and the paradox of healing" (ch. 22), and "On synchrony" (ch. 10, with Julie Joslyn Brown). [source: Hugendubel contents listing; Stromsted 2007 chapter citation]
    Her titles point to a self-developmental, object-relations reading of movement. No Avstreih text is drawn on here, so no technique or wording in this guide is attributed to her. Her affiliation (a "Center for Journey Home" has been suggested) is [uncertain]. A date of "1960s–70s" fits Siegel's 1973 paper. Avstreih's AJDT article cannot be earlier than 1977, when the journal's first volume appeared [source: Springer page for Whitehouse 1977, AJDT 1(2)], and her chapters date from 2007.
  • How change happens. A German overview article (Thieme Connect) centres on the "Ansatz von Elaine V. Siegel". Its correspondence author is Sabine Trautmann-Voigt (Köln-Bonner Akademie für Psychotherapie and DITAT, Bonn); the full author list was not shown. The article describes the approach as integrating movement processes with psychodynamic psychotherapy, in both theory and practice. Its keywords name Siegel's "Motilitätskonzept" (motility concept), the "rhythmisch-dynamischer Handlungsdialog" (rhythmic-dynamic action dialogue) between patient and therapist, and rhythm. Only the motility concept is explicitly tied to Siegel there. The abstract explains neither concept, and the action dialogue may be the German authors' own development of her work [uncertain]. [source: Thieme overview abstract and keywords]
  • Underlying model. In the same tradition the self develops as a body-self, "das sich in affektmotorischen Handlungsdialogen entfaltet" (which unfolds in affect-motor action dialogues). Early relational patterns are stored in body memory and come back in movement and in the therapist's bodily countertransference. Change comes from re-entering such dialogues in movement within a reliable relationship, then understanding them psychodynamically. [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011, reading sample p. 16–17; synthesis of the two sources]

2. Framework

No published phase model with session counts is documented in the sources. The German overview presents its three intervention foci (structuring, activation of experience, conflict orientation) as methodical options, each illustrated by a case example. It does not present them as sequential phases and does not tie them specifically to Siegel. Ordering them as phases B–D, and all session counts and criteria below, is [synthesis]. A training curriculum exists (Siegel & Voigt 1998, "Kompaktcurriculum Analytische Bewegungs- und Tanztherapie", in an edited volume) but is not drawn on here. [source: Thieme overview abstract and reference list] [uncertain]

Formats Siegel used. Siegel's 1995 paper follows one reality-distorting, ego-dystonic fantasy through three formats, and adapts the method to each:

  • an experiential group;
  • a psychoanalysis based on dance therapy (individual);
  • a Chace group in an institution.

[source: Siegel 1995, AJDT 17(2):115–128, abstract]

Phase A – Entry and frame (about sessions 1–3 [synthesis]).

  • Goals. Initial interview, working alliance, frame conditions and the therapy mandate. These are named stages in the current German standard textbook (Bender 2020, sections 10.2 and 10.3.1). [source: Bender 2020 table of contents]
  • Movement observation. Observe and record a baseline of rhythm, tension flow, effort and shape qualities. [synthesis, drawing on the Laban/Kestenberg tradition used in German analytic dance therapy]
  • Consent. Agree on touch and any video recording.
  • Criterion to move on. The client knows the frame and has given explicit consent, and the therapist has a first hypothesis linking the movement pattern to the presenting conflict. [synthesis]

Phase B – Structuring (open-ended).

  • Goal. Stabilise and organise through rhythm, predictable structure and mirroring. "Strukturierung" is one of three methodical options the German overview illustrates with case examples, alongside "Erlebnisaktivierung" and "Konfliktorientierung". Placing it first, as a phase, is synthesis. [source: Thieme overview abstract]
  • When to stay here. Use this phase first, and on its own, with low ego strength, psychosis, severe dissociation or acute crisis. [synthesis]
  • Criterion to move on. The client can join and leave a shared rhythm, tolerate being mirrored, and name at least some body sensations. [synthesis]

Phase C – Activation of experience.

  • Goal. Widen the movement range and bring affect-laden experience into the action dialogue. [source: Thieme overview, named focus]
  • Criterion to move on. Affect can be felt and held in the session without disorganisation, and the client starts linking movement to life events or relationships. [synthesis]

Phase D – Conflict orientation.

