Art Therapy Italiana

13 Jan

Art Therapy Italiana

The Art Therapy Italiana was founded in 1982 with the aim of promoting the practice of Expressive Psychotherapy integrated into Art Therapy and Dance Movement therapy in Italy, through the training of qualified professionals able to design and conduct specific interventions in the health, social and educational fields.

The training offer follows the standards of the corresponding international associations; for this reason, Art Therapy Italiana is a point of reference on the national territory for all those who work in the field of art therapy.

Over the years the Association has become a place for discussion and research , as demonstrated by the Visiting Professors who have held seminars and conferences, including Janet Adler, Anne Alvarez, Joan Chodorow, Amber Gray, Frances La Barre, Susan Loman, Claire Schmeis , Tina Strompstead, Patrizia Pallaro, Marilyn La Monica, Arthur Robbins, Diane Waller, Andy Gilroy, Marc Erismann, Debra McCall, James Hilmann.

DanzaMovimentoTerapia is a form of therapy that uses the movement and expression of the body as a means and instrument of integration and emotional, social and psychological growth . The Dance-Movement Therapy with psychodynamic orientation originated in the forties from the studies of M. Chace, M. Whitehouse and T. Schoop, to which are added the principles of analysis of movement elaborated by R. Laban and integrated by the studies of I.Bartenieff and P. Hackney , by J. Kestenberg and collaborators (S. Loman).

In the setting of Danza Movimen to Terapia the creative and therapeutic processes live in parallel, creating a “facilitating environment” ( Winnicott ) in which it is possible to express and organize bodily and emotional experiences . In the interaction between patient and dance-therapist, a third pole is born, which opens up to new possibilities of relationship with oneself and with the other.

In the book edited by C. Macagno and I. Bolech “Thirty years of Art Therapy and Dance Movement Therapy” Edizioni Ananke 2012, through the presentation of cases and experiences conducted in various contexts, it is possible to deepen the theoretical – methodological approach created by Italian Art Therapy since its foundation.

This approach promotes the use of the body and movement to activate archaic channels of expression, where the deeper layers of the personality are made progressively conscious and shareable within a meaningful relationship.

In Dance Motion Therapy a fundamental role is recognized in the “bodily presence” of the dance movement therapist, in that:

establishes sensitive communication with the patient, attuning to and mirroring the forms of movement at the body level;
intervenes at a motor, symbolic and psychodynamic level, favoring the experience and integration of bodily and affective experiences, which thus become restorative and transformative;
ensures knowledge of the creative process of dance and its relationships with psychological development and provides specific tools such as movement analysis (LMA) and kinesthetic empathy to understand psychic and somatic processes;
develops the relational matrix, organizing its orientation and evolution in terms of movement and dance.

In the book edited by A. Di Quirico “Let the body speak” Edizioni Magi, 2012, it is possible to see how the methodology integrates the most recent studies of neuroscience and psychobiology. While keeping the non-verbal sphere in the foreground, continuous connections are created with the functioning of the mind, in a constant flow that goes from sensations, to movement, to images, to language.

For details of the program https://www.arttherapyit.org/