I ran across an article the other day that was about a group using dance movement therapy for those battling alcoholism. ARP Choices is a London based specialist alcohol service that works with area ethnic minorities in a refugee center.
ARP Choices manager Surrinder Chera says groupwork is an important feature to create a community feel. He says of Creative Expressions: “It has helped users to open up in a different way, using a range of interventions from the dance movement therapy world, in many cases drawing on existing cultural connections to music and movement. It has been successful and we would like to expand this aspect of our work.”
Now my first thought was that this sounded like a bunch of kooky hoopla, but even so I would still give it shy thumbs up because I believe any step toward recovery is better than the alternative. Then it hit me it really isn’t the activity that’s therapeutic, it’s the gathering of the group, the sharing, and the support it entails that is so helpful. In all honesty, I think Japanese game show therapy would also show positive results as long as it was structured and those that participated had a sincere desire for sobriety and recovery.
So I will leave you with that thought and a parody of Japanese games shows with two of my favorites, Mike Meyers and Chris Farley. Too bad this wasn’t therapy; Chris could have sure used it.
