…or Tango, Hip-Hop…the choice in dance style is up to you, but the benefits are universal. In the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) they have started to use dance therapy, under doctor supervision, to help those with spinal cord injuries regain not only their physical health, but their mental wellbeing.
Deepti Aggarwal, the head of the lifestyle management department for the ISIC notes that while it may seem insensitive to ask a person regulated to a wheelchair to dance, the results are well worth the try. Aggarwal encourages the patients to use what motion is available to them – hands, fingers, shoulders. They are taught how to move their wheelchairs to the rhythm of the music and in turn experience increased confidence.
Hopefully this form of therapy will spread to the rest of the world as it has so many potential benefits to those who due to their injuries, until now have often felt cut off from pleasurable activities like dance.
Read the whole article here.