The Benefits of Dance Therapy for Hospitalized Children and Those with Chronic Illness

As a former dancer and now dance medicine foot and ankle specialist, I know first hand the therapeutic benefits of learning and performing dance steps. However, for chronically ill children who can’t endure the rigors of in-class dance lessons, an alternative therapy exists. Dance therapy differs from conventional dance training because patients have the right to confidentiality and choose how much movement occurs during the session. Dance therapists use movement as a means into the person's inner feelings and as a way for them to express themselves and a way of coping with difficult issues. Dance therapy experiences are guided by the patient and focused on building a connection through subtle movements and traditional counseling approaches. 

This was the case for Ariana who was struggling with multiple hospitalizations due to neuroblastoma. Ari loved to dance, but as her disease progressed, in-class dance got too difficult for her, and she, therefore, met with a dance therapist at the hospital. This allowed her to move safely at her own pace and express her feelings while being guided by a licensed professional dance therapist. 

Oftentimes children who are chronically ill find joy in expressing themselves through the arts. Dance therapy is one such outlet that allows them non-verbal connections to internal feelings through external expressions. Dance therapy uses a person’s natural body movements to enhance self-expression, connection, and communication. The door to healing opens when conscious awareness links with emotions, thoughts, and associations. The “dance” in dance/movement therapy refers to the process [and intention of] of connecting internal feelings with external expression. Dance therapy uses a person’s natural body movements to enhance self-expression, connection, and communication. The therapist assesses body language, non-verbal behaviors, and emotional expression to help patients improve self-esteem and body image, develop effective communication skills and relationships, expand their movement vocabulary and functional movement repertoire, gain insights into patterns of behavior, and create new options for coping with problems.

A primary goal of medical dance therapy is to promote feelings of joy, social engagement, and connection, thus improving the quality of life for immunosuppressed patients. This is done through interventions such as creative movement and roleplaying, choreographing movement sequences, improvising movement as a leader or follower, exploring movement capabilities of props (items used during sessions as an extension of the individual’s body). Some of the goals of the dance therapy program include:  building pediatric patients’ sense of competence, mastery, and autonomy on an embodied level, helping patients experience themselves separate from the illness thus improving quality of life, giving children another platform to “speak” about and process the complex emotions related to their illness. In addition to decreasing anxiety related to the hospital experience and medical procedure, supporting the child’s expression of their illness and hospital experience rather than focusing on their dysfunctions caused by the disease structure of a non-hospitalized child’s day.  

Newly diagnosed children are not sure what is “allowed” for them to do in the hospital. “Can I get out of bed?” “Can I move my arm that has an IV in it?” The movement therapist can help the child feel safe by moving again. The child that has had the all too common surgery to remove a limb with a tumor in it needs to learn to move again and the dance therapist is there to make moving fun and less stressful and scary for both parents and the patient. Dance therapists can work with the whole family to make everyone feel more at ease in the hospital setting. The hospital can be scary and sometimes lonely for children. Dance therapy can be a fun distraction and since she can be there on a regular basis, someone to look forward to seeing, forming a safe lasting relationship.  

Each patient guides their healing experience by choosing engagement and movement level, who participates in the experience (if it will be the patient, the therapist, and/or family), and how often the experience occurs (the therapist provides patients/family with tools to continue healing outside of the session). Most patients who receive ongoing outpatient treatments benefit from dance/movement therapy once per week (or during their scheduled appointments). Other patients, such as those in full isolation for bone marrow transplants, receive dance/movement therapy three times per week.  

A dance therapist (DMT) is a licensed therapist with a Masters's degree in movement and psychotherapy or mental health counseling. Dance therapy services occur at the hospital as a part of the child life department, which is an inclusive service (at no additional cost) for improving children’s experience during their visit. Dance therapists are funded through local charities that were set up in a child's honor that was helped by a Dance Therapist during their illness.