| Abstract [eng] |
This master thesis analyses the recovery of the relationship with one's own body after a physical trauma using an autoethnographic approach. The study is based on the researcher's personal experience of a trauma caused by a car accident in her teenage years and a long healing process. The body became “different” as it was subjected to a change of body - wounding, “forging”, not accepting. The work reflects on how the trauma and surgical interventions changed the researcher's relationship with her body, how the experience of (dis)power was shaped, and the role of dance-movement therapy in reconnecting with her body. The study revealed that dance-movement therapy became a tool that allowed not only physical movement but also an emotional return to the body - to express unspoken emotions through movement, to confront pain, and to create a new relationship with one's own corporeality. The theoretical part deals with the concept of the body, trauma and (dis)power. The aim of the thesis is to use an autoethnographic method to reveal how the physical trauma I experienced and the healing process that followed affected my relationship to my body and my perception of (dis)power in the context of dance-movement therapy. In this thesis, I pose the research question: how does a future dance-movement therapist integrate the experience of the body's (dis)power in the telling of her autoethnographic healing story? Results: based on the analysis of the researcher's personal experience of physical trauma, several themes emerged, reflecting the emotional and physical stages of healing. The study revealed that the reconstruction of the relationship with the body after trauma is a process of revision of personal identity. Dance-movement therapy helped to express emotions through the body, to regain a sense of and connection with the self. Autoethnography became a tool to reflect and make sense of pain and experiences of (dis)power. It allowed us to see the body not only as an object of trauma, but as an active one, able to “speak”, to witness, to survive and to create. The sensations, reflections and fragments of the body's memory experienced during the dance showed that healing is not just a biological process, but a complex, multi-layered process that intertwines memory, emotions (shame). The body, long experienced as a stranger, has become a place where one can find not only pain, but also possibilities for recovery. This experience, analysed by the researcher, became not only an investigation but also a self-reflexive process of empowerment. |
