Dance Movement Therapy: Improving Adolescent Mental Health

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a key treatment for anxiety and depression. However, CBT alone has limitations in adolescents due to emotional imbalances. Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) allows adolescents to express emotions in a way that is active and socially acceptable. In adults, DMT in combination with CBT is an effective approach for treating mental health conditions. However, there is limited literature on the impact of DMT in adolescents and no studies on potential long-term benefits. This paper reviews current publications on DMT as a therapeutic tool for mental health treatment in adolescents, including background on DMT, neurophysiological concepts, the mirror neuron system (MNS) and the potential benefits of combined CBT/DMT. This review suggests that due to the challenges of studying DMT (e.g., limited use of functional MRI (fMRI) in a moving dancer), more studies are necessary to evaluate the efficacy and application of combined therapy. This review also recommends exploration of new platforms to deliver DMT, such as smartphone apps, metaverse and virtual reality (VR). This could make combined therapy more successful, affordable, and accessible to a wider population. Future research should be focused on longitudinal studies on combined CBT/DMT in adolescents.