| |
Dance/movement
therapy is practiced in mental health, rehabilitation, medical, educational,
forensic, nursing homes, day care, disease prevention and health promotion
programs. Just like many services, not all hospitals, clinics offer
dance/movement therapy, however, Dance/movement therapy is an effective
treatment for people with developmental, medical, social, physical
and psychological impairments. Dance/movement therapy is used with
people of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds in individual, couples,
family, and group therapy formats. Dance movement therapy is not a
class. We do not teach steps, routines, or exercises. It is very different
than a dance class that one might attend. Having a session in dance/movement
therapy is just like going to a verbal therapist?s office where you
would be focusing on your problems, however, we use the body as a
way to communicate these problems and difficulties, and in some cases,
can then verbally process and articulate what is being felt on a body
level.
There
are two ways in order to be trained as a dance/movement therapist.
Professional training for dance/movement therapists is on the graduate
level. Graduates receive a master's degree in dance/movement therapy
or related degree title. Graduates from an "approved"
dance/movement therapy program are eligible for the D.T.R. (Dance
Therapist Registered) credential. Specific graduate programs or
alternate route training can be located at website www.adta.org
or contacting the national office at info@adta.org for information.
1.
For a graduate DMT program, go to the ADTA website (http://www.adta.org)
and hit the education link there. It will tell you all the ADTA
approved graduate DMT programs and give you the contact information
you will need. Talking with the admissions person connected with
each of these programs to find out what the program has to offer
and how it may be unique from the other programs.
2.
For the alternate route option, this would involve pursuing a general
mental health related degree at the masters level, and then augmenting
it with the ADTA approved DMT training material. Request the Alternate
Route application packet from the ADTA National Office (by phone,
letter, or email). This will outline the requirements that you need
to fulfill and help you plan out a course of study. There are several
ways one can fulfill these requirements. One way is to take courses
within academic institutions as a non-matriculated student. There
are also various non-academic training programs that have courses
taught by ADTRs and that have been pre-approved for alternate route
and continuing education. More about these courses is available
at the ADTA website. One final option would be to work one-on-one
with an ADTR to learn this material. This is all outlined in the
alternate route application paper!
It
also would be very important to consider where you would like to
practice after graduation and to be familiar with the licensing
laws surrounding clinicians.
|
|
