Movement as Medicine: Dance/Movement Therapy for Individuals with Autism, Parkinson’s Disease, and Cancer

Dance/movement therapy (D/MT) is the psychotherapeutic use of expressive, creative movement to support holistic well-being. D/MT views the human being as a single body-mind unit and movement as a manifestation of life experiences. While typically practiced as a mental health intervention, D/MT can be adapted for a variety of populations. This thesis evaluates scientific data for the non-traditional use of D/MT for three conditions: autism, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer. For individuals on the autism spectrum, D/MT can strengthen attunement skills, provide creative communication outlets, and relieve harmful physical manifestations of autism. For individuals with Parkinson’s disease, D/MT can simultaneously ease cognitive and physical symptoms while slowing disease progression. For cancer patients, D/MT serves as an adjunct, palliative therapy accessible before, during, and after treatments to help with psychological and physical pain management. D/MT does not cure these conditions; rather, it is a complementary intervention that promotes healing, increases quality of life, aids in expression, and restores bodily safety. Limitations include a lack of robust scientific literature on the subject, a lack of diverse D/MT practitioners and practices, and limited availability of services. Through the D/MT framework of movement as medicine, we can view life itself as a dance

Children at birth, children growing up. Integration between healthcare and family educational care

AbstractThis research is based on the assumption that in order to improve the quality of life of children with major health problems in the early stage of their life, especially in the case of disability, it is necessary to ensure the continuity and proper two-way integration of early childhood educational planning and health care, both provided by the adults involved, that is parents and professionals. Therefore, we tried to explore and piece together the complex set of family support experiences, both in the process of forming an attachment and affiliation to the newborn and in the construction of a common evolutionary history, aimed at the well-being of the entire family unit. We considered the context and actors of the first few days and months in the lives of children with a difficult life course, in a city of Northern Italy. By means of qualitative investigation, we carried out observations in the neonatal intensive care units of hospitals over a period of 10months. Our observations continued in the local healthcare, social, and educational services, entrusted with providing care to children and support to parents after hospital discharge. We also carried out observations in nursery schools, in order to highlight early forms of individualised educational planning, drawn up by the educators together with the family