  • Goal. Recognise and work through transference, countertransference and the conflict as it is enacted in movement, and put it into words. [source: Thieme overview, named focus; content synthesis]

Ending. Rework separation themes in movement, and recall and consolidate what has changed. [synthesis]

Format and dose.

  • Individual work. Weekly sessions of about 50–60 minutes, open-ended, as is usual for psychodynamic therapy. [synthesis]
  • Groups. About 60–90 minutes. A recent psychoanalytically framed Chace-circle study ran three 1.5-hour modules in a day hospital for adults with psychosis. [source: Manrique 2025]
  • Settings. German clinical examples come from a psychosomatic clinic and an outpatient practice. [source: Thieme overview]
  • Movement between phases. Movement is not linear. Return to structuring whenever overwhelm appears. [synthesis]

3. Guiding principles

  • Body and psyche are one field. Treat movement as psychic material, not as exercise. [source: Siegel 1995 title, "bridge between psyche and soma"; Thieme overview]
  • Rhythm is the organiser. Read and work through the client's rhythms first, and respect each person's biologically pre-formed tempo rather than imposing your own. [source: Thieme overview; Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 p. 17]
  • Therapy is an action dialogue. Your movements are interventions. Choose when to match, contrast, lead or follow. [source: Thieme overview, "rhythmic-dynamic action dialogue"]
  • Mirroring is central but not always indicated. Use intuitive body-language mirroring to build attunement. Withhold it where it is contraindicated, for example where it feels persecutory, merging or mocking. The German textbook has a section on contraindications of mirroring; its content is [uncertain]. [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 p. 17; Bender 2020 table of contents §10.4, §11.2; examples are synthesis]
  • Bodily countertransference is data. Track your own sensations, tension and impulses to move as information about the relationship, and do not act on them unreflectively. [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 p. 16; Dosamantes-Beaudry 2007 as cited by Manrique 2025]
  • Read movement developmentally. German teaching material links Kestenberg tension-flow rhythms to psychoanalytic developmental phases, to specific dance-therapy interventions and to countertransference responses. Use this as a hypothesis, never as a diagnosis. No source links Siegel personally to the Kestenberg system. Bender 2020 treats Kestenberg (1910–1999) in a separate section on the founders of movement analysis, and the Thieme overview cites Kestenberg & Sossin 1979 alongside Siegel without connecting them. [source: Logos-Verlag table of contents, ISBN 9783832516024, ch. 7; Bender 2020 table of contents §5.3; Thieme reference list; the Siegel–Kestenberg link is uncertain]
  • Fit the method to the setting and the ego level. The same material calls for different handling in an experiential group, an individual analysis or an institutional Chace group. [source: Siegel 1995 abstract]
  • The frame comes first. Set the working alliance, frame conditions and therapy mandate explicitly before deep work. [source: Bender 2020 table of contents §10.3.1]
  • Touch has its own ethics. Distinguish functional, communicative and therapeutic touch, and holding touch interventions. Each needs explicit, revocable consent. Touch is never sexual or genital. [source: Bender 2020 table of contents §10.8; consent steps are synthesis]
  • Scenic understanding (szenisches Verstehen). Treat what unfolds in the room between you as a re-staged relational scene. [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 table of contents §6.2.5, a parent–infant context; applied here as synthesis]
  • Movement is not evidence. Never read movement as proof of abuse or as a diagnosis. Siegel's later work deals with real and imagined incest, including false claims, from the countertransference side. [source: Siegel 2019 Transformations, publisher listing; the inference is synthesis]
  • Professional frame.
    • Germany: "Tanztherapie" is not a legally protected title. The professional body is the BTD (Berufsverband der TanztherapeutInnen Deutschlands e.V., founded 1995), which registers "BTD-registered" dance therapists through multi-year part-time trainings. [source: Bender 2020 preface p. 11; EADMT Germany page]
    • UK: ADMP UK.
    • USA: ADTA, with the R-DMT and BC-DMT credentials.
    • The psychoanalytic component (transference work, interpretation) also needs psychodynamic psychotherapy training, and in most countries a licence to treat. Do not use the interpretive levels without dance/movement therapy training and psychodynamic training plus supervision. [synthesis; check national law]
  • Physical safety is part of the holding environment.
    • A clear, non-slip floor with no sharp furniture edges.
    • Barefoot or non-slip socks.
    • Water available.
    • Pace work so that falls and dizziness are avoided.
    [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

