Moving Bodies, Healing Bonds: Dyadic Embodied Psychotherapy in Crisis Settings

Maya Vulcan^1*Tamar Dvir¹Einat Shuper Engelhard^1,2

• ¹University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
• ²Kibbutzim College of Education Technology and the Arts, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

This qualitative study examines psychotherapists' experiences of movement-based interventions with parent–child dyads in emergency settings, following an experience of forced displacement due to war. The study focuses on therapists' subjective perspectives regarding therapeutic processes with children and their parents in crisis contexts. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), ten therapists trained in movement psychotherapy and experienced in crisis contexts were interviewed to explore their constructions of meaning around therapeutic change in embodied dyadic work. Two superordinate themes emerged. First, the dyadic frame was perceived as critical for supporting co-regulation and emotional availability in both parent and child. Therapists emphasized that the caregiver's presence, initially peripheral, often evolved into active engagement, enhancing the child's sense of safety and enabling mutual transformation between parent and child. Second, movement was viewed not merely as a technique, but as a primary therapeutic modality, facilitating preverbal expression, relational attunement, and embodied meaning-making in contexts where verbal discourse was limited. The therapist's embodied presence frequently served to model parental functions, reanimating caregiver responsiveness and vitality. Movement also served as a diagnostic and relational lens, allowing therapists to assess trauma responses, interactional synchrony, and regulatory shifts in real time. Findings highlight the value of integrating nonverbal, developmentally sensitive, and relationally oriented approaches into clinical frameworks for families in displacement-related crisis contexts. The study recommends that intervention design in such settings should explicitly include dyadic and body-based components that engage both caregiver and child as active agents in the therapeutic process, emphasizing the central role of embodied co-regulation and relational repair in the early stages of trauma recovery.