Case Cameo
‘Sasha (18) lived in a homeless refuge. She chose to sit out whilst her peers began to involve themselves in fun, non-threatening warm-up games. Sasha sat, arms crossed. Her body was tight, held together firmly from a lifetime’s defense against the pain of the real world. Yet she was entranced. Her peers laughed heartily. They were beginning to work together. Relationships that had been marked by conflict had, during this group, been suspended, at least for a while. Her peers were working together. The therapist had completely accepted Sasha’s wish to sit out, yet included her in every communication.
Sasha was on the verge of taking a major personal and social risk. She transported her ‘lifeless’ figure and hardened face into the group. The therapist affirmed and validated every positive action, reinforcing Sasha’s risk taking. Within this containing, boundaried space Sasha let go. She beamed and exploded in laughter as she held the hands of her peers and moved during physical team-building games.
The group were warming themselves up to moving within the space and to working together. Each had been affirmed in their particular level of intelligence, some kinaesthetic some social, but in Sasha’s case visual, cognitive and survival-orientated. The group went on to create their own group performance: a ten minute piece of movement telling the story of an animal overcoming his fear of the unknown. Unsurprisingly, Sasha had been instrumental in the creation of this piece.
Sasha asked to attend individual dance-movement therapy. She voluntarily attended for a year. Powerful expressions of deep sadness and pain accompanied the joyful ones. Sasha was purging her body of repressed and dissociated trauma. She said with a glint in her eye, “one day I woke up dancing!” Sasha continued her experience of ‘moving and being moved’ until she left the homeless refuge and embraced life!’