The sources name the interventions below. Step-by-step procedures are not documented in the primary texts, so all steps and wording are illustrative [synthesis] unless a source is tagged. Siegel's 1984 book and the 1997/1999 German volume should be checked for her own procedures. [uncertain]

4.1 Initial interview with movement observation

  • Purpose. Take the history, assess suitability, and record a first movement baseline. The initial interview is a named step in the German textbook. [source: Bender 2020 table of contents §10.2]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Take a standard psychodynamic history, including risk, medical limits on movement (cardiac, orthopaedic, pregnancy, falls history) and any trauma involving the body or touch.
    2. Invite free walking or spontaneous movement for 5–10 minutes while you observe.
    3. Note tempo and rhythm, tension flow (bound or free, even or abrupt), use of space, posture compared with gesture, and where the movement starts and stops.
    4. Ask what the client noticed.
    5. Write down hypotheses linking the movement to the presenting conflict, and treat them as provisional.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Just walk around the room at whatever speed feels right today. There's no right way. I'll be watching to get a sense of how you move, and afterwards I'll ask what you noticed."
  • Watch for. Freezing, apologising, or performing for you. Each is first data on how the client meets a new relationship. Medical red flags mean you need medical clearance before active work.

4.2 Setting the frame, working alliance and therapy mandate

  • Purpose. Make the containing frame explicit before any regression-inviting work. [source: Bender 2020 table of contents §10.3.1]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Agree session length, frequency, cancellation rules and fees.
    2. Explain that movement and talk alternate, and that the client may stop or sit out at any time.
    3. Agree a stop signal (word or gesture).
    4. Agree on touch: default none unless asked and consented each time (see 4.12).
    5. Agree on video: written consent covering use, storage and deletion.
    6. Name the shared therapy goal (the mandate).
  • Example language (illustrative): "You're always in charge of your body here. If you say 'stop' or raise your hand, everything stops, and I won't ask why unless you want to tell me."
  • Watch for. Agreement that comes too fast, which may be compliance. Revisit consent in later sessions.

4.3 Movement observation and analysis (Laban, Kestenberg)

  • Purpose. Read movement qualities as psychodynamic material and plan interventions.
    • In German analytic dance therapy, Kestenberg tension-flow rhythms (oral, anal, urethral, inner-genital, outer-genital) are linked to developmental phases, to specific dance-therapy interventions and to typical countertransference responses. [source: Logos-Verlag table of contents, ch. 3–7, 9–14]
    • A recent psychoanalytically framed study coded group movement with Laban effort and shape (flow, weight, time, space). [source: Manrique 2025]
    • Whether Siegel herself used the Kestenberg Movement Profile was not verified. The sources cite both but do not connect them. [uncertain]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. After each session, note which rhythms and effort qualities dominated, which were missing, and where the client clashed with you or with the group.
    2. Note posture and gesture (whole-body versus isolated) and any "shadow movements".
    3. Form a developmental hypothesis, for example "needs holding before autonomy can be explored".
    4. Choose the next session's rhythmic offer from that hypothesis.
  • Watch for. Over-interpretation. The KMP is a training-dependent tool. Do not present its readings to clients as facts about their childhood.

4.4 Mirroring (body-language mirroring, empathic reflection)

  • Purpose. Build attunement and a felt sense of being seen. Mirroring gives the body-self a reflected form, which is the sense of Siegel's book title Mirror of Our Selves. [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 p. 17, intuitive mirroring "von höchster Bedeutung"; Bender 2020 §10.4; Siegel 1984 title]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Face or stand beside the client at a distance the client chooses.
    2. Reflect the quality of the movement (tempo, tension, size) rather than copying its exact shape.
    3. Start smaller than the client.
    4. Keep the reflection slightly delayed and softened, so it does not mimic.
    5. Check in verbally after 1–2 minutes.
    6. Once attunement holds, vary the reflection slightly ("attuned variation") to open new movement.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm going to move along with you, picking up something of how you're moving. Tell me if it feels comfortable, odd, or too close."
  • Watch for.
    • Signs it is working: the client relaxes, breathes more fully, spontaneously extends the movement, or smiles.
    • Contraindication signs: feeling mocked, merging anxiety, paranoid feelings, or shame at being watched. If these appear, step back to side-by-side or parallel movement, or stop and talk. [contraindication topic: Bender 2020 §11.2 heading; specifics are synthesis]

