Exploring the Experience of Psychotherapists Offering Dance Movement Psychotherapy Online: an Embodied Artistic Inquiry

Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) traditionally relies on shared physical space to foster embodied connection. This embodied artistic inquiry explores how psychotherapists experience offering DMP online. Informed by a background in dance movement psychotherapy, this research examined how therapists adapt movement and creative methods to sustain embodied and relational practice in virtual settings. Eight practitioners participated in body-anchored interviews via videoconferencing. Transcripts were analysed using a hybrid method combining Hervey's (2000) aesthetic analysis with reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021). Findings revealed five themes and nineteen subthemes, with key embodied experiences such as 'reaching through the screen', 'disjointed connection' and 'therapist health and safety'. Therapists engaged creatively with devices, revealing challenges and successes while highlighting the importance of movement, self-care, and kinaesthetic presence in sustaining online DMP, and calling for further research and structured support for body-based therapies in online contexts.