Helen Payne

Change in the moving bodymind: Quantitative results from a pilot study on the use of the BodyMind approach (BMA) to psychotherapeutic group work with patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUSs)

Abstract Background: This article reports quantitative results from a pilot study in primary care (PC) undertaken from 2004–2007. The intervention programme, derived from movement psychotherapy, was termed ‘Learning groups: the BodyMind approach (BMA),’ and emphasised a verbal and non-verbal integrated model, awareness of the inter-relationship between body and mind and a self-managing framework. Aim: To evaluate systematically the outcomes of a 12-week group BMA intervention programme with patients suffering from anxiety/depression with at least one chronic (over two years) medically unexplained symptom (MUS), another term for a psychosomatic condition or somatoform disorder. Method: A mixed method was applied to a single-case design. Outcome measures completed at baseline, mid-, post- intervention and three-month follow-up were the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP) and the Counselling Outcome Routine Evaluation (CORE). Results: Increased activity levels and well-being; more effective copi...

The experience of working with refugees: counsellors in primary care

ABSTRACT The provision of counselling services for refugee and asylum-seeking patients is relatively new in the UK and their complex needs may present considerable challenges within primary care, where access to specialist support resources is often limited. As far as we know, no previous research has attempted to look at the experiences of the counsellors who do this work. We undertook in-depth interviews with 13 counsellors who provide counselling to refugees in primary care in north London. The findings of this study suggest that counsellors who work in a primary care setting find themselves conflicted, troubled and out of their depth by the experiences, narratives and distress presented by refugee and asylum-seeking patients. They also report an erosion of usual counselling boundaries. Thus, the problems presented by refugees seem to demand approaches which go beyond standard counselling practice and which create ambivalence and uncertainty. These counsellors express feelings of isolation and impotence. The paper concludes with implications for counselling practice and suggestions for further research.

Pilot study to evaluate Dance Movement Psychotherapy (the BodyMind Approach) in patients with medically unexplained symptoms : Participant and facilitator perceptions and a summary discussion

The principle objective of the study was to explore and systematically analyse whether participants with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) changed their perception of their bodily symptoms, and received any other benefits from their perspective, following a 12-week group using the BodyMind Approach (BMA) derived from Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) (Payne, 1992, 2006a). The study recruited patients with chronic (over 2 years) MUS accompanied by moderate anxiety/depression. This was a cross-over study design in which participants acted as their own control. Quantitative data from standardised instruments, self reports on GP visits and medication, as well as qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with participants, were collected pre, post and at 3-month follow-up. Facilitators process recordings were also examined in a comparative analysis to elicit similarities and differences in perceptions of the process. Participants were recruited from primary care and the intervention was undertaken in a community setting at the primary-community care interface. Findings demonstrated that this intervention, particularly due to its supportive nature in a group facilitated by a qualified movement psychotherapist, enabled participants to increase their activity levels, reduce bodily symptom distress, increase self-management of health, improve overall well-being and make positive changes in their lives (Payne, 2009a; Payne & Stott, 2009). In addition, medication was reduced or stabilised and further GP visits were rare. All outcomes were sustained at the 3-month follow-up. This study has demonstrated that patients with MUS can benefit significantly from an approach which intentionally uses the body-mind inter-relationship to promote change in perceptions and behaviour in self managed health care. The BMA approach is seen as successful when both participants’ responses and clinical process recordings are analysed. Recommendations revolve around the need for further research in a phase two type study with an additional control ‘treatment as usual’ arm.

Personal development groups in the training of counsellors and therapists: A review of the research

Abstract There is much discussion on the role of personal development in the training of counsellors and therapists. This article examines research studies to date in order to provide a context for evaluating the role of personal development groups, particularly in relation to practice. This issue deserves far more attention that it has received from the research community. Rather than engaging in discussion of ethical concerns or philosophical debate the paper attempts to draw out aspects from research to date which appears crucial to further investigations.

Becoming a Client, Becoming a Practitioner: Student Narratives of a Dance Movement Therapy Group.

This paper documents one of several themes arising from a larger research study which invited trainees’ views on their experience in a weekly, 2 year, dance movement therapy (DMT) personal development group. This group formed part of their post-graduate training. The study used a phenomenological, grounded theory and collaborative methodology followed by an interpretive framework. The research sought to discover participants’ views on the experience of this personal development group in relation to their clinical practice with DMT groups during and following their training (the latter is not the subject of this paper). The study identifies a gap in the literature on trainee experience, particularly in relation to group process. Following a brief introduction and overview of methodology employed, the theme entitled ‘becoming a client, becoming a practitioner’ is presented, as it manifested for the students in the DMT group over time. The personal development component of therapists’ training is directly relevant to most counselling/psychotherapy and arts therapies practitioners; consequently, the study has broader implications.

