Embodied Presence Through Dance

Course Description

This is self-of-the-therapist training for clinicians. A therapist's own embodied state (breath, posture, tension, and protective patterns) shapes their presence, their attunement, and the felt safety of the therapeutic relationship. Experiential movement and partner dance are the teaching method; the outcome is the clinician's presence, attunement, and relational safety with clients.

This experiential CE session uses partner dance to explore the connection between emotion, the nervous system, and embodied expression. Through movement, participants will notice how emotions and protective patterns can shape posture, breath, tension, and the ways they connect with others, including clients. Participants will practice body-based tools for creating greater safety and calm within the body—opening the door to a presence with clients that feels more empathetic, playful, vulnerable, and alive.

In the therapy room, the same attention helps a clinician notice when their own emotional and protective patterns, as they appear through breath, posture, movement, and relational contact, are narrowing their presence with a client, and return to an open and regulated state. Partner work is by invitation, and every exercise can be done solo or seated.

Instructor Information

Educational Goals

1. Develop an embodied understanding of the connection between emotion, the nervous system, and embodied expression, and of how emotions and protective patterns can shape posture, breath, tension, and the ways therapist and client connect with each other.
2. Develop the ability to access a state of openness that is not coupled with protective mechanisms or defense, but rather playfulness and empathy — being present with self and offering that presence to clients.
3. Develop a more acute intrinsic awareness, along with greater command over which emotional belief systems are informing one's bodily state and outward actions, so that the therapist's own state supports attunement and relational safety with clients.

Measurable Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to describe where two emotions are held in their body, the physical sensation and consequences of said emotions, and how that state affects their presence with clients.
2. Participants will be able to distinguish a state of openness that is not coupled with protective mechanisms or defense, but rather playfulness and empathy, from a protective or defended state, by two bodily cues a client may perceive in session.
3. Participants will be able to identify one emotional belief system that is informing their bodily state and outward actions, and how it can shape their presence with a client.
4. Participants will be able to describe how nonverbal synchrony between therapist and client relates to the alliance the client perceives.

Outline with Main Points for Each Topic (including times)

1. 4:00–4:20 PM · Where emotion is felt in the therapist's body — Obj 1 — 20 minutes

   • Invitation and choice: partner work is by invitation, and every exercise has a solo or seated version
   • The self of the therapist: the therapist's embodied state can shape presence, attunement, and the client's felt safety (Aponte, 2022; Geller & Porges, 2014)
   • The connection between emotion, the nervous system, and embodied expression: where emotional feeling is felt in the body (Davey et al., 2021)
   • “Unfinished emotional arcs held in the body”: a teaching metaphor, not a research finding, for an emotion that is felt but not moved through to completion
   • Movement exercise: noticing where two emotions are held, and moving each through its full arc
   • Into the therapy room: how that bodily state affects the therapist's presence with a client

2. 4:20–4:40 PM · Coupling openness with safety — Obj 2 — 20 minutes

   • Safety and defense in both people in the room: drawing on polyvagal theory, Geller and Porges (2014) propose that when safety is communicated through facial expression, gesture, and voice, defensiveness is down-regulated in therapist and client alike
   • Protective patterns: how protective responses show up in the body and in relational contact
   • Body-based tools for creating greater safety and calm within the body (grounding, present-moment awareness), in service of therapeutic presence (Geller & Porges, 2014)
   • Partner dance as a shared container: consent, attunement, and safety within the body and between partners; the evidence base for dance and dance movement therapy (Koch et al., 2019)
   • Partner exercise: openness coupled with playfulness and empathy rather than protection or defense, and two bodily cues that tell the two states apart
   • Into the therapy room: how a client may perceive the therapist's openness or defense, and returning to an open state in session

3. 4:40–5:00 PM · Being present with self and offering that presence to others — Obj 3, 4 — 20 minutes

   • Which emotional belief systems are informing bodily state and outward actions, and how one can shape the therapist's presence with a client
   • Offering a client a presence that feels more empathetic, playful, vulnerable, and alive: what changes in the therapist's body
   • Attunement in movement: nonverbal synchrony between therapist and client is associated with the alliance clients perceive, though not significantly with outcome (Gregorini et al., 2025)
   • Into the therapy room: how the therapist's own emotional and protective patterns can appear through breath, posture, movement, and relational contact with a client
   • Closing reflection and questions

Total instructional time: 20 + 20 + 20 = 60 minutes / 60 = 1.0 CE hours

Signing in and out

• Sign out and complete this session’s evaluation at the door when it ends at 5:00 PM.
• Sign-in, sign-out and the evaluation are not part of the 1.0 CE hours.

References

• Aponte, H. J. (2022). The soul of therapy: The therapist’s use of self in the therapeutic relationship. Contemporary Family Therapy, 44(2), 136–143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-021-09614-5
• Davey, S., Halberstadt, J., & Bell, E. (2021). Where is emotional feeling felt in the body? An integrative review. PLOS ONE, 16(12), Article e0261685. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261685
• Geller, S. M., & Porges, S. W. (2014). Therapeutic presence: Neurophysiological mechanisms mediating feeling safe in therapeutic relationships. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 24(3), 178–192. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037511
• Gregorini, C., De Carli, P., Parolin, L. A. L., Tschacher, W., & Preti, E. (2025). Potential role of nonverbal synchrony in psychotherapy: A meta-analysis. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 25(1), Article e12885. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12885
• Koch, S. C., Riege, R. F. F., Tisborn, K., Biondo, J., Martin, L., & Beelmann, A. (2019). Effects of dance movement therapy and dance on health-related psychological outcomes: A meta-analysis update. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 1806. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01806