My experience of Movement Psychotherapy
“I really enjoyed my movement therapy with Jenni. I had an inkling that I wanted to explore movement in a therapeutic sense. I have had talking therapy as part of my training as a counsellor but felt that somehow my body needed to explore movement as an expression of some of my feelings and to experiment with new ways of being.
In our quiet talking time tears came to my eyes, but I didn’t cry. Jenni noticed my feelings and how I had dismissed them.‘ Where did that feeling go?’ She asked me to listen to my body. I realised that the feeling had gone into my neck which felt tight and my chest which felt crushed and sad. I had never thought about this before.
I chose to do a fixed term piece of work as I wanted a clear structure, and budget. The work was tailored to my goals and each week I felt I had made in-roads. Jenni made space for exploring in words what I wanted and kept the work focused, checking in with me throughout the process. I found that the movement as well as being physically freeing both provided metaphors for my challenges, giving me visual and body memories associated with the work, so in-between times I could look back and have a rounded memory of that impression.
One day when we were ‘playing’ at passing an imaginary something between us. Jenni received the imaginary thing and placed it carefully on the floor. That image stuck in my mind symbolising a quality of personal interaction that I was working on. It somehow symbolised for me that if I can communicate honestly with others and they are free to take or leave my contribution, undamaged.
Not only did the movement serve as a metaphor and a sort of consolidation, I also found that some of the movements that I made spontaneously in our explorations were quite stirring. Movement brought up strong feelings that surprised me. This showed me that it was a circular process where the movement could concretise my conscious thoughts about change, but could also reveal to me feelings that were hidden underneath my everyday way of being.
Working together in the airy peaceful hall seemed like being on a desert island where I could ‘play’. I felt safe to explore and that my experiments were respected, supported and valued.”
A short essay received from a client (age 52) about her experience of movement psychotherapy.
Category: Client Reflections... →