Season 2, Episode 3 - Towards Recovery: Why Movement Matters

Recovery Devon Podcast

How can moving your body make a difference to mental health recovery?
Often we treat mental health “from the neck up.” Creatively engaging with how our bodies feel, function, and move can help us better understand ourselves and our relationship to the world.

Today we’re talking to people who work therapeutically with the moving body. What can movement or dance offer that’s different than sitting with a therapist? What might we expect during a movement therapy session? How might we invite movement into our lives if it’s become unfamiliar, or even challenging for us?
This podcast was recorded over Zoom during a third U.K. lockdown, with lack of movement beginning to cause difficulties for many people, as well as lack of human touch. During this chat, we briefly discuss therapeutic contact. Whilst Devon Partnership Trust does not include touch or contact in its services (during lockdown or otherwise), we hear how other providers offer this safely and appropriately.

Karen Dudley is a Dance Movement Psychotherapist working within Devon Partnership Trust. Paul Beaumont is a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist with ISMETA (International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association). He’s also a teacher, supervisor, and practitioner with IBMT (Institute for Integrative Bodywork & Movement Therapy). They’re joined by our community development workers Em Flint (who is in her second year of IBMT training) and Sami Goulding, who also holds an MA in Dance Movement Psychotherapy.

Useful links for this episode:

https://www.dpt.nhs.uk/our-services/psychology-and-psychological-therapies

https://ibmt.co.uk/

https://www.paulbeaumont.net/

https://admp.org.uk/

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