Dance/Movement Therapy Research & Practice CommitteeMission:The Research and Practice committee is dedicated to supporting the development of dance/movement therapy and the members of the ADTA. The committee is comprised of two groups: the research group, who focus on fostering and addressing issues in DMT research, and the practice group who focus on the professional identity of ADTA members. The Research Group is involved in several on-going projects throughout the year. The Bi-Annual Research Award and The Annual Poster Session are two main events that are presented at the ADTA conference each year. To find out more about each, please click on the links. The Practice Group is also involved in several emerging projects that support the professional development of dance/movement therapists. Some of their ongoing involvements include:
Finally, each year the committee hosts or presents a workshop, intensive or plenary session about some aspect of research that is of current interest to ADTA members. Please check the most recent ADTA conference brochure for our latest workshop! Who We Are:
Rebecca Barnstaple, PhD Assistant Professor of Theatre and Creative Arts, Health and Wellness at University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. With a PhD in Dance Studies and training in Neuroscience (York University), Rebecca's research investigates biological dimensions of culture and the impacts of participation in the arts. A graduate of the National Centre for Dance Therapy at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (2015), she is involved in education and training for dance therapy and dance for health programs globally. Research interest: neuroscience/neuroimaging, motion capture, neuroplasticity, learning, phenomenology Email: [email protected]
Karolina Bryl, PhD, R-DMT/DMP, CMA, RSMT/E, KMP Analyst/Trainer Karolina is a Senior Research Scientist at the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, specializing in Integrative Medicine. She serves on ADTA’s Research and Practice Committee and chairs the Ethics Committee of the Polish DMP Association. She has worked with children facing trauma and developmental disorders, and adults with serious mental illness. Her research focuses on DMT’s effectiveness, telehealth-based interventions, and nonverbal behavior’s role in wellbeing. Dr. Bryl is a recipient of multiple research awards, including the Society for Integrative Oncology’s New Investigator Award and the ADTA’s Research Award. Research interests: DMT effectiveness on health-related psychological outcomes, specifically in adults with mental illness, telehealth delivery of DMT, nonverbal behavior and the body’s relevance to psychic processes. Email: [email protected] Robyn Flaum Cruz, PhD, BC-DMT, LPC Robyn is Professor, Lesley University Department of Expressive Therapies. At Lesley she has chaired more than 55 doctoral committees. She is a Past President of American Dance Therapy Association, Editor-in-Chief Emerita of The Arts in Psychotherapy and of American Journal of Dance Therapy, co-editor of Dance/Movement Therapists in Action (2019), a book on research methods for dance therapy and Feders’ The Art and Science of Evaluation in the Arts Therapies (2013) on evaluation across the arts therapies. Her work as a statistician and researcher has produced over 60 scholarly articles Research interest: movement disorders, psychopathology, research design, measurement Email: [email protected]
Cecilia Fontanesi, PhD, R-DMT, CMA, RSME, RYT-200 Cecilia is a Board‐Certified Dance/Movement Therapist and Neuroscientist with a Ph.D. from CUNY The Graduate Center. Her research explores dance interventions for neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, merging science with creative artistry. Dr. Fontanesi served on the American Dance Therapy Association Board, including two terms as Chair of the Research & Practice Committee. An accomplished dancer, choreographer, and educator, she has held faculty positions at renowned institutions in the US, Canada, and Europe. She is currently authoring two texts on the intersection of dance, somatics, movement analysis, and neuroscience. She is supported by Cathy Appel’s Overtime Dance Foundation. Research interest: dance, improvisation, neuroscience, Laban Bartenieff Movement System, social and environmental justice Email: [email protected] Tal Shafir, PhD, R-DMT, CMA Tal is a Research Fellow at the Emili Sagol Creative Arts Therapies Research Center, University of Haifa, and a Neuromovement® practitioner (https://www.talshafir.com/). She was certified as a DMT in University of Haifa, and completed her PhD in motor control and two postdoctoral fellowships: in brain-behavior interactions and in neuroscience of emotions, all at University of Michigan. Her research, which focuses on movement-emotion interaction, its underlying brain mechanisms, behavioral manifestation, and clinical applications, was featured in her TEDx talk “How your body affects your happiness” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljm0ldxgkcE). Tal taught DMT at University of Haifa and the Academic College of Society & Arts, served as the main editor of The Academic Journal of Creative Arts Therapies, and initiated and was the lead editor of Frontiers in Psychology research topic: ‘The state of the art in creative arts therapies’ (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/6368/the-state-of-the-art-in-creative-arts-therapies). Her current study of the associations between personality traits and movement patterns is funded by the Chace Foundation, and in 2020 she received the ADTA Innovation Award. Research interests: neuroscience, movement-emotion interaction, motor interventions, Laban-Bartenieff Movement Analysis (LBMA), movement-based automated emotion recognition. Email: [email protected]
Darci Nelson, PhD Darci is a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT) and Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with over 10 years of experience providing clinical services to clients across multiple settings including inpatient psychiatry, community based outpatient therapy, and therapeutic day schools. In her role as an assistant clinical director, Darci provides clinical consultation and supervision to clinicians and graduate level counseling students. She currently works as adjunct teaching faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
Research interests: creative arts-based research methods, child welfare, and adoption.
Email: [email protected]
Minjung Shim, PhD, BC-DMT Minjung is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University and Director of the Mind-Body & Movement Research for Whole-Person Health Lab. A board-certified dance/movement therapist and researcher, she develops and tests mind-body and creative arts-based interventions for mental and physical health. Her research, funded by federal agencies and private foundations, examines the efficacy and mechanisms of these interventions. She pioneered mindfulness-based dance/movement therapy (M-DMT) for chronic pain, adapting it to support healthy aging and dementia caregiving, with a focus on expanding access through online and virtual reality platforms. Her mission is to foster evidence-informed clinical practices and integrate innovative mind-body interventions into healthcare. Research interest: medical DMT, healthy aging, mindfulness-based approaches, clinical trials, theory and model-building, telehealth and remote delivery of DMT, embodied virtual reality intervention Email: [email protected] Chevon Stewart, PhD, BC-DMT, LCSW Chevon is a Associate Professor, in the Expressive Therapies program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is the current Chairperson for the Research and Practice committee. As a 2nd generation, Jamaican American, Black, cis female, and able bodied professor she was inspired by her supervisory and teaching experiences to conduct research on DMT pedagogy. She is a past minority fellow with American Psychological Association’s Leadership Institute. She received the Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship from the Caribbean Cultural Center for the African Diaspora, Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship from Lesley University, and Racial and Social Justice Grant from Antioch University New England’s Applied Psychology Department. Research interest: Phenomenology, anti-oppressive pedagogy, African Diaspora, BIPOC Email: [email protected] |
