Body language and metaphors revealed through applications of Movement Psychotherapy in a hospice: A clinical case of refractory pruritis

Movement psychotherapy (MP), and dance/movement therapy (DMT), are body-orientated psychotherapy approaches that use movement for the integration of emotional, cognitive, physical, social and spiritual aspects of self (European Association Dance Movement Therapy, 2010). It is distinctively a combination of moving and sensing the body with verbal self-reflection (Bloom, 2006). Several papers have presented DMT as a treatment in general medical care and cancer care, but there is still a paucity of evidence-based studies. The authors describe a clinical case illustrative of many of the situations in which facing death was particularly tormenting. The emotional pressure can produce a barrier of communication with the risk of rupturing the therapeutic relationship. The movement therapist’s function is to clarify the elements of body language and this has important implications for clinical practice because the end-of-life decisions are difficult, like palliative sedation therapy (PST). Even if procedural guidelines for PST help physicians and care teams through the decision-making process and make them more comfortable when responding to physical suffering, physicians more frequently report an emotional pressure when their patients experience psychological symptoms, with the risk that PST could become a potential “counterphobic defence to treat”.