Thesis
A touching relationship: connecting through touch in dance/movement therapy near the end of life
Master of Arts (M.A.), Drexel University
Jun 2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001491
Abstract
The sense of touch holds a unique role in creating, communicating, and forming social bonds. The American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) has formally embraced the potential therapeutic benefits of touch such as safety, comfort, pain relief, grounding, bodily integration, awareness, regulation, and social connection while setting clear guidelines to mitigate its risks. Touch is also woven into the fabric of Western medicine through procedures or tasks and less often as a means of comfort. This project consists of a literature review and a journal article manuscript exploring the communicative role of touch within dance/movement therapy (DMT) near the end of life. A review of literature includes the neuroscience of interpersonal touch, the role of touch in human development across the lifespan, touch as nonverbal communication, attitudes toward touch in health care, touch in the context of COVID-19, and the ethics and use of touch in dance/movement therapy. The journal article manuscript is a narrative case description highlighting the communicative role of touch in dance/movement therapy near the end of life with a 66-year-old Caucasian, female with Glioblastoma Multiform, a terminal brain cancer, her 34-year-old daughter, and spouse. This project aims to demonstrate the importance of touch in nonverbal communication, the need for communication and connection near the end of life, and the ability of dance/movement therapists to encourage and facilitate these social and emotional connections through touch.
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Details
- Title
- A touching relationship
- Creators
- Lynn A. Falk
- Contributors
- Christina Devereaux (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Arts (M.A.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- vi, 63 pages
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Creative Arts Therapies; College of Nursing and Health Professions; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991020220847704721