Dancing Therapy Helps Children with Mental Illness

A research project in Sweden, the first of it’s kind, has shown that dance therapy is effective in treating AD/HD in boys and depression in girls. For sullen teenagers who often refuse or are unable to talk about what is troubling them, dance therapy helps to loosen them up and shake off their mental shackles.

Boys affected with AD/HD start out with frenetic, high energy dancing, and then move on to slower, more methodical exercises which require them to pay attention and mimic.

Depressed and self-destructive teenage girls learn self-esteem, setting limits and saying ‘no’ through flamenco dancing.

The researchers are hoping that other countries will introduce dance therapy as a compliment to traditional psychotherapy.

About Benny Powers

Benny is a 20 year old student of the arts and sciences. He will be attending Trent University for the 2006-2007 semester. An experienced percussionist, Benny specializes in hand percussion such as djembe, doumbek and udu drums. Recently he has joined the Toronto samba band <a href="http://www.sambaelegua.com">Samba Elegua</a>, playing the surdo. He also does <a href="http://bennyp.wordpress.com">spoken word poetry</a>, and performs at open mic nights in Toronto in the summer time.

Scroll To Top