[Fwd: Comments & Question Re: Liljan Espenak]

[Guest guest]

I just found this message in my sent box. I sent it to the ADTA list

serve on Dec. 14, 2006.

I though it would be of interest since Nana Koch is giving a course on

Espenak and Psychomotor Therapy at Kinections in Rochester, NY May

14–May 16, 2008. If you are interested in taking the course,

please write back. To check out Kinections, please go to

www.kinections.com

..

Happy Spring,

le Fraenkel

P.S. JetBlue has really inexpensive flights from

NY to Rochester that can be purchased till April 16.

---

Comments & Question Re: Liljan Espenak

Date:

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:51:55 -0500

From:

le Fraenkel

To:

ADTA

Whenever

I think about dance/movement therapy theory and practice, I turn to

Liljan

Espenak’s seminal text, Dance Therapy: Theory and Application (1985).

Espenak

was prescient. She had the foresight to develop a coherent approach,

not only

to treatment, but to assessment as well. She could also explain how

dance/movement therapy was different from both verbal and other

movement

oriented approaches. She understood, for example, why technique, was a

critical

component of healing and building the "intact sense of self. As a

follower

of Alfred Adler and Lowen, Espenak was especially interested

in the biological

and physiological influences on psychological development and in the

significance of social feeling. She focused on these long before dance

therapists

turned to other theorists and researchers such as van der Kolk and

Schore for

support. With these concepts in mind, Espenak combined her interests in

culture,

science, and psychology, with her commitment to the healing power of

dance. The result was a cogent, realistic, and unique three-part

treatment approach that included evaluation and diagnosis,

restructuring,

and integration.

Each chapter in Espenak’s book has important

information for

those of us who think about dance/movement therapy theory and practice.

Yet,

with the exception of a few articles in the journal on her life and

Levy’s

chapter on Espenak, as a field, we seem to have forgotten about her.

That was

certainly true at the October conference. There was no one to represent

Espenak

at the Friday evening event honoring the pioneers. This was especially

surprising to me because Espenak's work, and her book, in particular, presents topics that are especially relevant

today (e.g. body image, music, assessment, cultural influences, group

processes, contraindications, etc.). She also created a dance therapy

program

at New York Medical College, Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals' Mental

Retardation

Institute and Developmental Disabilities Clinic, and was one of our

first

educators to run a structured training program in dance therapy.

The

forewords in Espenak's book speak to the impact her work had on

distinguished

clinicians such as andra Adler and Lowen. They understood

the

value of Espenak’s dance therapy program and respected her treatment

approach. It was applicable to all, yet carefully modified to meet

individual needs. The

clarity of Espenak's decision making processes as she balances the

needs for

both empathy and adaptation is especially impressive. Why,

then, I ask, do we

as a profession forget to honor or learn from Espenak?

Who is Dr. Koch?

Dr. Nana S. Koch, Ed.D., ADTR,

LCAT,

NCC, LPC, CMA,

was a

student of Espenak’s in the training program at the Mental Retardation

Clinic

of Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals. She continued to have a close

professional and personal relationship with Espenak until her mentor's

death in 1988.

An Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education

and

Movement Science at Long Island

University in New York

and evaluator for arts education programs in New York State,

Dr. Koch was the Coordinator of the Hunter College Dance/Movement

Therapy

Masters Program before it closed in 1996. She has also been the Chair

of the

American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) Credentials Committee and is

a long-standing

member of the ADTA Approval Committee. The author of several articles

on

dance/movement therapy that have appeared in ADTA journals, she teaches

the

work of Liljan Espenak in the United

States,

Japan and Costa Rica.

<>

Course Description

This experiential and didactic course introduces

students to Espenak's

system of psychomotor therapy. Attention is paid to the ways in which

she used

expressive dance and diagnostic movement tools to facilitate

integration, the

ideal body, and feelings of well-being. Adler and Lowen's influence on

Espenak's work is discussed, along with concepts inherent in

psychomotor

therapy and its areas of application. By acquainting students with

Espenak's

concepts of diagnosis, evaluation, restructuring, and integration,

students

will learn how she used particular exercises to help patients express the four emotions, develop

muscle-memory, and experience catharsis, all leading to behavioral

change.