M-Body - Movement Therapy: Profiles

Sandra Reeve
I work as a movement artist, teacher and mentor in private practice and I am a senior registered dance movement therapist. I see creativity as profoundly healing and essential to the well-being of both the client and the therapist.

I had run my Move into Life public workshop programme for groups and individuals for over ten years before deciding to train as a Dance Movement Therapist. This has enabled me to apply and contextualise my approach to movement and embodiment with different client groups and to extend my knowledge by studying developmental movement theories and a systemic approach to creative and therapeutic contexts.

Over the past few years in Dorset I have worked with adults with mental health needs, adults and adolescents with learning difficulties and children with complex, profound and severe learning difficulties. I have also worked for Connections (Dorchester) with looked after children with severe emotional difficulties on a one to one basis. The M-Body team initiated and carried out a research programme with elders in a hospital setting.

One day a week is dedicated to my 18 year practice as a Shiatsu practitioner. My knowledge of Shiatsu and Chinese Medicine informs my approach to movement, health and creativity.

I recently completed a PhD in Performance Practice at Exeter University in movement-based practice, ecology and health.
Find out more here.

Joy Kearney
I am a qualified dance movement therapist and over the past two and a half years, I have worked with wide ranging populations from frail elders to teenagers, adults with autism to young children.

My approach to dance movement therapy reflects my life's learning process to date. It is informed by adult learning principles as I began my professional life as a teacher. It rests upon the foundations of humanistic psychology; my understanding of group work grew from running co-counselling groups. I have been working as a Management Consultant for the past 15 years and from this I have learnt the importance of understanding and questioning the wider system. Personal therapy and co-counselling have given me a deep understanding and appreciation of psychodynamic forces. I am currently doing a four year advanced training with Paul Rebillot, founder of the School of Gestalt and Experiential Teaching. This is giving me an appreciation of gestalt process and the use of myth to embody life stories which is informing my dance movement therapy work. Hence my approach is a combination of humanistic, creative psychodynamic, systemic and educational principles.

What I would bring:
– observation and awareness of movement and the body informed by Laban's efforts and Kesternberg's movement profile;
– creativity and spontaneity in co-creating exercises with groups or individuals when working;
– talent for incorporating imagery and metaphor in my movement work, using these to encourage a client to express a psychological state, feeling or situation from my training with Paul Rebillot and Playback theatre;
– sensitivity to and understanding of group dynamics drawn from a study of Yalom and 20 years experience of facilitating groups within the therapeutic and professional world, including the NHS;
– willingness to question and challenge the wider system of the group, family or organisation;
– conscientiousness in reflecting on process, writing notes and reports and researching particular client groups;
– ability to play and have fun.