3/16/2026 - Week 10 / Meeting 15: Blanche Evan / Praxis

 Hook

https://youtube.com/shorts/I8myxjCxv9M?si=BQut00-A6plpLi-F

Question 1

What is Mate trying to imply with his explanation about Trump's personality? 

Question 2

So, what should we aim for in our work?

Thus in our work, we aim for relationships, family and friendships. The therapist has to be ready to repair a rupture when there is one or one is created during therapy. 

Question 3

How can this be achieved? 

Via co-regulation, which refers to the syncing of the nervous systems of two mammals. Our bodies are constantly scanning the environment for safety or threat. Not just with our eyes and ears, but through tone of voice, facial expression, posture, breathing. The brain area doing this work is the amygdala, which is basically "a paranoid little guard dog that assumes danger unless proven otherwise" (Scott Cone / Group Post 3/13.2026).

For instance: When someone comes home from a brutal day, tense and sharp, their nervous system is already lit up. Heart rate elevated, cortisol moving, muscles tight, the body is in a state of what neuroscience calls "sympathetic activation," what is otherwise called " the fight or flight" system. If that person's partner meets that energy with defensiveness, "why are you snapping at me" or withdrawal "go cool off before you talk to me," the nervous system reads it as more threat and the body escalates. Yet, when the other person stays calm and present, something fascinating happens, the nervous system begins to re-calibrate through what researchers call "social regulation of emotion."

When this happens, one's tone softens the threat signal, eye contact signals safety, a steady voice slows breathing, one's brain literally starts borrowing stability from  the other person. Which is what a therapist aims for when working with a client.

There is a whole body of research around this. Studies using heart-rate monitoring, show that couples who are emotionally connected will often have synchronized physiological patterns. Heart rate, breathing rhythm, even stress hormones begin to align.

It is the nervous system's version of two metronomes eventually ticking in the same rhythm. Thus, validation plays a great role in this process. Not because it solves the problem, but because it removes the loneliness from the experience.

For instance, when someone says:

• "That makes sense"
• "Of course you'd feel that way"
• "I'm here."

One's brain receives a signal of social safety, which activates the ventral vagal system of the parasympathetics nervous system, the part responsible for calm connection. This makes one's heart to slow down, breathing deepens and the body exits the threat mode.

This is why trying to fix someone's emotions too quickly often backfires. The  nervous system isn't looking for a solution first. It is looking for evidence that it isn't alone in the storm. Once that signal arrives, the physiology changes.  Thinking comes back online. Perspective returns and the emotional intensity drops.

Co-regulation is basically the oldest survival technology mammals have. Infants rely on it to regulate their nervous systems. Friends do it without realizing it. Lovers do it when they lean against each other after a hard day, which is equivalent to "two nervous systems quietly telling each other, 'you're safe now.'"

 Source: 

 Cone, Scott (2026). Thursday Night Early Band of Brothers. Group Post 3/13.2026).

 

I

 Unit: Blanche Evan

Theme: Praxis

Introduction

Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied, or realized. "Praxis" may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas. This class is specifically about applying Evan's Physical Warm Up, Alignment, Functional Technique, Improvisation/Enactment, Projective Technique, Sensitization to and Potential Body Action, and In Depth and/or Complex Improvisation.

 

II

Learning Objectives 

• Understand the meaning of the word praxis
• Explain concepts such as Physical Warm Up, Alignment, Functional Technique, Improvisation/Enactment, Projective Technique, Sensitization to and Potential Body Action, and In Depth and/or Complex Improvisation.
• Gain an awareness of Evan's multiple techniques
• Experience the application of Evan's techniques

III

Main Lesson

 

 1

 

TEXTBOOK:

Dance Movement Therapy: A Healing Art by Fran J. Levy

 

 

EVAN'S METHODOLOGY 

 (Page 49)

 

Review

 

Activity 1

 

Isolations Warm-Up  

The class engages in the practice of an isolations warm-up.

Video

 

 

Physical Warm-Up

(Page 49)

• The warm-up is a process of releasing superficial tension.
• The warm-up is aimed at bringing people into contact with the reality of their psycho-physical selves. 
• The warm-up relies on lots of free swinging of the body in all directions.
• Participants could also add their own movements.
• Loosening body parts was one important example of the "isolation of body segments."
  
• The group session could take place in a circle formation or not.
  
