Hey There!

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Introduction

 

             It is so easy to experience stress, burnout, and anxiety in our chaotic world – all of which have a huge impact on our wellbeing. According to the WHO, almost 13 percent of the entire globe live with some sort of mental health disorder (WHO, 2022). These issues are impacting emotions, behaviors, and overall cognition. The diagnosis of these conditions is growing at an alarming rate and affecting people at a younger age with almost half of these conditions appearing before the age of 18 (WHO, 2024). Often, when people hear the term mental health, they do not consider the vast physiological effects of those issues. Similarly, interventions from a more holistic perspective may improve both physical and mental health. Unfortunately, mental health services remain mostly inaccessible for children and young people worldwide due to reduced funding and resources (WHO, 2024). That has been the sentiment around abating the growing epidemic of mental health crises across the globe. There has to be another way. As part of this internship, www.healthanotherway.com was established in conjunction with Dura LLC to provide free resources and give a glimpse into simple steps people can take before seeing a healthcare provider. Specifically, it notes the importance of nontraditional therapies like Dance Movement Therapy and breathwork to reduce stress.

              The pandemic normalized using the internet as a tool for improving health. The goal of this website is to create a platform for increased access and resources for anyone who may find themselves struggling with their mental health or even those who just want to improve their overall peace and well-being. Specifically, the interventions listed are non-traditional and provide a biopsychosocial element to overall health. Ideally, this website will be able to be translated into multiple languages to truly become a global platform.

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              This website is not there to replace professional care but merely to share information and ideas that people do not always have.  Individuals can quickly assess their current mental state and take steps toward improvement. This website will be updated regularly in conjunction with continued work at Dura LLC to become even more comprehensive.

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                Links to resources so far are in English, but the feedback form allows site visitors to share culturally relevant resources. The blog area on the explore page also provides a global list of somatic movement educators, and moving forward, the page will be available in multiple languages.

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Dance Movement Therapy

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              Dance movement therapy (DMT) integrates “the mind-body dynamic through movement experiences, body awareness, and attending to the body while participating in interactions and creative expressions” (Suskin & Al-Yagon, 2020, p. 71). Depression and anxiety symptoms have decreased with the integration of DMT while simultaneously improving interpersonal skills and quality of life (Koch et al., 2019). One of the elements of DMT is the Laban Movement Analysis, which evaluates body movement in the planes of flow, space, weight, and time. This is a common analysis at Dura, LLC and can be evaluated in research studies.  

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Effectiveness of Non-traditional Therapies

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                  One of the specialties at Dura LLC is combining pharmacological approaches with nontraditional therapies like dance movement therapy. Often, the providers order labs of lipids, thyroid stimulating hormones, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and others to see if those levels are out of range and may contribute to a patient’s symptoms. In the research space, data has shown that aerobic exercise may be associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms (Blumenthal et al., 2020). Similarly, patients had fewer states of anxiety compared to the placebo group when their exercise was combined with the antidepressant sertraline, a drug commonly used for anxiety treatments. For people with depression, approximately 85% of them also experience symptoms of anxiety (Blumenthal et al., 2020). Comorbidities are common with mental health issues. More importantly, exercise shows symptom reduction comparable to the amount of symptom reduction from taking medications to treat anxiety and depression. This understanding is significant in promoting the importance of psychosomatic work.  Nontraditional therapies can aid pharmacological therapy benefits. This understanding is part of the importance of accessibility of resources listed on the Another Way website.

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Self-Esteem and Burnout

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                 Self-esteem is an important element of overall mental health. The Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Figure 1) is a great tool for providers to assess an individual’s attitude toward themselves as they continue their health journey.

                  According to an analysis of burnout patients through dance movement therapy, these individuals struggled with their body movements throughout space. This essentially means that these deficits can inhibit individuals in a way that exacerbates their psychiatric disorders (Pfeffer et al., 2018). The two-minute burnout (Figure 2) was designed by the Harvard Business Review in order to assess a higher level of exhaustion that may lead to mental health issues like anxiety and depression. Some core pieces of burnout include a lack of energy to do good work, negative attitudes toward our work, and feelings of ineffectiveness (Bailey, 2023). This quick assessment can be done anywhere and at any time and is a useful tool in evaluating the progress of therapies within the wellness space.

These assessments can be done both in the office and over the phone/video call. This was often done in conjunction with a talk therapy session, allowing patients to elaborate on their responses.

Implications for other areas of health and strategies

                These therapies do not only apply to common mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. Movement disorders are highly applicable to this data, and patients with movement disorders are part of the clientele at Dura LLC. For example, dance interventions and therapies can reduce loss of function like balance and mobility from Parkinson’s disease (Feenstra et al., 2021). Additionally, that can positively affect self-esteem and quality of life (Feenstra et al., 2021).

            While not studied at Dura LLC exlusively, creative arts therapy has been studied as another way to manage stress that may lead to burnout and anxiety.  Research by Martin et al. (2018) supports that participants reported a significant stress reduction after art, music, and dance movement therapy were used in parts of integrative medicine.  Overall, more studies can look at the context of creative arts therapies and specific characteristics that show their benefits; however, most current studies show significant improvements in stress-related outcomes for patients.

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Conclusion

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               Overall, we must expand the current tools and strategies to combat stress, self-esteem issues, and burnout. We will continue to expand on these resources based on data collected in the office and psychological research. These therapies must remain culturally sensitive, especially in non-clinical settings, and no single therapy can replace the significance of health care providers themselves. As noted throughout these studies, improved movement can lead to less burnout and higher self-esteem. Most importantly, some of the steps individuals can take are at no cost to them.

Globalization has led to an impact on the human brain that we still strive to understand. As we learn more about the biopsychosocial components of health, nontraditional therapies are a great tool in expanding access to mental health resources across the globe.

 

*Note:

The content of the website, including this attached brief, is my own personal work. However, I created the formatting and design of www.healthanotherway.com in collaboration with Dura LLC using generative AI.