4.5 Rhythmic-dynamic action dialogue (rhythmisch-dynamischer Handlungsdialog)

  • Purpose. The core relational medium. Patient and therapist set up a non-verbal dialogue of rhythms and dynamics, where early affect-motor patterns show themselves and can be changed. [source: Thieme overview; Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 p. 16–17]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Join the client's rhythm, through steps, clapping, breath or arm swings.
    2. Hold it until it feels shared.
    3. Offer a small change: faster or slower, accented, pausing.
    4. Watch whether the client follows, resists, ignores or leads.
    5. Hand the lead to the client.
    6. Alternate who leads.
    7. Afterwards, name the pattern of the exchange (who adapts to whom, what happens at pauses).
  • Example language (illustrative): "When I slowed down just now, you sped up. What was that like?" or "Let's take turns: you start a rhythm, I'll answer, then you answer me."
  • Watch for. Repetitive patterns in the dialogue, such as always adapting, always resisting, or losing the rhythm when you make contact. These are the transference in action. Flexible, playful turn-taking that is new for the client shows progress.

4.6 Structuring interventions

  • Purpose. Organise and stabilise when the ego is fragile or the client is disorganised. This is the first of the three intervention foci illustrated in the German clinical examples. [source: Thieme overview]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Use a fixed opening and closing ritual.
    2. Use a steady pulse, with music or clapping.
    3. Use simple, clear movement tasks with defined space, such as a circle, a line or a mat as personal territory.
    4. Stay close to the body (grounding through feet, weight, breath).
    5. Keep verbal interventions short and concrete.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's feel the floor under our feet. Shift your weight left and right with the beat."
  • Watch for. Calmer breathing, steadier gaze and the ability to stay in a task all show it is working. Keep the structuring phase longer for clients with psychosis or dissociation.

4.7 Activation of experience

  • Purpose. Expand a restricted movement repertoire and bring affect into consciousness. This is the second named focus. [source: Thieme overview]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Identify qualities that are missing (for example strength, directness, free flow).
    2. Offer them playfully, through images, props (cloth, ball, elastic band) or contrasting pairs (heavy and light, sudden and sustained).
    3. Increase intensity gradually.
    4. Pause to ask what feelings, images or memories came up.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Try pushing against the wall with your whole weight. What happens inside when you're allowed to use your strength?"
  • Watch for. Affect that rises without the ability to settle afterwards (see 5.3). Images, memories or new words for feelings arising from the movement show it is working.

4.8 Conflict-oriented work: verbalisation and interpretation

  • Purpose. Link what was enacted in movement to the client's conflicts and relationships, including the relationship with you. This is the third named focus. Siegel's 1995 paper shows the same fantasy handled with more interpretive depth in a dance-therapy-based analysis than in groups. [source: Thieme overview; Siegel 1995 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Let the movement sequence finish.
    2. Move to sitting.
    3. Ask for the client's experience first.
    4. Offer a description of the movement ("You kept your back to me").
    5. Then offer a tentative link to their story or to the relationship with you, as a question, not a verdict.
    6. Return to movement to test the link ("Try it facing me, just for a moment").
  • Example language (illustrative): "Each time the rhythm got stronger, you stepped back. I wonder if that's a bit like what you described with your father, where closeness gets too much and you leave first."
  • Watch for. Interpreting too early can lead to compliance or withdrawal. Interpret only with clients of adequate ego strength. A good sign is that the client corrects or extends your link, or brings new material.

4.9 Working with bodily countertransference

  • Purpose. Use your own body as an instrument of perception. In this tradition the therapist learns about the interaction through "(leiblichen) Gegenübertragungsgefühle" (bodily countertransference feelings). Siegel's incest book describes using "die non-verbalen, körperlichen Reaktionen des Analytikers" (the analyst's non-verbal, bodily reactions) constructively in treatment. Kestenberg-informed teaching maps typical countertransference responses to each rhythm type. [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 p. 16; Siegel 1999 Inzest, publisher blurb via Perlentaucher; Siegel 2019 on countertransference; Logos table of contents §7.14; Dosamantes-Beaudry 2007 as cited by Manrique 2025]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. During the session, scan your own tension, breath, tempo and impulses (to rescue, withdraw, speed up, touch).
    2. Note them without acting on them.
    3. Afterwards, write them down next to the movement observations.
    4. Ask whose feeling this might be and which scene it belongs to.
    5. Use it to time interventions, or offer it carefully ("I notice myself getting very careful with you").
    6. Take it to supervision.
  • Watch for. Acting out (unplanned touch, over-involvement, boredom). Recurring countertransference patterns usually point to the core relational theme.

