Dance/Movement Therapy and emotional well-being for adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The connection between mind and body is activated through Dance/Movement Therapy (D/MT). This connection promotes the integration of emotional, cognitive and physical dimensions of a person. This study focused on emotional well-being, understood as a dimension within the construct of quality of life. The improvement of emotional well-being was examined in adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) who participated in an intervention program of 26 sessions in D/MT. The intervention group comprised 22 adults with ID (n = 22; 47.27 ± 11.67 years) (12 male). The control group were 20 adults with ID (n = 20; 48.15 ± 12.46 years) (12 male). The Koppitz human figure drawing test was applied to evaluate the emotional indicators before and after the program.The results indicated statistically significant improvements in the emotional well-being in the intervention group after the D/MT program (p = 0.007) in comparison to the control group (p = 0.560). D/MT can be an appropriate approach when working with adults with ID to provide them with support, and to increase quality of life specifically emotional well-being.