Dance/Movement Therapy and Palliative Medicine: Embracing the Unknown
Channel: American Dance Therapy Association
Date: 2014-07-07

"Dance/movement therapists are uniquely equipped to work with the dying.  Bearing witness with full nonverbal emotional presence is at the core of working in end of life. Tracking and reflecting subtle changes in breath, gesture, and interpersonal dynamics become the groundwork for helping people face loss without undo trauma later on." ~ S. Carey Orkand



A seasoned board certified dance/movement therapist, Susan Carey Orkand, MA, BC-DMT, CMA, RYT has been working in the field for 30 years with psychiatric, medical, and developmentally disabled populations.  Susan has had the opportunity to implement the essence of family centered care by designing and implementing specialized programs in the pediatric intensive care unit.  In addition to her clinical work, Susan has conducted and supported multiple research projects, nationally and internationally.  She has published her work in a variety of professional journals.  Susan has taught graduate level students as a guest instructor and has provided guidance for master's level theses.  

After completing her graduate degree, Susan became a certified movement analyst in Laban Movement Analysis, a comprehensive movement system that evaluates and supports individualized plans for enhancing expressive and functional movement behavior across the developmental life span.  Susan became a registered yoga teacher in 2000 to add to her skills in dance/movement therapy.  This served to augment her approach working with children and adolescents with chronic life threatening illness by capturing the subtle changes in breath and other nonverbal cues that arise when seriously medically compromised.  

Susan has had the privilege to work with some of the most vulnerable young people and their families.  She has witnessed life's joys and transitions toward death.  The lessons she has learned from her work have guided and shaped the human being she is today, and will continue to do so as she moves into her future.