4.10 Scenic understanding (szenisches Verstehen)

  • Purpose. Read the whole session as a re-staged early scene: who leads, who waits, who is left. [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 table of contents §6.2.5; application synthesis]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. After the session, describe the scene in one sentence ("She waited at the edge until I came to fetch her").
    2. Link it to biographical scenes and to the transference.
    3. Use it to choose the next action dialogue.
  • Watch for. Scenes that repeat across sessions. A scene that changes shows movement in the transference.

4.11 Developmental rhythm interventions (Kestenberg-informed)

  • Purpose. Offer the rhythm, and the relational stance that goes with it, that a developmental hypothesis suggests is missing or conflicted. German teaching material frames each rhythm group with a relational phrase, for example for anal rhythms "Hilf mir, es selbst zu tun" (help me do it myself). [source: Logos table of contents §7.13; not attributed to Siegel]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. From observation (4.3), choose one rhythm family, for example sucking and rocking (oral) or holding and releasing (anal).
    2. Introduce it through play (rocking in a cloth held by the client, push-and-hold games).
    3. Take the matching relational stance (holding, or supporting autonomy).
    4. Observe the client's response and your own countertransference.
  • Watch for. Regression beyond what the frame can hold. Keep the client oriented to the present (name the time, the room, the end of the session).

4.12 Touch interventions (functional, communicative, therapeutic, holding)

  • Purpose. Sometimes touch supports grounding, contact or holding. The German textbook distinguishes functional, communicative and therapeutic touch and holding touch interventions, and has a section on the ethics of touch. [source: Bender 2020 table of contents §10.8]
  • Steps and consent [synthesis]:
    1. Default to no touch.
    2. Before touching, say exactly where, how and why: hands, shoulder blades or upper back only; never chest, buttocks, groin or inner thigh; never sexual or genital.
    3. Ask for a clear yes.
    4. Offer a prop alternative (ball, cloth, wall, the client's own hands).
    5. Let the client initiate contact where possible, for example by placing their palm against yours.
    6. Use the agreed stop signal, and check in during and after.
    7. Renew consent every time. Consent from a previous session does not carry over.
    8. Consider culture, gender and religion, trauma history and dissociation. Trauma survivors may say yes while frozen, so watch the body as well as the words.
    9. Record it in the notes.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if I put my hand flat between your shoulder blades while you breathe? You can say no, now or at any point, and nothing changes between us."
  • Watch for. Stillness, held breath, looking away or going blank all mean stop. In psychoanalytic work, think through what touch means in the transference before using it. Often you can explore the wish to be touched without acting on it.

4.13 Chace circle group in an institutional setting

  • Purpose. Siegel used a Chace group for the institutional version of her work. Mirroring in the Chace circle, where the group acknowledges each person's movement, builds belonging and shared rhythm. [source: Siegel 1995 abstract; Manrique 2025; Bender 2020 §11.7.14 heading on the structure of a Chace-method session]
  • Steps [synthesis; usual Chace arc]:
    1. Form a circle.
    2. Warm up with a shared rhythm, with the therapist mirroring each member's offered movement.
    3. Develop a theme from what emerges, through images or movement metaphors.
    4. Close with a shared calming movement and brief verbal sharing.
    5. Run 60–90 minutes. Take groups with psychosis more slowly and keep them more structured.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Maria's rocking, let's all try Maria's rocking." "What would you like to call this movement?"
  • Watch for. Members who isolate themselves, and contagion of agitation. Use the circle as a structuring container, and keep interpretation at group or metaphor level, not personal.

4.14 Experiential group format

  • Purpose. A less structured group in which conflictual fantasies can come up and be worked with at group level. This is one of Siegel's three formats. [source: Siegel 1995 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Start with an open movement invitation.
    2. Use small-group or pair improvisation.
    3. Share verbally, with group-level comments on themes.
    4. Screen out members at acute risk.
  • Watch for. Scapegoating and over-exposure. The leader protects the boundaries.

