ABSTRACT
The Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) is a complex instrument for describing, assessing, and interpreting nonverbal behavior. Over many years, Kestenberg pursued an enduring inquiry into the nature and sig nificance of nonverbal behavior, beginning with her training with Paul Schilder (1950). In the early 1950s, she devoted extensive study to Effort/Shape Analysis that is based on the work of Rudolph Laban’s motion factors (Laban and Lawrence, 1947; Laban, 1960) and Warren Lamb’s (1965) interpretation of their use and structure (Ramsden, 1973). By 1953, Kestenberg had begun longitudinal studies of the movement patterns of three children, who were each followed for twenty years. Later, Kestenberg’s investigations into the role of nonverbal behavior in treatment and assessment were pursued further within the collaborative context of the Sands Point Movement Study Group. Kestenberg made important clinical and theoretical contributions through her observation of infants, children, and adults.
