Movement Therapy Training
Movement therapy refers to a broad range of Eastern and Western mindful movement-based practices used to treat the mind, body, and spirit concurrently. Forms of movement practice are universal across human culture and exist in ancient history. Research demonstrates forms of movement therapy, such as dance, existed in the common ancestor shared by humans and chimpanzees, approximately 6 million years ago. Movement-based therapies innately promote health and wellness by encouraging proactive participation in one’s own health, creating community support and accountability, and so building a foundation for successful, permanent, positive change.
- Movement-based therapies
- Decrease fear avoidance and empower individuals to take a proactive role in their own health and wellness.
- Can benefit patients of any ability; practices are customizable to the individual’s needs and health.
- Are safe, cost-effective, and potent adjunct treatments used to supplement (not replace) standard care.
- Deliver patient-centered, integrative care that accounts for the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of health and illness.
- Have diverse, evidence-based benefits, including reduction in pain, stress, and debility, and improvements in range of motion, strength, balance, coordination, cardiovascular health, physical fitness, mood, and cognition.
Strong Evidence for Mind-Body Therapies
Movement Therapy: Safety and Precautions
Strong Evidence for Mind-Body Therapies
Mind-body therapies facilitate a unique interaction between psychological and physiologic processes, and psychoneuroimmunology has flourished with empirical findings during recent decades. For example, studies show that psychosocial stress promotes gene transcription expressed during inflammation and impairs leukocyte function. Likewise, reviews conclude that meditation and deep-breathing practices, commonly used in movement therapies, alter gene expression to protect against cell injury from chronic stress. This is consistent clinically, as yoga practitioners experience significantly less depression than the groups using only physical yoga poses without the usual meditation or relaxation breathing techniques. Importantly, research has suggested that mind-body practices enhance the psychoneuroimmunity against novel coronavirus disease 2019.
Movement Therapy Benefits
Movement Therapy: Safety and Precautions
Strong Evidence for Mind-Body Therapies
Movement-based therapies are well tolerated across diverse patient populations. International guidelines across specialties recommend these nonpharmacologic integrative approaches, For instance, clinical practice guidelines from the American College of Physicians makes a strong recommendation for initial treatment of chronic low back pain with exercises, multidisciplinary rehabilitation, mindfulness-based stress reduction, tai chi, yoga, motor control relaxation, or progressive relaxation. The United Kingdom National Guidelines also recommends Feldenkrais, yoga, tai chi, and Pilates as exercise therapies. As movement therapies become mainstream, some health insurance plans recognize the cost-effectiveness of movement practices and have begun subsidizing their cost as part of preventive care. Moreover, movement-based therapies can sometimes offer an alternative therapeutic option for populations wishing to avoid pharmacologic treatments. For example, prenatal yoga for pregnant women may be effective in partly reducing depressive symptoms. A meta-analysis showed a yoga group had lower rates of depression than comparison groups that included prenatal care, exercise, social support, and massage. A systematic review deemed yoga during pregnancy as safe and more effective than walking or standard prenatal exercises based on findings of lower incidences of prenatal disorders, lower levels of pain and stress, and higher relationship scores.
Movement Therapy: Safety and Precautions
Movement Therapy: Safety and Precautions
Movement Therapy: Safety and Precautions
Strong evidence maintains that mind-body practices are safe or safer when compared with other exercise types. Nevertheless, the recommended intensity and style of movement-based therapy should be customized to the individual’s needs and health. Selecting a movement therapy is analogous to pharmacologic treatment, in which medication type, dose, uses, and contraindications should be carefully reviewed. For example, patients with glaucoma should avoid exercises that increase intraocular pressure (IOP), such as inverted yoga poses that position the head below the heart. Alternatively, another yoga technique, called Tratak kriya, offers ocular exercises that may lower IOP in patients with glaucoma. Furthermore, medical knowledge of instructors is widely variable with some teacher trainings including cadaver laboratory dissection, whereas others only include an hour lecture on anatomy.