The therapeutic utilization of movement and dance for the support of various functions of the body such as motor emotional, and, intellectual is what is referred to as movement/dance therapy. DMT is an abbreviation that is in common use. Australia and the United States are some of the countries where the term DMT is used. The UK and other nations use dance movement psychotherapy. The abbreviation DMP is used for this term.

DMT is categorized under expressive therapy. It aims to find the correlation between emotion and movement. Movement therapy has been in existence for a very long time. Since early human history, it has been used in healing rituals for issues such as death, sickness, birth, and fertility. The idea that dance was not simply an expressive art began to exist in the US and Europe between the years of 1840 and 1930.

Even though dance has traditionally been used for healing for thousands of years back, it is in the 1950s that it got established as a profession and therapy. American Dance Therapy Association founder, Chance Marian had a big role to play in this establishment. DMT has historically had two waves of development throughout. The first wave owes its development to Chance whilst the second wave interested American therapists a great deal.

The main belief that makes the basis of the theory of DMT is that the mind and body interact. People make conscious and unconscious movement basing on the dualist premise of mind body to affect their total functioning and to reflect their personality. Thus, the relationship between the therapist and client is in part based on non-verbal cues like body language. DMT explores the unity of mind, body, and spirit to offer a sense of wholeness to every individual.

The participant needs to complete all the four stages entailed in this process. There are smaller goals entailed in each stage that need to be achieved. The smaller goals contribute to a much larger goal. Goals and stages are varied depending on the participant. The stages are progressive, moving from one to the other. However, stages may sometimes be revisited several times as the session continues.

The therapy involves four stages, which include preparation, evaluation, incubation, and illumination. The name warm-up may also be used for the preparation stage. This stage entails preparation of adequate and safe room with no distractions or obstacles. Supportive relationships with the witnesses are also formed at this point. Participants need to close their eyes and still be able to move around.

The leader prompts participants to venture into the subconscious during the incubation stage. Verbal contact is used to make the prompt. The subconscious offers a good environment to allow for the exploitation of emotions. The stage of illumination follows after incubation. Illumination stage is introduced in dialogue. The witness offers dialogue to conscious awareness to let self-reflection to begin.

As the participant self-reflects, they are able to uncover and resolve motivations in their subconscious. Too much self-awareness has both negative and positive effects. The evaluation process concludes the session with discussions about the insights revealed and their significance.