Suzi Tortora Ed.D., BC-DMT, LCAT, LMHC Dancing Dialogue PLLC 26 Main Street Cold Spring, New York 10516 845-265-1085 fax 845-739-1096 suzi@suzitortora.com www.suzitortora.com ECMMA 2014 International Convention Grow in Harmony! June 22, 2014 Atlanta,Georgia The Dance - Movement - Music Link in Creative Expression Core Infant Mental Health Concepts That Support the Use of Movement and Music to support Early Primary Relationships and Self Expression...the future of humanity will continue to be shaped substantially by the emotional character of our children. Because of their enormous resilience and plasticity, most children will thrive in a variety of environments... But... there is every reason to believe they will emerge with different emotional strengths and weaknesses depending on the emotional environments in which they have lived. our children might grow up better if we, as a society, were better informed about the psychobiological and emotional substrates of the human spirit [supporting] the desire of our children to really play in rough-andtumble ways... and to dance vigorously and play heartfelt music and then to try to determine empirically what such activities do for brain/mind development. (Panksepp, 2001, p. 138) When I look, I am seen, so I exist (Winnicott, 1972) Nonverbal experience and the psychological needs of the Infant (Bowlby, 1969) Mother s role as safe haven solid base to receive pleasure, understanding, comfort Accurate cue reading and responding Exploratory Behavior - solid base from which to explore world
Proximity Seeking Behavior - feel able to return to in times of danger Maturation of the infant s brain is experience- dependent based on: Primary early experiences Which are co-constructed through dyadic relational interactions Role of the developing parent-child relationship (Bowlby, 1981) Spontaneous dynamic primary nonverbal interactions create mental representations which organize the experience Movement provides a protective container that supports baby s emotional self-regulation Quality of mother-infant relationship affects the infant s physiology, neurophysiology, and psychology (Hofer, 1981, 2000) Hidden regulators within ongoing relationship Multisensory and nonverbal Touch Warmth Smell Physical proximity/distance Sensing of position and movement of limbs and body in space Communication occurs through Facial expressions Posture Tone of voice Gestural exchanges Tempo of actions Jointly created actions Creates shared framework of meaning (Stern,1985/2000 p.125)
Intuitive Parenting (Papoušek, 2011) Contingent responsiveness Adjusting nonverbal quality - actions speech Deceleration Exaggeration Varying/simplifying style to compliment infant s regulatory capacity Angels Circles (Papoušek, 2011,p. 36) Sequence of ongoing positive parent -baby reciprocity Mutually regulated parent-infant everyday interaction Builds baby s regulatory capacity Creates special moments of intersubjectivity Intersubjectivity Shared psychological field - mental landscape (Stern, 2004) Experience of being embraced in the thoughts and feelings of another person. (Stern, 2004) Mental structures underlying perception and action Motivates infant to engage through affect, feeling tones, reciprocal communication (Trevarthen, 1980) Musicality - by 6 weeks - shared consciousness emotional regulation through rhythm of movement & imitative sound (Trevarthen, 1980) Infancy Memory (Gaensbauer, 2004) Early experiences form memories registered & organized through Somatic Sensory Kinesthetic Nonverbal modalities Creating perceptual images represented: Perceptual cognitive affective sensory motor schemata Translate experiences into actions
Sense of Body (Tortora, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012) Keeping the baby s embodied self in mind Earliest experiences occur through body Initially registered on somatic, kinesthetic, sensorial level Body oriented experiences shape and underlie how the baby processes her surroundings and develops relationships Infant s experience of her own body, interpersonal relationships, emergence of individuality Dancing Dialogue Technique (Tortora, 2006) Powerful role of attunement and mirroring creating: Emotional awareness Regulation Spontaneous improvisations through nonverbal dialogue with movement, music and dance Follow child s lead into nonverbal interactive exchange Fosters embodied self discovery and enhances attachment relationship Embodied Parenting (Tortora, in press) SHHH! Seen Heard Held Hugged ARC Attend Reflect Connect Lullaby Circles Attunement vs directing Quality of touch Nature of physicality Rhythmic sympatico Mutual Gaze Quiet attuned embodied listening
