Meeting through touch

Abstract

This case study celebrates the contribution of Marian ‘Billy’ Lindkvist’s Movement with Touch and Sound (MTS) to the field of dramatherapy. This unique way of working is explored through the story of Nora – an elderly lady living at the end of life with dementia in a palliative care setting. When words are no longer a way of communication, but rather an obstacle leading to misunderstanding, new ways must be found. Can the ‘preferred language’, suggested by The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), be interpreted as a non-verbal way of communication?

Keywords:

• Movement with Touch and Sound (MTS)
• dementia
• end of life
• non-verbal communication

Notes

1. https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents.php?categoryID=200360 (accessed 7 January 2017).

2. This is the system employed by the care home to assess each resident of the wing by using an ABCD traffic light coding system based on an expectation of prognosis: A = years; B = months, C = weeks, D = days.

3. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/CG42/chapter/1-Guidance#palliative-care-pain-relief-and-care-at-the-end-of-life-for-people-with-dementia (accessed 19 January 2017).

4. Inspired by the story ‘Bells’ by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (2016, 131).

5. A term used in LMA (Laban Movement Analysis) to define ‘the sphere around the body whose periphery can be reached by easily extended limbs without stepping away from that place which is the point of support when standing on one foot’ (Laban 1966, 10).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samuele Russo

Samuele Russo is a registered HCPC and BADth dramatherapist based in London. As well as working with the elderly, adults and adolescents in a variety of different institutions, Samuele offers creative psychotherapy in his private practice.