fbpx
  • Latest news
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Staff Area
Product has been added to your basket.
01934 423900
  • About Us
    • Charity Information
      • What we do
      • Our history
      • Purpose & values
      • FAQs
    • Operations
      • Our leadership
      • How we are funded
      • Coronavirus (COVID-19) information
      • Reports & reviews
    • Policies
      • Privacy policy
      • Fundraising Complaints Procedure
    • Col4
  • Our Care
    • Patients
      • Where to start
      • Community nurses care at home
      • Caring for you at the hospice
      • FAQs
    • Families, Friends, Carers
      • A Time for Remembering and Thanksgiving
      • Make a referral
      • Talk to our Family Support Team
      • Emotional health
      • FAQs
    • Other
      • Advice for professionals
      • Share your hospice story
      • Dignity in care
      • Assisted dying statement
      • ‘This is what it takes’ exhibition
    • Col3
  • Support Us
    • Events
      • The Moonlight Beach Walk
      • Strictly Fun Dancing
      • Gala Dinner
      • Wedmore 40/30
    • Challenges
      • London Marathon
      • Fire and Ice Walk
      • International Marathons
      • Skydive
      • Wing Walk
      • Treks
      • Double Dare Challenges
      • Challenge Your Way
    • Community
      • From My Heart To My Hospice
      • Auctions
      • Open Gardens Daisy Chain
      • Friends groups
      • Open Gardens
      • Community Fundraising Hub
      • Summer Fayre
    • Corporate
      • Business Partnership Opportunities
      • Weston Hospicecare’s Business Club
      • Annual Charity Golf Day
    • Giving
      • A Minute A Month
      • Gifts in wills
      • Lottery
      • Memory Tree
      • Pay in your funds
      • Gift Aid Sign Up
  • Shop
    • About our shops
    • Superstore and Donation Centre
    • Online shop
    • eBay
  • Work With Us
    • About Volunteering
      • About volunteering
      • Volunteer for us
      • Why volunteer for us
      • FAQs
    • Careers
      • Careers
      • Employee benefits
      • FAQs
Patients AreaDonate!

Since starting work at Weston Hospicecare around two months ago, I’ve heard a lot about Expressive Movement Therapy, a group that is offered as part of our Day Services. Everything I’ve heard has been positive, and I was certainly curious to find out more about it, so when the opportunity came up to attend a taster session run by Sarah Woolf, Dance Movement Psychotherapist, I went along.

Sarah explained that Expressive Movement Therapy is a form of creative arts therapy that gives patients the chance to share with others and express themselves in their own way. That could be through gentle movement, the use of props, music, and even through laughter. When dealing with a life-limiting illness, often words aren’t enough to adequately express all we feel. When someone asks how you are, you can explain your general health, or maybe what treatment you’re undergoing, but how do you express the emotions you’re feeling regarding your loss of movement, maybe, or your breathlessness?

The therapy group offers a safe space to explore all of this and more. We began the session seated in a circle; the shape is equal and inclusive. The group maintains confidentiality, and you are free to participate as much or as little as you wish. We each expressed how we were feeling; in our session we did this by selecting a bead from a box that we felt best represented our thoughts, but this might also be done in other ways, using other items.

 

From there, Sarah led us all in a gentle warm-up to some relaxing music. Again, we were under no pressure to join in, but I found that people gradually started taking part. Sarah encouraged us to become aware of our hands; how they feel, how they’re moving. We gradually moved around the body, focusing on our breathing, our head, our feet, and so on.

Because the sessions are patient-led, each one is different according to the wishes of the group. After the warm-up, we all felt like changing the music to something a bit more ‘bouncy,’ and we selected balls as our props. The mood changed; we all became fun and playful as we threw large soft balls to one another, and there was a lot of laughter. It felt freeing, relaxing, and it was very reminiscent of my childhood.

After, as we discussed the session, I became aware of how long it’s been since I’ve played like that. I wondered aloud when it is that we, as adults, lose that sense of freedom. It was wonderful to escape, to have the ability, and the safe space, to express a range of thoughts and feelings. I can imagine how freeing and uplifting an Expressive Movement Therapy session must be when dealing with the many thoughts and feelings that having a life-limiting condition brings.

Sarah has done a case study on the role that these therapy sessions can play in palliative care, and it really highlights just how important the group is in allowing patients to express their feelings. Using creative ways, Sarah found that patients managed to express feelings relating to physical pain, breathlessness, sleeplessness, loss of mobility, depression, anxiety, frustration and much more.

In fact, Sarah’s thesis was entitled ‘This is Me Completely,’ a quote from one of the participants in the study. Sarah’s core findings were that EMT enabled people to reconnect with their ill bodies to find ways of expressing themselves as a complete, integrated person. All participants in the study appeared to feel dis-integrated as a result of their bodies letting them down, owing to their illness. EMT gave them the chance to feel a sense of completion and expression that otherwise would not have been available to them.

Weston Hospicecare is proud to offer such a unique and creative form of therapy. Anyone wishing to find out more, or who thinks they or a loved one might benefit from Expressive Movement Therapy, should speak with their Hospice Community Nurse Specialist, or contact Alison Bailey at the Wellbeing Centre on 01934 423 900.

What our patients say about Expressive Movement Therapy:

“I have chronic pain and the Dance and Movement Therapy group is a great help with both the physical pain and the more difficult emotions that come with having a terminal illness.”

“The group is such a non-judgmental and loving place to be yourself. An added bonus to all the treatment in day care. I feel grateful to be a part of it.”

“The positive part of the therapy is that it help to break down barriers helping us to share our hope and fears plus for an hour or so helps us to have fun.  Thank you.”

 

Recent Posts

  • Wing Walk for 13 August CANCELLED
  • “We will always remember this” says Burnham residential care home
  • “Tough going” three peaks challenge conquered for hospice
  • Hospice in positive charity shop move!
  • A huge thank you from our clinical team to Smith and Nephew

Archives

  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • September 2016
  • May 2016

Categories

  • Blog
  • Blog (Featured)
  • Challenges
  • Community news
  • Community News
  • Current Vacancies
  • Day in the life
  • Day in the life (lower)
  • Event News
  • Event news
  • Events
  • Hospice news
  • Hospice News
  • Intranet
  • Intranet – News (lower line)
  • Intranet – CEO Corner
  • Intranet – News
  • News
  • Shop news
  • Shop News
  • Special Projects
  • Uncategorized

How Can You Help?

About Us
Our Care
Support Us
Shop
Work With Us

Overall: Good

See The Report

Contact Us

Weston Hospicecare
Jackson-Barstow House
28 Thornbury Road
Uphill
Weston-super-Mare
BS23 4YQ

Tel: 01934 423900
Email: info@westonhospicecare.org.uk

Our Care

  • Where to start
  • Community nurses care at home
  • Caring for you at the hospice
  • Talk to our Family Support Team
  • Advice for professionals
  • Make a referral
  • Emotional health

Therapies

  • How To Support Us
  • A MINUTE A MONTH
  • The Mendip Challenge
  • The Moonlight Beach Walk
  • Annual Charity Golf Day
  • Wedmore 40/30
  • In loving memory
  • Corporate Supporters

Other

  • Shop
  • Share Your Hospice Story
  • Work With Us
  • Why volunteer for us
  • Privacy policy

Registered Charity No. 900328. Registered in England No. 2414541 | Supported by Newday Media. © Copyright 2019

Menu
    • This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
      Privacy & Cookies Policy

      Privacy Overview

      This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
      Necessary
      Always Enabled
      Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
      SAVE & ACCEPT