Dance Movement Therapy (D/MT) and the Use of Music for First Grade Students with a History of Trauma at an Urban School

This paper describes a therapist intern’s work in creating a dance/movement therapy group with the use of music to help support students in an urban school. The therapist intern worked with a group of first grade students with a history of trauma who presented with behavioral issues with the classroom. The work consisted of three 30 minute sessions of dance/movement therapy group that implemented music as a tool to help support students in this setting. Based on the observations on the data collected, a theme of a sense of self began to emerge within the group. Insight on this project calls for more research on how a multi model approach can be used to better serve individual and group needs. Recommendations are made for future work in this area