Effect of dance movement therapy on body image and body perception of people with total visual impairment

Pages: 1751-1753
Mahua Chatterjee (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

The two most important things we possess as our personal property are “our body” and “our mind”. We perceive our body and create an image of it in our mind. We also perceive others’ bodies. This body perception and body image generally develops through visual observation and because of this, people with visual impairment, sometimes face difficulties to perceive the body correctly. On the other hand, dance movement therapy talks of movement and it is used as a therapeutic tool for development of body image and body perception through innovative movement therapies. In the present Study, Five (3 females & 2 males) complete visually challenged participants ranging from 10 years to 45 years were given eight sessions of Dance Movement Therapy to see the effect of it on body image and body perception. Participants were given modeling clay and asked to create a human body before and after DMT session. The features of the clay models were analysed following qualitative content analysis method. The result shows that for the present participants, DMT sessions created a positive effect. The movement effect is clearly visible in the after session models. Thus, current study may help in future to overcome difficulties and to strengthen body movements in people with total blindness.