ABSTRACT
This chapter presents how dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) offered a psychotherapeutic intervention that attended to Syon's experience of chronic pain, loss of mobility and increased dependence on others to perform activities of daily life. Syon had Down's syndrome, which tells us little about him really, as people with Down's syndrome have all degrees of learning disabilities and have more in common with their families than with each other. Dramatic changes to his physical independence and sense of self brought on by myelopathy prompted a referral to a DMP. Syon had been affected by myelopathy for many years. In a society that is both goal oriented and fearful of the use of touch as a psychotherapeutic intervention, it is a challenge to the therapist to trust in the profound importance of sitting in silence with a client and to trust that touch is a natural and vital aspect of human dialogue.
