Introduction As an occupational therapist, how have you provided treatment to Parkinson’s disease patients? Perhaps you helped increase stability by teaching a change of direction strategy, maybe you used adaptive cooking equipment to improve meal preparation, or you may have reviewed your client’s routines and decided to modify parts of the routine which ensured energy preservation. Although current occupational therapy treatment options for Parkinson’s disease patients are effective, not every patient will like traditional rehabilitation treatment plans and may also not be sufficient. Dance therapy may be a good alternative treatment option for patients who do not like traditional occupational therapy and may provide greater therapeutic effects.
What Is Dance Therapy?
Dance therapy, which is also known as dance movement therapy is the psychotherapeutic use of movement and dance through which a person can creatively express and process their physical, emotional, cognitive, and social integration to improve health and well-being (Meekeums, 2002). The idea associated with dance therapy is that the movement will produce alterations to the mind and changes in the mind will be
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Furthermore, according to the OTPF III (AOTA, 2014), motor skills are occupational performance skills observed as the person interacts with and moves task objects and self around the task environment. Six of the eight research studies showed statistically significant gains in motor functioning after participation in a dance therapy program, therefore giving us our second reason as to why we should incorporate dance therapy as a treatment