What To Expect When Starting Dance Therapy in San Francisco

If you have made the decision to see a dance therapist in San Francisco, you may be wondering what to expect from sessions.  While there are some similarities to talk therapy sessions, there may be some differences.  Here is a small list of what to expect from dance therapy when first starting the process.

1)     You will have an initial consultation call.

Just like with talk therapy, you will talk to your potential therapist to see if you feel comfortable with her/him/them.  You can ask them questions about their specialty and their approach to treating clients with your particular concerns. Notice how you feel talking to them and if they can answer any questions you might have.

2)    The dance therapist will have you fill out initial paperwork.

Before any initial sessions, any medical conditions, family history, and symptoms will all be inquired about.  Privacy policies, the service agreement, and office polices will be contained in paperwork.

3)    The first session is to get to know you. 

You and your therapist will discuss your background, mental health concerns, and goals for therapy.  You may or may not do some movement, depending on how much you and your new dance therapist have to talk about.

4)    You won’t learn to dance nor do you need to have any formal dance training. 

Dance therapy requires that the therapist have dance training in order to better observe movement and do movement interventions.  The client doesn’t need to have any specific kind of dance training but simply be open to moving and using the body to explore their mental health. 

5)    Dance therapy sessions have a beginning (warm-up), a middle (where you explore psychological themes) and an end (or closure—where you discuss what happened in the session).

Although this is a general outline of a dance therapy session, there is flexibility to change and adapt the format based on what you are talking about with the therapist.

 I hope this helps give some idea of what to expect when starting dance therapy in San Francisco.  If you have any questions or are curious about dance therapy in general, please feel free to contact me, Lisa Manca, at (415) 212-8780 or lisa@lisamanca.com.