Does “a Shimmy a day” Really Keep the Sad Away? A San Francisco dance therapist’s thoughts.

A new tik tok trend promotes dancing every day to “keep the sad away” and using Meghan Trainor’s “Made You Look” to encourage maximum shimmying. Many people have been trying out this trend of dancing (or shimmying) once a day to lift their mood, particularly for a few minutes in the morning. As a board certified dance therapist, I completely endorse this trend! Read on for a list of reasons why dancing every day is good for you.

Reasons Why A Dance Therapist Believes Dancing in the Morning is Good For You (and Easy To Do!)

1) Dance (and dance therapy) have incredible benefits for depression. It can be helpful for improving depression and this study (Noetel et al., 2024)noted that dance is the best form of of exercise for improving depression. Dancing may even prove more helpful than SSRIs (a standard antidepressant medication) per an article by the Independent reporter Olivia Hebert. A meta-analysis of dance therapy research also suggests it decreases anxiety and depression (Koch et al, 2019).

2) Dance gets you in touch with your body and how you are feeling. While exercise can help you to feel good and has great physical benefits, dance taps into how you are physically and mentally feeling in the present moment. How many of us actually take the time to ask ourselves how we are feeling? It is easy enough to notice how you are feeling when you are dancing. You not only feel things but you can express how you are feeling through movement.

3) Dance brings people together. Say you decide to do your shimmy a day with your partner, your child, or even a roommate. Dancing can help foster community by allowing you to share in moments of playfulness and joy. When you dance with others, there are interpersonal benefits that can help you boost your mood! People have danced together since the beginning of time and there is a reason we often dance with other people.

4) Dance gives you all the physiological effects of exercise. . .plus creativity. Everyone knows exercise is good for your physical and mental health but dance has the added benefit of incorporating choreography and giving places to express yourself creatively. Memorizing choreography and incorporating both our bodies and our brains gives dance an edge over traditional exercise, especially when it comes to mental health.

5) Dancing doesn’t require any complicated equipment. To boost your mood, all you need is a little space, a song you like, and you!

Plus, if you like dancing and find it helps your mood, there is always dance therapy!

As a dance therapist in San Francisco, I love telling people about how dance therapy can be healing for them. It combines both the creative and expressive elements of dance and the analytic elements of psychology. A dance therapist both moves with you and helps you make meaning of your movement. Below are some frequently asked questions about dance therapy.

Q. What is dance therapy?

A. Dance therapy is based off the premise that the mind and the body are connected.  If you work with the body, you can affect what is going on in your mind as well.  Dance therapists are trained to observe movement and based on their observations, provide movement interventions. Dance therapists also studied mental health and therapeutic techniques to help clients verbally process their movement and the meaning behind their movements.  If we can change how you move, we can change how you feel, and if you change how you feel, you can change your life!

Q. What kinds of mental health issues is dance therapy used for?

A. Dance therapy has been used to help treat symptoms of a wide range of disorders such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and eating disorders.  It is especially useful in the treatment of psychological trauma because many of the symptoms of trauma appear as physical sensations in the body.

Q. Is dance therapy as effective as regular talk therapy?

A. Anecdotally, I have seen clients have the same or sometimes better results when using dance therapy vs. only talk therapy. In addition to processing feelings verbally, dance therapy involves changing body movements and patterns, which can access feelings and thoughts in a more profound and effective way. Our bodies often store trauma and dance therapy is an avenue to explore and heal that trauma. There is a growing body of research about dance therapy’s effectiveness; Feel free to click here to read some of that research on the American Dance Therapy Association’s website.

Q. Is dance therapy a somatic therapy? What is the difference between dance therapy and other somatic therapies such as somatic experiencing?

A.Any therapy that works with the body is a somatic therapy—therefore dance therapy is a somatic therapy. Dance therapy involves a great deal of training in both observing movement for psychological themes, learning movement interventions that will help clients, and learning what our (the therapists’) own movement patterns are and how they might affect clients.

The in-depth training that dance therapists receives most often involves getting a master’s degree in dance therapy, two years of full-time dance therapy work and supervision, and finally going through a board certification process which is overseen by a national governing body. Other somatic therapies are offered after a clinician has received a degree in counseling or psychology and may not involve a similar level of training or oversight.

Q. Do I have to be a good dancer to do dance therapy?

A. You don’t have to be a dancer at all do dance therapy. If you can move, you can benefit from dance therapy. The dance part of dance therapy simply means that the therapist has training to observe movement and help give movement interventions.

Q. What does a dance therapy session look like?

A. A dance therapy session has a movement warm-up, a middle section based on a psychological theme that emerges, and a closure. I ask questions based on the movement I see and focus on thoughts and feelings that come up as you move.

Q. Where do I do dance therapy? Is it in person or online?

A. You can do dance therapy in person with me (if you are in San Francisco) or online if you feel more comfortable moving in your own home. Either way, you can start healing in a way that is convenient for your life and schedule.

If you have questions about how to incorporate dance into your life or dance therapy and how it might help your mental health, please contact me at lisa@lisamanca.com. Hope to hear from you soon!

References:

Hebert, O. (2024, February 23). New study says dancing is the best exercise to combat depression. The Independent. https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/dance-best-exercise-depression-b2501113.html

Koch SC, Riege RFF, Tisborn K, Biondo J, Martin L, Beelmann A. Effects of Dance Movement Therapy and Dance on Health-Related Psychological Outcomes. A Meta-Analysis Update. Front Psychol. 2019 Aug 20;10:1806. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01806. PMID: 31481910; PMCID: PMC6710484.

Noetel, M., Sanders, T., Gallardo-Gómez, D., Taylor, P., Del Pozo Cruz, B., Van Den Hoek, D., Smith, J. J., Mahoney, J., Spathis, J., Moresi, M., Pagano, R., Pagano, L., Vasconcellos, R., Arnott, H., Varley, B., Parker, P., Biddle, S., & Lonsdale, C. (2024). Effect of exercise for depression: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ, e075847. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075847