Resources

In ‘Sweat your Prayers’, internationally acclaimed movement and theatre artist, author and music producer Gabrielle Roth brings to us the ground-breaking insights of her lifetime of teaching personal and spiritual development. Her cutting-edge workshops have been attended by thousands worldwide…. This book is expedition through five universal rhythms – flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness. …Each is a practical tool of awakening that will release us to dance on the edge, to be outrageous, to transform suffering into art and art into awareness. Embracing the rhythms as spiritual practice is a dynamic way to free the body, to express the heart and to clear the mind…. It is Western Zen, a liturgy for life in the new millennium….how the five rhythms have transformed people around the world.

Maps to Ecstasy by Gabrielle Roth

Gabrielle’s internationally acclaimed first book that takes us on a healing journey through the terrain of the body, heart, mind, soul and spirit.
“I love Gabrielle’s unique, poetic, down-home funky style. She has been a constant inspiration to us creative people around the world. Maps opens the door to living an ecstatic life.” — MARGOT ANAND

Connections: Threads of Intuitive Wisdom by Gabrielle Roth

Once you awaken your intuition and get in the habit of listening to and acting on it, every decision in your life will become reflective of your inner truth. The trick is not to try to work out all the answers in your head. Rather, take whatever information you need into your body, trust your gut, then dance or meditate or walk or do whatever you need to enter a relaxed state of being and you’ll know what to do. You always have and you always will. — from Connections.
www.ravenrecording.com

If you are interested in the “Being” of dance, an interesting read is a book called The Place of Dance: A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making by Andrea Olsen and Caryn Mchose, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 2014

While doing some research on dance, I was personally surprised that dance movement could actually be used as a form of psychotherapy.This type of psychotherapy is called Dance Movement Therapy or DMT.

Here is an impressive article spearheaded by Marko Punkanen, PhD who is a dance movement therapist and trauma psychotherapist.  He explains how “body movement, being fundamental to the perception and production of emotion” should be considered as an approach utilised in the treatment of depression. 

https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199949298.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199949298-e-58

Another article by Vicky Karkou et. al in the journal Frontiers in Psychology explained that

Dance Movement Therapy is an effective intervention in the treatment of adults with depression.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6509172/

YES.  Here is some research that blew my mind from Frontiers in Psychology, authored by Tal Shafir entitled, “Using Movement to Regulate Emotion: Neurophysiological Findings and Their Application in Psychotherapy.”

By deliberately controlling your body movement, you can actually regulate your emotions and affect your feelings.
Emotion regulation is one of the goals sought out in psychotherapy and one of the most important skills a person can learn to help him/her with work and establishing healthy relationships.

This is the concept used in dance movement therapy or DMT where the therapist guides the patient to move in a certain way and the patient is able to elicit, process and regulate certain emotions.  The exploration of new and unfamiliar movement can help the patient experience new emotions and feelings that he is not accustomed to. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5033979/

In the United Kingdom, here is where you can find a specially-licensed Dance Movement Psychotherapist:

Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy

https://admp.org.uk/

In Europe: European Association Dance Movement Therapy
https://www.eadmt.com

In the United States:  American Dance Therapy Association
Link: https://www.adta.org/

In Canada:  Dance Movement Therapy Association in Canada
https://www.dmtac.org/

In Australia: Dance Movement Therapy Association of Australasia
https://dtaa.org.au/

International Dance Therapy Institute or Australia
http://www.idtia.org.au/

In India:  Creative Movement Therapy Association of India
https://www.cmtai.org/

In the Philippines: Dance Movement Therapy
https://magiscreative.net/dancemovementtherapy/

In New Zealand: Dance Therapy New Zealand
https://dancetherapy.co.nz/

Research shows that dance movement training may be superior to repetitive physical exercise to counteract the effects of aging on the brain.  Here is the link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29995884/

This research was spearheaded by Kathrin Rehfeld et al from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Germany.  They created a dance six-month long dance program on 38 participants (ages 63-80 y.o).  And they found that dancing, compared to regular physical activity showed pronounced differences in brain volume in different areas of the brain like the cingulate cortex, insula.

The interesting thing about this research is that only dancing showed an increased level of plasma Brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4697050/
Decreased levels of BDNF are related to diseases with  neuronal loss such as Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease or Multiple Sclerosis. Thus, increased levels of BDNF may be useful in the prevention or management of these diseases.

Wayne Dyer, known as the “Father of Motivation”  has been instrumental in my journey of transformation: Here is his website:

https://www.drwaynedyer.com/