About

Dr. Allison Singer

Founder and Director

The Centre for Movement and Creative Arts in Psychotherapy

Professional background and expertise

I am a leading Creative Arts Psychotherapist, Dance Anthropologist, Yoga Teacher and Researcher. I have over 35 years' experience using movement-based and creative arts approaches in arts, community, education, and psychotherapeutic contexts with children and adults in both the UK and internationally. Apart from my therapy work with individuals, groups and trainees, I supervise qualified psychotherapists and arts in health professionals, and lead retreats and professional development workshops. I am also a researcher and an academic supervisor for research students. I founded the Centre for Movement and Creative Arts in Psychotherapy (MAPTHY), formerly York Dance Movement Psychotherapy Centre, in 2000; and founded the North East Arts Therapies group (NEAT) in 2014. I convene NEAT’s annual conference and CPD days. 

Integrative approach to Psychotherapy

I use an integrative, intuitive, interdisciplinary, creative, person-centered approach to psychotherapy. I passionately believe in the integration of the body, movement, and creative arts within a psychotherapeutic context to provide opportunities for self-understanding and change, where words are not enough. This approach gives my clients the opportunity to bring their whole being to the psychotherapeutic process. I work with a wide range of difficulties including depression and anxiety, bereavement, complex trauma, sexual abuse, eating disorders, life transitions, and personal and professional development.

Personal journey

I first became aware of the use of dance and creative arts as tools to help people when I was a young child and witnessed the joy it brought older people when I helped my mother encourage them onto the dance floor​. This led me on a lifetime journey to understand​ how and why working with the body, alongside a range of creative arts media could help people. I trained and worked as a professional dancer, choreographer and community artist; a singer-songwriter and vocal improviser; a yoga teacher; an ethnomusicologist and dance anthropologist; a creative arts psychotherapist; and university lecturer. Throughout this journey my focus has been on therapeutic applications. I have developed ​a ​deep knowledge and understanding of the integration of the body​, movement​ and creative arts within psychotherapeutic contexts, and bring an anthropological perspective to this. ​I weave together these experiences, skills and expertise within my work with the Centre for Movement and Creative Arts in Psychotherapy.

Research

Alongside my clinical work I am also a researcher. My PhD in Dance Ethnography (De Montfort University, 2007) integrated Dance Movement Psychotherapy and Dance Anthropology and looked at the use of dance, movement, story and visual imagery in psychosocial work with war affected refugee and internally displaced children and their families in a post-conflict zone. It was based on one year’s fieldwork in Serbia shortly after the end of the war in former Yugoslavia. My field of research and the approach I adopted was very innovative and I received several commendations for my work including from the United Nations in Geneva; and the International Council for Traditional Music.  ​

Contributions to the field

I have made significant contributions to the fields of both the Creative Arts Psychotherapies and Dance Anthropology through research, publications, and professional engagements. I have presented my research at national and international conferences​ and published chapters in a number of edited collections​. I have led and been a consultant for Masters Degree professional training programmes in the Arts Psychotherapies in the UK, and been a visiting lecturer at several universities in the UK and internationally. I was a Director of the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy from 2009-2013. As the founder of NEAT, I have fostered a community of creative arts psychotherapists who flourish in the multi-modal creative environment of the annual conferences and CPD days which I convene. I am ​currently ​writing a book based on my PhD thesis.​ ​

Professional affiliations

I am​ professionally registered with​ the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, the Health and Care Professions Council, ​t​he Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy, ​the British Association of Dramatherapists, ​and ​the British Wheel of Yoga​. I am also a long-standing member of​ the International Council for Traditional Music​ and their​ ​s​tudy ​g​roup in Ethnochoreology.