Table 2.

Selected articles.

Study	Design	Intervention/Settings	Population	Type of therapist	Main results
Levine & Land (2016)	Qualitative meta-synthesis	5 keywords, 6 databases ‘5 inclusion criteria: written in English, published during or after 1992, focused on trauma, primary research, qualitative methods only’ (p. 3) 9 studies included	Women and men from 5 to 38 years old, with trauma. Samples from 1 to 294 participants	Dance/movement therapist	Dance therapy creates awareness and increases the range of movement. It also creates a new and healthy relationship with the self/therapist/group through the moving process, and a new and healthy relationship with movement.
Verreault (2017)	Qualitative study	‘Four weekly DMT sessions of 75 min each, for a period of one month.’ (p. 123) Observations and exit interviews of the participants	‘8 female asylum seekers and refugees, from 19 to 50 years [with] traumatic complaints, mostly accompanied by depressive and somatic symptoms’ (p. 123)	Dance/movement therapist and drama therapist (co-facilitator)	Dance therapy ameliorates body awareness and increases the feeling of safety and religious, spiritual, psychological, and cultural resources. It provides group support as well.
Moe (2014)	Qualitative study	Semi-structured interviews of 45 min, with 11 general questions, in 2009 and 2010. ‘Focused on experience with belly dance’ (p. 328). 18 face-to-face, 49 by phone	20 belly dancer women, from 22 to 68, who ‘disclosed victimization’ (p. 330)	Facilitators of belly dance	Dance therapy helps participants feel their bodies, and reconnect with and reclaim their objectified bodies. Acceptance of emotions, especially fear, is facilitated by dance, as it is a way of expressing themselves. Finding their interest allows them to retake power, and release themselves of judgment and rigid control. Dance helps them feel beautiful again, whole, and worthwhile. Participants feel alive, sensual, feminine, and strong, and find confidence and a sense of self. Communal support, social support, and communal benefits are very important.
Fargnoli (2017)	Qualitative study	Semi-structured interviews of 45 min to 1 h, audio recorded, with a Bengali interpreter. Starts with meditation, then questions, and finishes with movement ‘to reflect on the interview and their experience of self-care’ (p. 235)	6 women survivors of human trafficking, between 22 and 30, and practicing as DMT trainers for at least 5 years.	Dance/movement therapist	Dance therapy creates connection through movement, emotional awareness, and release, and enhances kinesthetic empathy. It allows participants to have a self-reflection, and to initiate a creative, sharing and empowering process. It generates pride and balances life roles through dignity and autonomy.
Schaeffer & Cornelius-White (2021)	Qualitative meta-synthesis	9 keywords, 7 databases Inclusion criteria: peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2020, written in English, on qualitative studies on body-focused therapeutic interventions for refugees, forced migrants, and/or torture survivors. 11 articles included	Immigrants, refugees et asylum seekers, from 18 to 57 years old	Art-therapist	Dance therapy improves physical health, and emotional experience and increases bodily awareness. Considerations for clinicians and treatment revolve around cultural competencies, linguistic barriers, attending to re-traumatization, engagement and attunement, and obstacles to treatment. The creation of safety, ritual, symbolism, and metaphorical dancing is important. Dance therapy enhances embodiment, freedom of expression, and a process of empowerment. Participants can feel their ‘here and now presence’ and improve their interpersonal skills.
Koch et al. (2019)	Quantitative experimental study	Two groups: control (N = 16), and experimental (N = 16). Pre-test, post-test form, demographic data, ‘sessions twice a week. The control group received treatment as usual.’ (p. 7) Four different Flamenco sessions (2015, 2016).	32 traumatized inpatients, men (N = 6) and women (N = 27) in psychiatric hospital wards, from 18 to 59 years old	Music-therapist	They measured positive (F = 0.60, p = .445, eta² = 0.02) and negative dimensions of well-being, and the perception of general health, physical pain, fitness (F = 0.37, p = .549, eta²=0.01), and body-related self-efficacy (F = 0.71, p = .405, eta²=0.02). Exploration and expression of thoughts, behaviours, and emotions are favoured by dance therapy. Dance therapy also grants access to the perception of boundaries, and embodied intersubjectivity.
Manford (2014)	Case study	Individual sessions, in a psychology and psychotherapy team	1 woman, diagnosed with borderline personality, hospitalized in a secure hospital	Dance/movement psychotherapist	Through dance therapy, participants experience their bodies, feelings, and behaviours. Movement creates a connection. Anxiety and aggression are expressed. It improves their capacity to think and check their emotional state. Dance therapy creates distance from emotional distress, with movement defense mechanisms
Ko (2017)	Case study	10 weekly 60 min therapy sessions with movement and verbal processing. Dance with a scarf. ‘Individual DMT and social services were continued after the 10 sessions.’ (p. 66) Written notes of the sessions and open-ended questions	1 woman 40 years old, with ‘haan’ (similar to trauma in Korea)	Dance/movement therapist	The participant’s body is in pain, and she feels shame. She gets wisdom from both her moving and silent body. She feels like a boiling hot emotional container that fluctuates emotions, and she adds feelings with dance therapy. She desires to move forward as she feels stuck in the past. Dancing through emotional burden allows expressing emotions, physical expression facilitated, airing of her suppressed emotions. She dances to feel strong and explore resilience, heavy emotions (linked to trauma) that are lightened by movement (symbolic in space and form). Need for space.
Dieterich-Hartwell et al. (2021)	Qualitative study	3 locations, individual (N = 5) or group intervention (N = 7). First meeting with a survey (general resources and relationship to body and movement). Then 3–5 meetings (60 min) to explore and develop expressive movement phrases. Final meeting with another survey (movement experience).	N = 13, over 18 years old ‘with a refugee or asylum-seeker status, a trauma history and had lived in the USA for five years or less’ (p. 77). Mostly women: 10/13 ‘Exclusion criteria: cognitive impairment, current substance abuse, active psychosis, an indication of current suicide or homicide risk.’ (p. 77)	Dance/movement therapist	Dance therapy allows one to experience expressive movements, and bear active movement factors. It extends resources (cultural, environmental, family).
Ley et al. (2017)	Qualitative study	Observations of group interventions (one male only and one female only per year since 2013). Group twice a week for three months.	4 participants, war, and torture survivors, over 18 years old, with ‘post-traumatic stress disorders, depression, anxiety disorders and various other physical psychosomatic and psychosocial impairments’ (p. 86)	Two trainers and a trauma expert	Achieving flow is very important for dance therapy to be effective. It improves an affective state and creates a new sense of safety and confidence.
Koch & Weidinger-von der Recke (2009)	Case study	Group therapy with verbal trauma therapy methods and elements of dance/movement therapy (DMT).	9 Albanian women, from Kosovo, with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety disorders	Art-therapist	Dance therapy emotionally engages the participants, reducing feelings of shame and guilt. Cultural verbal and non-verbal support is important. Dance therapy grants inner stability. The reintegration of the fragmented and negatively cathected body image is facilitated by dance therapy. Processing trauma starts at a sensorimotor level to activate bodily resources and turns in advance the emotional and cognitive processing of the trauma. Group prevents dissociative phenomena and re-traumatization.
Ho (2015)	Uncontrolled clinical trial	5 weekly DMT (dance/movement therapy) sessions of 2 h. 4 questionnaires + open-ended questions at T0 before, T1 immediately after, and T2 5 weeks after intervention.	21 Chinese women 25–52 years old, who suffered childhood sexual abuse	Dance/movement therapist	Dance therapy tends to improve self-esteem (t = 1.85, d = 0.3 p = .08) and the over-attachment dimension of stagnation (t = −1.63, d = −0.2, p = .12). It grants awareness of body, personal space, rhythm, and pace, and improves feelings and emotions, sensations, and awareness of inner space. It helps develop new perspectives and positive meaning. Mental distress (t = −1.46, p = .16, d = −0.4), perception of boundaries (F = 3.19, p = .084, eta²=0.10), personified intersubjectivity (F = 3.37, p = .076, eta²=0.10) are improved.
Laird, Vergeer, Hennelly, & Siddarth (2021)	Cross-sectional study	An online survey from July to December 2019, on duration, frequency, and form of conscious dance, mental and physical health conditions, psychological well-being, and experiences during and after a conscious dance.	Self-identifying adult conscious dancers (N = 1003), mean age 47 years old. Health Conditions (N responded): Chronic Pain (N = 867) 255 (29.4%) Depression (N = 864) 298 (34.5%) History of Trauma (N = 864) 511 (59.1%) Anxiety (N = 872) 451 (51.7%)	Facilitators of conscious dance	Flow state during dance helps with the management of chronic pain (t(237) = 4.08, d = 0.91, p < .0001), depression (t(276) = 5.06, d = 1.94, p < .0001), anxiety (t(434) = 5. 58, d = 1.52, p < .0001), and history of trauma (t(482) = 5.84, d = 1.30, p < .0001). Dance therapy improves perceived health (F = 18.71, p < .001, eta² = 0.38). The duration and frequency of the dance therapy interventions are very important, as they improve flow state (frequency: t(806) = 3.25, d = 0.23, p = .001, duration: t(840) = 3.11, d = 0.22, p = .002), life satisfaction (duration: t(932) = 2. 94, d = 0.19, p = .003) and mindfulness (frequency: t(850) = 2.72, d = 0.19, p = .007, duration: t(932) = 7.86, d = 0.52, p < .0001). The interaction term of duration and frequency is not correlated with the intensity of mindfulness (F(1,803) = 0.8, p = .4), life satisfaction (F(1,803) = 0.6, p = .4), and flow state (F(1,803) = 0.02, p = .9).
Lee et al. (2022)	Systematic Review	12 keywords, 5 databases, 4 inclusion criteria: ‘peer-reviewed, English, reported on an interventional outcome, reported on therapeutic dance for sexual trauma’ (p. 4) 11 studies included	Mostly female, from 11 to 48 years old, with sexual trauma. Samples from 1 to 152 participants.	Dance/movement therapist Dance therapist Facilitators of dance as therapy	Therapeutic Dance positively affects participants’: - emotional states, as it improves self-awareness of emotion, expression of emotions, and regulation of emotions - relational lives, as it improves boundary formation, and experience of interpersonal relationships - perception of self, as it improves the sense of safety and freedom, body awareness and body image, gives a positive future orientation, and favours self-empowerment.
Özümerzifon et al. (2022)	Randomized control trial & Qualitative investigation	12 virtual sessions of creative dance/movement program (90 min, twice a week for 6 weeks), and usual care for group control. Pre- and post-intervention surveys, self-administratered electronically. 16 women in the intervention group participated in a 45–60 min focus group.	45 women, 23–48 years old, survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). 25 in the intervention group, and 20 in the control group minus 2 lost for the second measure.	Two Gibney facilitators Move to Move Beyond: collaboration between dancers, survivors and social workers	Intervention and control group experienced a similar decrease in PCL-5 scores (F(1) = 1.093, p = .302, η² = 0.026). Before and after the intervention, ‘the affective valence, the quality of an event or experience to be perceived as being pleasant or unpleasant improved (t(22) = −2.187, p = .04, d = 2.426).’ (p. 7). Six themes emerged from the focus group: ‘Connection to self and body, Expressing oneself through movement, Community building, Relaxation/stress relief, Elicitation of positive emotions, and Transfer of self-care habits learned during the workshop to everyday life.’ (p. 8)