Date
5-14-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
According to Private counselors, one of the top reasons children are undergoing talk therapy is because they have experienced a trauma that affects their day to day lives, learning abilities, difficulties with social interactions, and behavioral issues. More than sixty-eight percent of children have experienced a traumatic event by the age of twelve and more than twenty percent of those children develop side effects that can lead to anxiety disorders, depression, suicidal thoughts and other emotional issues (Hamner 1). With these side effects, children often undergo talk therapy in order to work through their experiences and learn to heal from them. Children who undergo talk therapy often have a particularly hard time talking about their experiences and feelings, because they are still in the early social-emotional developmental stages. If children are unable to cope with their experiences early on, symptoms can persist into adulthood and cause further developmental problems such as anxiety, depression, alcohol, and drug abuse, eating disorders and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, otherwise known as PTSD (Hamner 6). Children are often unable to verbally communicate about their experiences and this makes it hard for them to progress within a talk therapy session or receive the help they need.Therefore, it is important to identify additional strategies for children who are undergoing talk therapy in order to express their feelings and learn appropriate emotional processing skills for their age and developmental level. Creative dance is a form of dance that provides the potential for expression. In creative dance classes, there is no right way to move, students draw inspiration from internal and external stimuli, experiences, imagination, and learn to use their body as a facility to move (Levy, 23). Creative dance technique classes, alongside private talk therapy counseling sessions, in a private counseling center, can be an effective strategy for children to learn dance can be used as a means for expression.
Department
Dance
Thesis Comittee
Dr. Jody Weber, Thesis Advisor
Dr. Donna A. Dragon, Committee Member
Professor Kristy Kuhn Donelly, Committee Member
Copyright and Permissions
Original document was submitted as an Honors Program requirement. Copyright is held by the author.
Recommended Citation
Bourassa, Jessica. (2019). Moving Through Feelings Integrating Dance and Private Counseling: A Creative Dance Technique Based Curriculum for Children Ages 10-12 Undergoing Talk Therapy. In BSU Honors Program Theses and Projects. Item 354. Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/honors_proj/354
Copyright © 2019 Jessica Bourassa