The role of embodiment and intersubjectivity in clinical reasoning

Embodied approaches to cognition have been recently challenging standard views in philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences. We propose that these embodied cognition views hold implications for clinical reasoning. This article examines the role of embodiment and intersubjective interactions between patient and therapist in clinical reasoning in psychotherapy. It offers a phenomenologically informed enactive conception of clinical reasoning and characterises it as an ongoing embodied, embedded and intersubjective process, rather than a strictly mental process ‘in the head’ of the therapist.

Languaging the embodied experience

This article is based on a study (Panhofer, 2009) which explored ways of verbalising the embodied experience and inquired into the essentially subjective undertaking of yielding meaning in the movement. In Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP), movement observation and analysis generally serves as a tool to understand, classify and interpret human movement, providing practitioners with a language for how to speak and describe movement. The study drew attention to the possibilities and limitations of wording the embodied experience, or, as Sheets-Johnstone (2007, p. 1) referred to it as ‘the challenge of languaging the experience’. Underlining nonlanguaged ways of knowing the study showed how movement replaces words in many ways and illustrated valuable possible methods of communicating the embodied experience such as the use of metaphors, images and poetry. It is suggested, as a result of the study, that the embodied word needs to be linked to a personal, emotive vocabulary rather than any technical movement observational language when practitioners communicate their practice to others.

Tracking the web of interconnectivity

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t716100754 Copyright Taylor and Francis / Informa. DOI: 10.1080/17432970500468117 [Full text of this article is not available in the UHRA]

A comparative analysis of body psychotherapy and dance movement psychotherapy from a European perspective

Abstract The role of embodiment within contemporary psychotherapy practice and its discussion are gathering momentum, and are part of a paradigm shift in psychotherapy in which theory and practice are being reformulated. Body psychotherapy (BP) and dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) are playing a leading role in these deliberations. Although these two professions have separate professional bodies, distinct theoretical grounding and clinical methodology, they both place enormous value on the central role of the body and its movement as indicators of relational problems, and as agents of therapeutic change. There are few authors comparing and contrasting BP and DMP although they have much in common as they are both embodied, enactive psychotherapies. However, neither their overlaps in theory, methodology and some of their clinical practice nor their distinct character has been sufficiently delineated. This article elucidates some similarities and differences in fundamental assumptions, compares and contrasts definitions and terms and considers common and contrasting theoretical perspectives, techniques and methods. It is expected that this will contribute to the ongoing discussion of the articulation of core characteristics in both professions and will facilitate a better understanding and collaboration between them.

The BodyMind Approach (BMA) to psychotherapeutic groupwork with patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) : A review of the literature, description of approach and methodology for a pilot study

This paper presents a literature review of research into interventions with people with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). The review forms the basis for the research questions, provides a rationale for an innovative approach (The BodyMind Approach/BMA) to intervention for patients with anxiety/depression with MUS and justification for the most suitable methodology for the pilot study. An overview of the problem is provided as backdrop to the rationale. Patients with MUS make up a substantial percentage of all primary care (PC) consultations, are notoriously difficult to treat and make huge demands on resources. A pilot study took place in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK between 2004 and 2007 receiving full NHS ethical approval for delivery in PC. Following on from the systematic search of the literature the argument for, and description of, the BMA (based on the discipline Authentic Movement from within the field of Dance Movement Psychotherapy) to group psychotherapy is presented. The intervention emphasises learning in a verbal and non-verbal-integrated approach, encouraging an awareness of the inter-relationship between body, self and mind. It uses meditative, mindful movement deriving from natural body gestures and posture, relaxation, massage promoting movement metaphor to change beliefs and to understand the meaning of the symptoms within a self-managing framework. The symptom is seen as a metaphor for connections between body, self and mind. It is founded on the principle that bodily experience can be an avenue for meaning-making in personal development leading to increased well-being; better coping strategies; changes in perception of the body-felt sense and improved lifestyle choices and behaviours. The research sought to answer a number of questions concerning the intervention such as benefits, process and outcomes from the perspective of participants and the facilitator. The methodology selected was mixed, using both qualitative (analysis of pre, post and follow-up interviews with participants and facilitators process recordings); and quantitative whereby standardised outcome measures were completed by patients pre/during/post intervention and at follow-up. Medication, secondary referral and GP visits were also quantified pre/post-intervention and at follow-up. Findings supported the hypothesis, and went beyond it, revealing a reduction in, and disappearance of, symptoms to a significant effect.