4.15 Dance-therapy-based individual psychoanalysis

  • Purpose. Intensive individual treatment in which movement and verbal analysis alternate, with full transference work. This is the third format in Siegel 1995. [source: Siegel 1995 abstract; Siegel 1973 title]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Agree a frequency (one or more sessions a week).
    2. Let the client choose between moving and talking in each session, and treat that choice as material.
    3. Combine 4.4–4.10 as needed.
  • Watch for. Only analytically trained clinicians should do this.

4.16 Video-based interaction analysis

  • Purpose. Use micro-analysis of recorded sessions to see action dialogues and rhythms that are missed in real time. Trautmann-Voigt and Moll describe video-based interaction analyses as helpful, in parent–infant work. [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011 p. 14, §8.5]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Get written consent covering purpose, storage, deletion and who sees it.
    2. Record short sequences.
    3. Review them frame by frame for timing, matching and mismatching.
    4. Show selected moments to the client only if it supports self-observation and does not shame.
  • Watch for. Self-consciousness and body-image distress when clients see themselves.

4.17 Opening, closure and transition rituals

  • Purpose. Contain the session and move safely between movement and words. [synthesis]
  • Steps [synthesis]:
    1. Open with check-in and body scan.
    2. Move into the movement work.
    3. Slow down and come to the floor or a chair.
    4. Talk.
    5. Close with a grounding movement and orientation to the room and time. Leave 10 minutes for this.
  • Watch for. Clients who leave the session still activated or dissociated.

5. Handling problems

The sources give almost no explicit problem-handling guidance. Everything below is [synthesis] unless tagged.

  • Stuck client (moves the same way every session, "nothing happens").
    • Treat the stuckness as the action dialogue itself. Mirror it exactly for a while, then introduce one small variation (4.4, 4.5).
    • Use a prop to take attention away from the self.
    • Ask what the repetition protects against.
    • Check your countertransference (boredom, impatience) for what it signals.
  • Resistance to moving (embarrassment, "I can't dance").
    • Lower the threshold: seated work, breath, hand dialogues, walking. Avoid "dance".
    • Never insist.
    • Explore the refusal as meaningful, for example shame, fear of being seen, or bad experiences of the body in sport or school.
    • Be ready to work verbally for a while.
  • Overwhelm, flooding, dissociation.
    • Stop the activating task.
    • Return to structuring (4.6): feet on the floor, slow rhythm, name five things in the room, orient to time.
    • Reduce interpretation.
    • In later sessions, lower the intensity and shorten activation phases.
    • Pre-agree the stop signal (4.2).
  • Regression beyond the frame (childlike states that persist after the session).
    • Leave longer closure time (4.17).
    • Use present-time orientation.
    • Reduce developmental rhythm work (4.11).
    • Arrange more contact between sessions only within agreed limits.
    • Consult a supervisor.
  • Retraumatisation, including through touch or proximity.
    • Return to no-touch, larger distance and side-by-side positions.
    • Repair verbally: "I went too close, too fast."
    • Re-run the consent process.
    • Remember that a yes given while frozen is not consent (4.12).
  • Mirroring felt as mockery, intrusion or merging. Mirroring has contraindications [topic: Bender 2020 §11.2]. Respond as follows:
    • Stop mirroring.
    • Move in parallel or complementary form instead.
    • Name and explore what it felt like in the transference.
  • Non-adherence (missed sessions, arriving late, not changing clothes).
    • Treat it as frame material and explore it in psychodynamic terms.
    • Keep the frame consistent.
    • Check for practical barriers: physical pain, body shame about clothing.
  • Ruptures (client angry after an intervention, leaves the movement).
    • Name the rupture.
    • Take your share of it.
    • Explore what happened in the action dialogue.
    • Use the repair itself, in movement and words, as a corrective experience.
  • Erotic transference or sexualised movement.
    • Keep boundaries firm: no touch, more distance.
    • Explore verbally as transference.
    • Never act on it.
    • Consult a supervisor.
  • Fantasies that distort reality. Siegel's 1995 paper shows one reality-distorting, ego-dystonic fantasy treated in different ways depending on the setting and the patient's developmental level. In an institutional group, contain it through structure and shared rhythm. In individual analysis, explore and interpret it. [source: Siegel 1995 abstract; specific handling synthesis]
  • Abuse disclosures or suspicions arising from movement.
    • Movement or body reactions are not evidence of abuse.
    • Do not suggest memories, and do not interpret movement as proof.
    • Siegel's later book on countertransference in the psychoanalytic treatment of incest, real and imagined, is relevant reading (English: Transformations; German: Inzest, Klett-Cotta 1999). A FAZ reviewer, Horst Petri, doubted that her approach suits severe personality disorders or borderline conditions. [source: Siegel 2019 listing; Perlentaucher record]
    • Follow local safeguarding and mandatory-reporting law for any actual disclosure, especially involving minors.
  • Children and young people.
    • Get assent from the child and consent from the parent or carer.
    • Involve carers where appropriate. The Trautmann-Voigt and Moll model is a psychodynamically grounded parent–infant–toddler psychotherapy that uses rhythm and mirroring with carer and child [source: Trautmann-Voigt & Moll 2011].
    • Keep sessions shorter and more playful.
    • Keep touch minimal and visible.
    • Have a second adult or an open door where policy requires it.
    • Follow safeguarding duties.
  • Psychosis or severe personality disturbance.
    • Stay in structuring and Chace-circle formats.
    • Avoid deep regression and interpretation.
    • Coordinate with the psychiatric team. [source: Manrique 2025 for psychosis day-hospital use; rest synthesis]
  • Physical safety problems.
    • Falls or dizziness (spinning, rocking, closed eyes): keep eyes open for at-risk clients, avoid spinning, offer a chair or wall for support.
    • Clear the floor; no socks on a slippery floor.
    • Check medical limits (pregnancy, cardiac, joint problems, older adults).
    • Keep music volume moderate.
    • Know your first-aid procedure.
  • Cultural mismatch.
    • Some clients have religious or cultural norms about mixed-gender movement, eye contact or touch.
    • Ask, adapt (same-gender co-therapist, no touch, clothing options) and do not pathologise.
  • Working beyond competence.
    • The interpretive levels (4.8–4.11, 4.15) need psychodynamic training.
    • The movement levels need dance/movement therapy training (in Germany BTD-registered, in the UK ADMP UK, in the USA ADTA R-DMT or BC-DMT).
    • Without both, use only the structuring and mirroring basics under supervision, or refer.

