Dissociation : Vol. 4, No. 2 (June 1991)

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Dissociation : Vol. 4, No. 2, p. 099-104 : Movement therapy with multiple personality disorder patients
(Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation, 1991-06) Baum, Edith Z.
Group movement therapy with multiple personality disorder (MPD) patients can provide a useful healing experience, though the treatment of homogenous MPD group can be a challenging endeavor. Four pervasive themes emerged in the movement sessions: establishing trust through kinesthetic empathy, negotiating social interaction, eliciting expressive movement and traumatic material, and integrating a more coherent sense of self. These themes were congruent with parallel developments in individual psychotherapy. The interdisciplinary collaboration of verbal and movement therapy works well together. Often work in one modality helps to negotiate impasses in the other. The evocative power of movement and the therapeutic principles that flow from it, i.e., that one can move across the dimensions of behavior, affect, sensation and knowledge (BASK), serves to reconnect the sequestered aspects of the traumatic past, encouraging integration.