Date of Award
Spring 5-17-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Major
Clinical Mental Health Counselling
First Advisor
Angelle Cook
Second Advisor
Wendy Allen
Abstract
This thesis explores the intertwined roots of power, privilege, and oppression embedded in the term “embodiment” within Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) and how it is applied in the profession via a review of the literature. By locating the body as the vessel of experience, including trauma and oppression, this work challenges the dominant understanding of embodiment as solely about connectedness and groundedness, questioning why connection to the body is so often equated with psychological health. While the mind has been historically privileged over the body, DMT’s emphasis on bodily experience presents a unique opportunity to decolonize our dominant understanding of embodiment. This work asks us to let go of deficit-based ideologies, questioning how DMT might facilitate the reclamation of a private, self-defined experience of the body. It examines shifts in language and alternative frameworks that center nonjudgmental engagement with the body while de-pathologizing clients by shifting blame from individuals to the oppressive systems that shape and constrain bodily experience and our (in)access to authenticity. Through these strength-based perspectives, this thesis argues for an approach to embodiment that is not prescriptive but expansive, allowing individuals to define what embodiment means for them on their own terms and by their own definition.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Herzfeld, Holly A., "Reimagining “Embodiment” in Dance/Movement Therapy: Unraveling the Roots of Oppression in Our Bodies and Our Practice—A Literature Review" (2025). Expressive Therapies Theses. 6.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_therapies_theses/6
