ABSTRACT
This chapter portrays the experience of including a Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) approach in an educational centre for young offenders. Given the tight bond between broken attachments and juvenile delinquency, the re-construction of a safe attachment is described as one of the main goals in the work with this client group. DMT works within an interpersonal dimension, creating a new relationship through physical presence, movement and play. This intercorporeal relationship comes close to the early developmental stages and is thus proposed as an efficient approach to form a secure base and healthy attachment in order to construct a strong psychological structure. The case of Pippo, a young offender with a background of loss, betrayal and trauma, depicts how the weekly movement tutorials allowed to create a new attachment within the setting of the penitential institution. Physical bonding with his main tutor, a trained professional in DMT, helped Pippo to connect to his personal and cultural roots, anchor his shaken sense of identity and recapitulate some of his traumatic experiences in movement. In order to get out of the vicious circle of juvenile crime, the authors propose the integration of a shared corporeity as a tool to overcome trauma and loss.
