Mirroring in Dance/Movement Therapy: Potential mechanisms behind empathy enhancement

Mirroring, an exercise practiced in Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT), is considered by practitioners and patients to enhance emotional understanding and empathy for others. Mirroring involves imitation by the therapist of movements, emotions, or intentions implied by a client's movement, and is commonly practiced in order to enhance empathy of the therapist for the client. Despite enthusiastic claims for its effectiveness, a clear theoretical framework that would explain the effects of mirroring on empathy has not yet been presented, and empirical research on the topic is generally lacking. In this review, we propose that mirroring in DMT enhances understanding of others’ emotional intentions through enhanced use of mirror neuron circuitry. Research on the mirror neuron system (MNS) suggests that the brain areas involved in perception and production of movement overlap, and that these brain areas are also involved in the understanding of movement intention (Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004). One important route to emotion recognition involves a neural simulation of another person's emotional actions in order to infer the intentions behind those actions, and empathize with them. Future research is proposed in order to systematically explore the effectiveness of mirroring in dance therapy, the neural mechanisms behind it, and its applicability to patient populations who have problems with empathy.

► Mirroring may enhance emotional understanding through increased use of the MNS.
► Individual differences in MNS functioning, mimicry behavior, and empathy are correlated.
► Empathy is enhanced following mirroring training in DMT.
► Activation in the MNS is increased following dance training.