‘Unalloyed, Uncomplicated Joy’: A Qualitative Study to Understand Dementia Care Partners’ Experiences of Dance/Movement Therapy

Care partners who have a loved one living with dementia are at risk for psychological distress and burden. As a result, a variety of programs to support dementia care partners have been designed, but dance/movement therapy (DMT) remains underexplored for care partner well-being. As such, the purpose of this study was to understand the experience of a novel DMT intervention designed to promote resilience among carers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 female care partners who took part in a pilot study. Reflective journals and interviews were transcribed and then thematically analyzed with an inductive approach. Three themes emerged pertaining to participants' experiences of the DMT program. <i>Holistic engagement</i> theme emphasized the powerful impact which the body-mind approach of had for carers, above and beyond verbal therapy. <i>Liberation</i> theme highlighted how beneficial movement was to enable carers to feel "free" to express themselves. <i>Connection to others</i> theme demonstrated the impact of movement to foster supportive relationships between carers. Participants suggested that future iterations of this program should have more sessions with time to process DMT activities in-depth. Overall, results suggest that DMT is a promising approach to support care partner well-being holistically, by providing creative opportunities for them to move, process, and connect. These findings can be built upon in future creative-arts therapy interventions for care partners.