Training

The International Dance Therapy Institute of Australia (IDTIA) was established in Melbourne in 1989 out of a need for extended study and training in dance therapy. Dr. Marcia Leventhal, who studied with early dance movement therapy pioneers and conducted the Graduate Dance Therapy Program at New York University for sixteen years, directed the initial IDTIA training programs. The IDTIA currently provides training at Introductory, Certificate, and Advanced Diploma levels, in addition to professional development workshops.

The IDTIA Advanced Diploma training program fosters intensive study, experiential learning and supervised practice. Graduates are qualified to form and facilitate their own groups, evaluate and document dance-movement therapy work with clinical and special needs populations, and become professional members of the dance-movement therapy community. Building on their own foundations in dance-movement and psychology/counselling, our students acquire training in psychodynamic principles, felt-sense embodiment, core dance-movement therapy history and theory, and the charting and articulating of practice and clinical fieldwork.

The Advanced Diploma in Dance-Movement Therapy, now accredited with the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia, is a part-time three-year coursework and fieldwork programme which equips graduates for working with clients in a group setting. The programme has an optional exit point at the end of the first year of study. Students exiting after one year of study are awarded the Certificate in Dance-Movement Therapy.

Certificate & Advanced Diploma graduates are eligible to apply for Associate or Professional membership of the Dance Therapy Association of Australia (DTAA). The DTAA is the professional body for dance therapy practitioners in Australia and is a member association of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA).