Dance/movement therapy for children and adolescents with cancer

with Cancer PURPOSE: Dance/movement therapy is introduced as a holistic ap-proach to children’s health issues, incorporating an array of medi-cal, psychological, social, and spiritual issues. OVERVIEW: Dance/movement therapy, with its unique emphasis on nonverbal communication in assessment and treatment, is pre-sented as an innovative therapeutic approach to address the com-prehensive needs of children and adolescents with cancer. Dance/movement therapy assessment and intervention strategies are discussed in the context of cognitive, emotional, and social developmental processes, as well as models of stress and psycho-logical adjustment in pediatric cancer. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The inclusion of dance/movement therapy as part of the interdisciplinary team addressing the psychosocial needs of children and adolescents with cancer facilitates greater integration of factors related to coping. By its very nature, this modality offers constructs that promote holistic approaches to cancer care