Dance Therapy NZ

Help DTNZ offer dance and arts therapy programmes in the community!

Auckland

We've been a trailblazer in the creative arts therapy space in New Zealand since 2013, however our history starts before then – and the research and practice of dance movement therapy dating even further back to the 1940s in the United States of America and Europe.

Dance Therapy New Zealand officially opened its doors as a charity in October 2013. Since then, we've been committed to being the nation’s leading provider of dance movement and arts therapy. Together with our expert team of therapists we have expanded to offer dance movement therapy programmes in Northland, Christchurch, Whanganui, Palmerston North, Wellington and Dunedin.

We’re proud to employ some of the best creative arts therapists going around as we work to empower people of all ages, and in all situations, including those living with disabilities, mental illness, tamariki from low-income neighbourhoods and survivors of sexual abuse.

As the complexities of modern-day life continue to change and evolve, we’re seeing the demand and interest in our services grow.

Our extraordinary organisation has always depended on charitable support. We’re grateful to the individuals and organisations who have seen the value in the service we offer and remain committed to our very special cause. We rely on this support to go above and beyond to provide the best care, expertise, and local facilities for our deserving clients.

This is especially important as we continue to support the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing needs of Kiwis all around the country, and work to ensure our service remains relevant for individuals and communities - now and in the future.

This is why your donations are so important to us. Here's how your donations can help:

- support a child to have dance therapy sessions for six months or longer

- enable an adult to attend a dance therapy programme

- support a group of high needs, at risk students to receive art therapy at school to

prevent violence, bullying and suicide

- purchase art materials or dance movement equipment

- pay for venues for our creative arts therapies for six months

- help cover our operational costs.

More about us

We're a charity empowering people of all ages throughout Aotearoa New Zealand using dance movement and arts therapy. We’re proud to employ some of the best creative arts therapists going around as we work to support people in all situations including those living with disabilities, mental illness, tamariki from low-income neighbourhoods and survivors of sexual trauma.

For more information about Dance & Arts Therapy New Zealand, please visit https://dancetherapy.co.nz.

Here is to the next 10 years! 12 February 2024

Over the past decade we've offered 72,000 spaces for people to benefit from creative arts therapy, facilitated 19,000 sessions, mentored hundreds of student therapists, assisted an increasing number of schools, and supported 18,000 individuals.

Our kaupapa aims to help as many people as possible, and we’re so proud of what we've achieved given our size.

We're glad to have supported so many deserving clients and look forward to doing it for another ten years at least...

Here's what some of our deserving clients have shared about their experience:

“I'm glad this group exists. We've been looking for a group to join for years! But all the other options like Scouts or sports require a child to be sporty/physically coordinated/able to follow strict instructions or glean information from social interactions (my child needs social interactions and 'normal' situational behaviour explained to him).” – Parent, child attends Arts 4 Us

“This particular client is mainly non-verbal and, in our sessions, would very rarely say a word. In one particular session in the closing section where we sing our breathing song with the vibratone instrument, he picked up the vibratone and started sounding it to the tune of 'Twinkle, twinkle little star'. He then proceeded to sing this whole song, articulating each word clearly. It was an amazing surprise to find out that he can verbalize through singing, and he played the song so musically. A great achievement!” – DTNZ therapist at Stars North Shore

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