Identify baby s behavioral states/regulatory capacity/arousal level Lullabies and Rocking {Dance/play] Songs (O Callaghan, 2008; Friedman, Kaplan, et al. 2010) Lull baby to sleep Lively songs when awake Ancient Universal caretaking behavior Facilitates bonding Relaxation response in mothers - cope with motherhood Stimulates language development Infant Directed (ID) singing (Friedman et al) Singing vs. recorded lullabies Lullaby Themes (Friedman, Kaplan, et al. 2010, pp. 220) Sooth baby Release emotions of mother Fears Hopes Dreams for baby and family How they gain inspiration From whom/what they gain support Jung - Archetypal images - supports entering psychological work and mythical understanding Holocaust lullaby research - integrate traumatic events and loss - communication and comfort
Lullaby Qualities (Friedman, Kaplan, et al. 2010, pp. 220) 60-80 beats/minute = resting adult heart rate Rhythmically simple Regular - repetitive predictable Narrow pitch range Fewer contour changes Higher median pitch Multimodal accompanying interactive actions The power of musicality to facilitate and energize meaning in communication is poignantly expressed in music and dance therapy...plays vital role in nurturing Self...& our biological-psychological makeup (Malloch & Trevarthen, 2009) References Beebe, B. & Lachmann, F. (2002). Infant research and adult treatment: Co-constructing Interactions. Hillsdale, New Jersey: The Analytic Press. Bowlby, J, (1969.1981). Attachment and loss. Vol 1:Attachement. New York: Basic Books. Fogel, A. (2009) The psychophysiology of self-awareness: Rediscovering the lost art of body sense. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.,Inc: Friedman, S., Kaplan, R., Rosenthal, M., & Console, P. (2010). Music therapy in perinatal psychiatry: Use of lullabies for pregnant and postpartum mental illness. Music and Medicine, 2 (4) 219-225. Gaensbauer, T. J. (2004). Telling their stories: Representation and reenactment of Traumatic experiences occurring in the first year of life. Zero to Three, 24, 25 31. Hofer, M. A. (1981). The roots of human behavior: An introduction to the psychobiology of early development. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company. Hofer, M.A. (2000, Dec). Position paper. Presented at the conference Attachment: Current developments in research, theory, and application, New York. O Callaghan, C. (2008). Lullament: Lullaby and lament therapeutic qualities actualized through music therapy. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. 25 (2) 93-99.
Panksepp, J (2001).The long-term psychobiological consequences of infant Emotions: Prescriptions for the twenty-first century. In Infant Mental Health Journal, 22, (1-2), 132-173. Papoušek, M. (2011). Resilience, strengths, and regulatory capacities: Hidden resources in developmental disorders of infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal, 32, 29 46. Papoušek, H., & Papoušek, M. (1987). Intuitive parenting: A dialectic counterpart to the infant s integrative competence. In J. Osofsky (Ed.), Handbook of infant development (Vol. 14) (2nd ed.) (pp. 669 720). New York, NY: Wiley. Stern, D. (1985,2000). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology. New York, NY: Basic Books. Stern,D. (2004) The present moment in psychotherapy and everyday life.new York: W.W. Norton & Company. Tortora, S. (2006) The Dancing Dialogue: Using the Communicative Power of Movement with Young Children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company. Tortora,S. (2010). From the Dance Studio to the Classroom. In Karkou, Vassiliki (Ed.), Arts therapies in schools: Research and practice. London, England: Jessica Kingsley. Tortora, S. (July September 2011) The Creative Embodied Experience: The role of the body and the arts in infant mental health Vol. 19, No. 3. The Signal: Newsletter of the World Association for Infant Mental Health. 19 (3) 1-8. Tortora, S. (2012). Beyond the face and words. In Beebe, B., Cohen, P., Sossin, K.M., Markese, S. (Editors), Mothers, Infants and Young Children of September 11, 2001: A Primary Prevention Project. New York: Routledge. Tortora, S. (in press). The importance of being seen Winnicott, Dance Movement Psychotherapy and the embodied experience. In Spelman, M. & Thomson-Salo, F. (Editors). The Winnicott tradition: Lines of development Evolution of theory and practice over the decades. London, UK: Karnac. Trevarthen, C. (1980). The foundation of intersubjectivity: Development of interpersonal and cooperative understanding in infants. In D. Olsen (Ed.), The social foundation of language and thought (pp. 316 342). New York: Norton. Malloch, S. & Trevarthen, C. (2009) Communicative musicality: Exploring the basis of human companionship. New York: Oxford University Press. Winnicott, D.W. (1991). Playing and reality. London: Routledge/Tavistock. (Original work published 1971).