• The warm-up can be done with or without music, sometime with a drum which beat the leader could alter (faster or slower) according to the needs of the group.
• Checking if clients are OK or if they want to spend more time with a specific body part is part of the process.
• The main goal of the warm-up is integration of the whole body.
• Without the warm-up the body is not able to "fully process the unconscious material" that is supposed to surface during the improvisation phase of the session.
  

Question 1

Based on the concept given above, what is a synonym of the word praxis?

Question 2

What is the overall structure of Evan's methodology?

 

Question 3

What is the aim of Evan's physical warm-up?

 

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2

Activity 2

Students experience the alignment of their own bodies.

Alignment

Close your eyes

Imagine a string pulling you from the top of your head up towards infinite

Elongate of your neck

relax your shoulders

Imagine gravity is pulling you towards the ground, from the bottom of your feet downward

Inhale and on the exhale press your abdomen against your spine

Flatten your back

Tuck in your rib cage

Rotate your shoulder so that the align with your hips

Bring your tailbone slightly forward

Soften your knees

Question 4

Share how you feel after working on alignment of your body.

 

System of Functional Technique

(Page 50)

 

 

Question 5

How would you define the system of functional technique? 

 

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3

Activity 3

Students explore improvisational dance.

Improvisation/Enactment

(Page 51)

 

Evan's improvisational work can be classified into 3 approaches: a) projective technique, b) sensitization to and mobilization of potential body action  and c) in-depth and or complex improvisation. 

Using a theme or motif

Larger improvisation without a motif.

Question 6

Based on your previous knowledge on the subject, your reaction to these videos and your reading of Evan's methodology, why is improvisation important for the individual's mental health?

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4

 a) Projective Technique

(Page 52) 

Question 7

In which way did Evan use projective technique?

b) Sensitization to and Potential Body Action 

(Page 54)

Question 8

What was the purpose of sensitization to and potential body action?

c) In Depth and/or Complex Improvisation (Case Study).

(Page 55)

Question 9

What lies at the core of in-depth and/or complex improvisation?  Explain.

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IV

A Note to Remember

Four examples of improvisation techniques, as defined by Evan, are "externalizing," "enacting," "physicalizing," and "rehearsing." In externalizing the client might "dance out" a dream, fantasy, or physical memory.

V

Case Study

 

 

VI

ACTIVITY 4

Go to Page 49 - 60

Today we will practice Evan's theory through her improvisation work. 

In your groups, design an activity in which you apply Evan's three improvisation approaches:  

a) projective technique 

b) sensitization to and potential body action 

c) in depth and/or complex improvisation.  

Explain your choices.

Depending on the number of group members, each member will tackle a different aspect of Evan's method.

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GROUP 1 & 2

a) Projective technique:

 

Using creative themes

Eliciting fantasies

Words, sentences, phrases 

 

GROUP 3 & 4

 

 b) Sensitization to and potential body action:

 

 Providing specific movement directives

Use of props

Verbal facilitation

Exploring elements of dance 

Use of concrete images

GROUP 5 & 6

c) In depth and/or complex improvisation (emphasizing dramatic enactment of past traumas):

 

Movement interview

 Self-observation (walking) and therapist's observations

Exploration of space, time, body movement dynamics and content

 

Intervention:

Enactment

Reclaiming positive identification

Using dreams to dance and verbalize

Choosing the theme

Exaggerating and externalizing

Closing

 Students will record their work and post it on Discussion Board

Make Up Students

Make Up students  will work with a family member by choosing one of the three approaches (a, b or c), listed above, (follow the different sections within the approach) or record themselves leading a hypothetical session via zoom.

 

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VII

 Presentation Groups

Sample Presentation

 

 

 Rubric

1. Name of Presenters / Name of Disorder

2. Introduction: Definition and Characteristics of Disorder (3 pt)

3. Content: Symptoms & Types of Therapies Available (3 pt)

4. Case Study: A published (evidence-based) example in which DMT is used. (3 pt)

5. Exercise: Engage the group in a dance/movement exercise that applies.  (3)

6. Questions: Articulate 4 questions for students to answer and post. (3 pt) 

7. Organization (3 pt)

 8. Creativity (2 pt)

 

 VIII

 Journaling 

IX

Glossary

 

X

Sources

Blanch Evan's Methods.  http://old.girshon.ru/txt/eng/Blanche_%20Evan.doc

 Dance Movement Therapy. http://dmtfall2018.blogspot.com/2018/11/blanch-evan-methodology.html