Looking backward, dancing forward: A student's encounter with the practice of dance movement therapy

Early clinical placements in dance movement therapy are students’ first encounters with the discipline as practiced. Clinical placement accentuates differences between class work, study and movement experientials (somatic learning) with other “normal urban neurotics,” and the actual needs and expressions of clinical populations. A student's remembered perspective produces a less complicated view of the medical and ethical issues faced by a therapeutic team. The author frankly reflects on her student work – and emotional confrontation – with developmentally delayed children and their caregivers in a day programme. She explores the revelations and paradoxes of therapeutic provision, including counter-transference, family structures, and local regulations.