Ways of Seeing: An Early Childhood Integrated Therapeutic Approach for Parents and Babies

Abstract

This paper describes the use of a multisensory psychotherapeutic treatment approach that supports the primary attachment relationship. This program, called Ways of Seeing, is based on dance/movement therapy principles that incorporate dance, movement, music, creative expression, and Laban nonverbal movement analysis to facilitate healing and change. This method is discussed within the context of attachment system theory and research, trauma, and painful early childhood experiences. Implicit knowledge, intersubjective motivations, early infancy memory, embodied attunement, and dyadic nonverbal therapeutic video-analysis support the psychotherapeutic approach. The Ways of Seeing method is exemplified through the presentation of a videotaped mother-infant dyad involving a preverbal and newly verbal child who has experienced a series of innate environmental stressors. These stressors include medical intervention in the NICU at birth, a mother who suffered from post partum depression, and complex extended family dynamics.

Through the Kinesthetic Lens: Observation of Social Attunement in Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Case studies have described some similar movement specifics for young participants with ASD [43,44,45,46]. Sossin and Loman [47], both working with the KMP, described participants with ASD showing a tendency to use a neutral flow of body shape, which gives the impression of a lack of animation.…”

An African Igbo Perspective on Mourning Dances and Their Application to Dance/Movement Therapy

“…Beneficial neurochemicals, such as endorphins and painkillers synthesized in the brain by the pituitary gland, are excreted during creative physical activities such as dance, and help neutralize negative emotional states (Koch, Morlinghans, & Fuchs, 2007;Porges, 2009). Dance/movement therapy may also engage the person in a process of imitation and mentalization (Chodorow, 1991;Homann, 2010;Tortora, 2010), and through interactive kinetic responses may facilitate body-self awareness and emotional regulation (Porges, 2009). Stress plays a strong role in the etiology of depression; against the background of daily conflicts, ''human beings are endowed with a degree of vulnerability that under suitable circumstance will be expressed in dysregulated immune functioning and psychological illnesses'' (Zubin & Spring, 1977, p. 109).…”

Attachment-Based Clinical Work with Children and Adolescents

“…The therapist gains insight into a patient's sense of self through observing personal nonverbal styles. The therapist obtains key information about the developing attachment relationship between an infant and parent through observing their dyadic nonverbal exchange (Tortora 2006(Tortora , 2010(Tortora , 2011.…”