Dance-Movement and Neuromotor Therapy as Methods of Right-Hemisphere Psychotherapy for Patients with Schizophrenia (Clinical Case)

Relevance. Neuromotor and dance-movement therapy are conceptualized as right-hemisphereoriented psychotherapeutic approaches, as they primarily engage psychomotor functions. Psychomotor activity encompasses motor coordination, motor memory, affect regulation, and attentional processes. These domains are frequently impaired in individuals with schizophrenia. Accordingly, right-hemisphere therapeutic methods may provide a pathway to restoring contact with reality in such patients. Contemporary psychotherapy is undergoing a paradigm shift from an intrapsychic perspective, centered on the individual, to an interpersonal perspective, emphasizing dyadic processes and ultimately aiming for an integrated model of both. Neuromotor and dancemovement therapy exemplify this shift. Within synchronized therapeutic interactions, nonverbal mechanisms of relational and emotional change are activated through right-hemisphere-mediated communication between participants, facilitated by affectively engaged intersubjectivity. This process gives rise to an ultra-rapid, and therefore largely imperceptible, right-hemisphere-to-righthemisphere communicative system within the therapeutic relationship, characteristic of affectfocused psychotherapeutic models.

This study aims to examine and describe the therapeutic correction of persistent psychomotor agitation in a patient with schizophrenia using right-hemisphere psychotherapeutic methods (neuromotor and dance-movement therapy) in the context of long-term pharmacoresistance.

Methodology. The article describes the current condition of a patient diagnosed with schizophrenia aggravated by pharmacoresistance over a long period of time. Particular attention is directed toward identifying a therapeutic target for neuromotor psychotherapy, grounded in interventions focused on motor coordination. The selection and application of appropriate psychodiagnostic instruments for evaluating the patient’s condition are also addressed.

Results and their analysis. The difficulty of overcoming a stable pathological condition is that compensatory reactions are mobilized by the memory matrix. In a stable pathological condition, the use of brain reserves for compensation is limited. In this case, it was motor memory as a righthemisphere function of the brain that became the impetus, developing which we were able to achieve stable remission.

Conclusion. The insufficient effectiveness of pharmacotherapy, the irreversibility and severity of its side effects make the correction of mental disorders with the help of new techniques (in particular, neuromotor and dance-movement therapy) an urgent task. The path of neuromotor and dance-movement therapy as methods of right-hemisphere psychotherapy is the activation of unused reserves of the brain to compensate for painful manifestations due to the structural and functional capabilities of the patient’s brain.