Today's Dance/Movement Therapists are graduates of master's degree programs that integrate dancers' special knowledge of body, movement and expressive spirit with the healing skills of counseling, psychotherapy and rehabilitation. We help a wide range of people, from children with autism to seniors in their declining years, from people with mental illnesses to people who have lost touch with their inner truth, from people with spinal cord injuries to people who just have never felt quite at home in their bodies. When words alone are not enough, dance/movement therapists are there to help!

 What is Dance/Movement Therapy?  Download the ADTA Brochure

Based on the understanding that the body and mind are interrelated, dance/movement therapy is defined as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration of the individual. Dance/movement therapy is practiced in mental health, rehabilitation, medical, educational, and forensic settings, and in nursing homes, day care centers, disease prevention, and health promotion programs. The dance/movement therapist focuses on movement behavior as it emerges in the therapeutic relationship. Expressive, communicative, and adaptive behaviors are all considered for both group and individual treatment. Body movement as the core component of dance simultaneously provides the means of assessment and the mode of intervention for dance/movement therapy.

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Guardian of Professionalism

Since its founding in 1966, the American Dance Therapy Association has worked to maintain the highest standards of professional education and competence in the field. ADTA maintains a registry of dance/movement therapists who have met stringent standards of education and experience, sets and monitors standards for the masters level programs that prepare people to become dance/movement therapists, publishes the American Journal of Dance Therapy, holds a professional conference every year, and publishes timely monographs for its members and for allied professionals.

Pioneering the Body-Mind Interface

For over fifty years, Dance/Movement Therapists have been pioneers in the in-depth understanding of how the body and mind interact in health and in illness, be it an illness of the mind which is embodied or an illness of the body that impacts on mental functioning and spirit. Whether the issue is the will to live, a search for meaning or motility, or the ability to feel love for life, for dance/movement therapists healing has always meant mobilizing resources from that place within where body and mind are one.

Serving People in Countries Across the Globe in:

Argentina,  Australia,   Great Britain,   Canada,   China,   Croatia,   Egypt,   England,   France, Germany,   Greece,   Hong Kong,   Hungary,   India,   Ireland,  Israel,   Italy,   Japan,   Korea, Mexico,   New Zealand,   Norway,   Philippines,   Poland,   Russia,   Scotland,   Slovakia,   Slovenia,   Spain,   Sweden,   Switzerland,   The Netherlands,   Taiwan

Officially Recognized by the Federal Government:

• Dance/movement therapy, art therapy and music therapy have been recognized by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) of the Department of Health and Human Services that may constitute covered elements of a partial hospitalization program in Medicare facilities (1996).
• Dance/movement therapy received a Title IV grant, number 90 AM 0669 from the Administration on Aging, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC (1993) to research (Dance/movement therapy with Older Individuals who have sustained neurological Insult." Findings of the study strongly suggest that dance/movement therapy improved the functional abilities of the participants on a number of variables, i.e. balance, rhythmic discrimination, mood, social interaction and increased energy level.
• The Office of Alternative Medicine of the National Institute of Health awarded one of its first exploratory research grants to explore dance/movement therapy for those with medical illnesses. (1993)
• Dance/movement therapy, art therapy and music therapy were included and defined in the Older American Act reauthorization Amendments. PL 102-375. (1992).
• Dance/movement therapy, art therapy, music therapy and psychodrama were represented on President Carter's Commission on Mental Health (1977).
• Dance/movement therapy, art therapy and music therapy were included in resolutions issued to implement the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, PL 194-42 (1975) amended several times (1986,1990), and. later renamed Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
• Federal Civil Service Classification for Creative Arts Therapists (art, dance, music & psychodrama).

Dance/Movement Therapy Brief Fact Sheet:

• As defined by the American Dance Therapy Association, "Dance/Movement Therapy is the the psychotherapeutic use of movement as a process which furthers the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual."
• Dance/movement therapy emerged as a distinct profession in the 1940's.
• The American Dance Therapy Association was formed in 1966. It maintains a code of ethics and has established standards for professional practice, education and training.
• ADTA has members in 48 states and U.S. territories and 24 countries.
• Dance/movement therapy is an effective treatment for people with developmental, medical, social, physical and psychological impairments.
• Dance/movement therapy is practiced in mental health rehabilitation, medical and, educational settings, nursing homes, day care, forensic, disease prevention and health promotion programs. Dance/movement therapists also work in private practice and receive insurance reimbursement.
• Dance/movement therapy is used with people of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds in individual, couples, family, and group therapy formats.
• Entry into the profession of dance/movement therapy is at the Master's level. The title "Dance Therapists Registered" (DTR) is granted to entry level dance/movement therapists who have a master's degree which includes 700 hundred hours of supervised clinical internship. The advanced level of registry, "Academy of Dance Therapists", (ADTR) is awarded only after DTRs have completed 3,640 hours of supervised clinical work in an agency, institution or special school, with additional supervision from an ADTR.