S190. WHEN WORDS AREN’T ENOUGH: DANCE/MOVEMENT THERAPY AND SCHIZOPHRENIA

Abstract

Oftentimes, their experiences with positive symptomatology affect their ability to relate in a shared reality base with others not experiencing these positive symptoms. Single-session DMT interventions have supported a decrease in psychological distress, and positive and negative symptom-atology for people with schizophrenia in an inpatient psychiatric facility (Biondo, 2019). Within a group DMT approach to treatment, dance/movement therapist considers movement and body-based experiences, as natural and effective sources of self-awareness and expression, which can illuminate the interrelationships between the many dimensions of human behavior (Bryl, 2018). This approach integrates movement techniques, creative embodiment , the non-verbal aspects of self-awareness and interpersonal communication and targets core specific features of chronic schizophrenia and negative symptomatology. As such it provides links to outcomes directly related to affective, cognitive, behavioral, and functional processes in the treatment for schizophrenia in residual stages (Bryl, 2018). Discussion: Schizophrenia can manifest through many different representations: with positive and/or negative symptoms, and with acute episodes or chronicity. The diagnosis will interrupt healthy ego strength, the ability to relate with others, and the ability to function without supports. Dance/movement therapy is a wonderful approach to working with this population in its many forms, as it addresses the psychological, cognitive, social, and functional levels of participants. Although positive and negative symptoms often manifest quite differently on a movement level, DMT has the ability to support the many needs of those diagnosed with schiz-ophrenia. The many limitations of psychopharmacological interventions for people with schizophrenia are evidence that inclusive, strengths-based, and body-informed therapy options would greatly benefit this population. Background: The self-disorder (SD) approach to schizophrenia posits that although schizophrenia involves a core disruption, this alteration nonetheless leaves room for variable experiential pathways toward delusion formation , which are held to account for variation in thematic content. This view of delusions, then, complicates the picture provided by the theory and research that supports MCT, raising the question of how these separate bodies of empirical evidence might be weighed against each other and reconciled. A major point of difference between these two perspectives is on the issue of "normalizing". Given that the self-disorder approach posits anomalous alterations in self and world experience, the way the patient with schizophrenic delusions is taken as believing is radically different than the individual whose experience cannot be characterized by such anomalous experience. Thus, although the biases posited by MCT may indeed reflect some general and common errors of cognition and reasoning, there is reason to be cautious about interpreting the observation of such biases in the context of schizophrenia as implying that they play the same role as in the development of erroneous beliefs in non-schizophrenic populations. Moreover, while it is of course possible that a specific metacognitive skill taught during a MCT module may nonetheless prove useful for managing delusional ideation, the variable experiential pathways from which different types of delusions emerge may render a given type of delusion as more or less amenable to treatment by means of a specific MCT module and its corresponding metacognitive skill. However, unless MCT studies have thus far considered the relative impact of individual modules on specific types of delusions, the question of which metacognitive skills can be shown as effective for a specific type of delusion remains unknown. Methods: A scoping review was conducted in order to discern if published MCT studies have examined the impact of individual MCT modules on