Sources

Sources

Further reading (not drawn on)

  • Siegel, E. V. (1973). Movement therapy as a psychotherapeutic tool. J Am Psychoanal Assoc, 21, 333–343.
  • Siegel, E. V. (1984). Dance-Movement Therapy: Mirror of Our Selves – The Psychoanalytic Approach. New York: Human Sciences Press. German edition: Tanztherapie, Klett-Cotta, 1986.
  • Siegel, E. V. (1995). Psychoanalytic dance therapy: The bridge between psyche and soma. Am J Dance Ther, 17(2), 115–128. doi:10.1007/BF02250955.
  • Siegel, E. V., Trautmann-Voigt, S., & Voigt, B. (1997). Tanz- und Bewegungstherapie in Theorie und Praxis. Frankfurt: Fischer. Reissued 1999 as Analytische Bewegungs- und Tanztherapie, München: Reinhardt.
  • Trautmann-Voigt, S., & Voigt, B. (Eds.) (1997). Freud lernt laufen. Frankfurt: Brandes & Apsel.
  • Trautmann-Voigt, S., & Moll, M. (2011). Bindung in Bewegung. Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag.
  • Bender, S. (2020). Grundlagen der Tanztherapie. Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag.
  • Siegel, E. V. (2019 paperback). Transformations: Countertransference During the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Incest, Real and Imagined. Taylor & Francis. Siegel, E. V. (1999). Inzest: Die psychoanalytische Behandlung eines frühen Traumas (trans. M. Looser). Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. Siegel, E. V., & Voigt, B. (1998). Kompaktcurriculum Analytische Bewegungs- und Tanztherapie. In an edited volume (as listed in the Thieme overview references). Avstreih, Z. (2007). Achieving body permanence: Authentic Movement and the paradox of healing; and Brown, J. J., & Avstreih, Z. (2007). On synchrony. In P. Pallaro (Ed.), Authentic Movement: Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved, Vol. 2. London: Jessica Kingsley.
  • Dosamantes-Beaudry, I. (2007). Somatic transference and countertransference in psychoanalytic intersubjective dance/movement therapy. Am J Dance Ther, 29(2), 73–89. (as cited by Manrique 2025)
  • Avstreih, Z. The emerging self: Psychoanalytic concepts of self development and their implications for dance therapy. American Journal of Dance Therapy (year, volume and pages not verified). [uncertain]
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