Dr. Allison Singer
Senior Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist
PhD, MMus, PGDip DMThy, BAHons, SRDMT, RDTh, BWY Dip.
State Registered with the Health Professions Council (HPC)
Council Member and Senior Registered Member of the Association of Dance Movement Psychotherapy (ADMP)
Member of the British Association of Dramatherapy (BADTh)
Professional Member of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA)
I am able to offer Individual or Small Group Dance Movement Psychotherapy; Clinical Supervision; or Professional Training Workshops.
Training
I am a Senior Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist, a State Registered Dramatherapist, and a council member/co-director of the Association of Dance Movement Psychotherapy. I am also a British Wheel of Yoga trained Yoga teacher. I initially trained in theatre at Dartington College of Arts in the 1980s and majored in movement and dance, singing and songwriting, and community arts. Since a child I had been interested in the application of the performing arts in a therapeutic context. After working as a community artist and Yoga teacher for several years with people of all ages and abilities, I trained as a Drama and Movement Therapist with The Sesame Institute at Central School of Speech and Drama in London (2000), and was accredited as a Senior Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist with the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy in 2005. I also undertook additional Movement training in Authentic Movement with Professor Helen Payne in the UK, and in Dance as Healing with Anna Halprin in California, USA. After completing my therapy training I was offered a scholarship to undertake a PhD in Dance Ethnography and successfully completed my PhD in 2007. As part of this research I undertook one year’s fieldwork in Serbia working as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist with refugee children and adults living in refugee camps and private accommodation. My research focused on the use of and interactions between movement, dance, story, visual images and folk arts in psychosocial work with war-affected refugee children and adults. I also hold an MMus in Ethnomusicology, which I undertook at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1997). I majored in North Indian Classical Music with a specialism in North Indian Classical Singing. After completion of my MMus I continued to study North Indian Classical singing with professional singers from India for a further 10 years.
Experience
I have over 25 years experience working with the arts and movement with people of all ages and abilities including elderly people, children and adults with mild to profound and complex learning difficulties, physical disabilities and challenging behaviours; refugee people; and professionals. I worked as the Programme Leader and Senior Lecturer for the MA Dramatherapy Programme at the University of Derby (2005-7) and am currently a council member of the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy. I have published my work in edited collections and presented my research at national and international conferences included the United Nations in Geneva. I am also a singer/songwriter. My work as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist is influenced by the work of Carl Jung, Rudolph Laban, Anna Halprin and principles of Yoga. Movement is the foundation of my work, but I also integrate story, voice and singing, visual images, writing, and objects, moving between these media as the need presents itself.
