Chapter 17. Memory, metaphor, and mirroring in movement therapy with trauma patients

Marianne Eberhard-Kaechele

This chapter defines trauma and describes some of its long term consequences, in particular traumatic body memory. A model of the formation of traumatic body memory is used as a reference to discuss the potential of dance/movement therapy to address this phenomenon. After a brief reflection on ground rules for trauma-focused therapy, four interrelated approaches in dance/movement therapy with trauma patients are considered. These include (1) the psycho-educational retraining of trauma-based action patterns, (2) the modulation of arousal through the deconstruction of affects, (3) the transformation of the subjective meaning of traumatic experience through experiential movement metaphors, and (4) the development of affect regulation and reflective distance to traumatic memory through interpersonal mirroring.

Keywords: body memory, dance/movement therapy, metaphor, mirroring, trauma

Published online: 25 January 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/aicr.84.21ebe

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