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In psychology, the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) is a system of movement observation and analysis that therapists use to appraise individuals include fetuses.
The KMP is structured as a psychological profile attained through notating and graphing an individual's body movement. As Loman and Foley wrote in 1996, “...experiences get stored in the body and are reflected in body movement."
KMP was developed by Dr. Judith Kestenberg and her colleagues.
Description
KMP is organized to reflect two lines of development.
- System I is focused on the tension flow-effort line of development describing movement dynamics.
- System II, the shape-flow shaping developmental line, describes relational development and the structure of movements
The diagrams of each system are arranged on the basis of observed patterns of development so that earlier qualities such as pre-efforts are followed on the KMP page by more mature qualities such as efforts. Within this structure there are eight frequency diagrams dedicated to specific categories of movement qualities. For example, there is a diagram of efforts. Looking at that diagram we can see the frequency of specific effort qualities used by a mover. People have their own unique movement quality preferences. So, although a punch often involves direct, strong, and accelerated qualities, but one could punch using an indirect quality of movement.
The KMP study group discovered that as infants mature, their movement repertoires expand and certain qualities become more or less frequent based on their developmental phase and individual personality and experiences.
A 2007 study concluded that the KMP was useful as a theoretical lens and methodological tool for assessing psychological phenomena in adults, as well. Koch also conducted a study in 2014 on the utility of the KMP concluding that there was a significant effect of dynamic movements (indulging versus fighting rhythms) on attitudes and affects in adults.
Methodological approaches
The KMP can serve as a descriptive device, portraying the frequency of use of specified qualities of movement without reference to any theoretical orientation. However, the analyst may also use the KMP in developing hypotheses or predictions based on the descriptive data. Among the various approaches are:
- Evaluating how the individual fits into the developmental pattern that is typically found amongst the person's subculture.
- Evaluating how movement qualities of one individual are used in harmonious and clashing combinations.
- Comparing KMP's of a dyad (two individuals), to evaluate how their movement patterns interrelate.
- Analyzing the KMP in relation to the meta-psychological profile developed by Anna Freud, with its strong emphasis on development.
Presently, individual researchers, therapists, anthropologists and movement specialists use the KMP through the lens of their own frameworks.
Culture and context
Frances Labarre (2001), Christine Caldwell (2010) Kestenberg Amighi (1990) and others have pointed to the importance cultural influences in the study and analysis of movement patterns.
We can make a preliminary assessment of KMP cultural bias on its different levels of application. As a purely descriptive instrument, there is a minimal degree of cultural bias. It may be that certain qualities of movement are excluded from the KMP that reflects the culture of its originators. However, the focus on elementary qualities of movement that serve universal functions, such as sucking, biting, urinating and giving birth, enhances its degree of universality and equivalence in many diverse cultural settings.
However, once one goes beyond description, the level of cultural bias increases. One of the cultural judgments underlying the KMP is that access to a broad and fairly balanced range of movement patterns in adults offers greater adaptability and health to movers, regardless of cultural context. Once one begins to interpret or evaluate a movement profile, in comparison to developmental norms or is seeking psychological meaning, cultural influences become more of a concern.
The KMP is best applied in cultural settings for which developmental norms are available and where members of the culture participate in uncovering, untangling and revealing cultural specific movement/meaning associations. For example, Kestenberg Amighi (2008) compared movement related metaphors in eight different languages. She found that such metaphors tend to be quite similar within several European languages, but vary much more as one crosses into more historically separated languages and cultures. Some meanings that might appear to an English language speaker as fundamental, are, in fact culturally shaped.
For example, in English we often associate shrinking in shape i.e. making oneself small with feelings of insignificance or subordination and growing or making oneself big with feelings of pride and/or importance. However, in Persian, for example, the former does not make any sense while the latter is widely used.
Clinical applications
The KMP system is taught at the graduate level to dance/movement therapists as a tool for clinical assessment and intervention for clients across the lifespan, and has been used as a research tool in identifying nonverbal behaviors of infant-parent dyads and maternal depression
Small infants have wide repertoires of movement qualities, each in theory, coming to greater maturity and prominence as each developmental phase unfolds. However, the general developmental pattern described in the KMP, is expressed in each individual in varied forms reflecting individual differences. Temperament, cultural influences, and later experiences become embodied over time and lead to very individual styles of movement.
The KMP offers the therapist and mover a window to understanding the predilections that exist and offer opportunities to develop comfortable expression of a wider range of movement patterns if desired. It is believed, following the work of dance/movement therapists, that such expanded movement repertoire can have healing implications—both on physiological and psychological levels. How much the movement qualities are expressed or fade is a product of individual temperament, experiences, and context, as well as developmental age. Thus the KMP analyst,(a dance/movement therapist or psychotherapist), looks for some degree of fit with developmental phase, some degree of balance of the movement qualities, and some degree of matched harmonious patterning within a normative pattern for that individual's culture.
References
- Loman, S. (1994). Attuning to the fetus and the young child: Approaches from dance/movement therapy. ZERO TO THREE Bulletin of National Center for Clinical Infant Programs, 15 (1) August/September
- "The Kestenberg Movement - The Kestenberg Movement Profile". www.kestenbergmovementprofile.org.
- "Child Development Research | Sponsoring Three Main Projects".
- Hastie, S. (2006). The Kestenberg Movement Profile. In S.L. Brooke (Ed). Creative Arts Therapies Manual: A Guide to the History, Theoretical Approaches, Assessment, and Work with Special Populations of Art, Play, Dance, Music, Drama, and Poetry Therapies. Illinois: Charles Thomas.
- Koch, S. C. (2007). Defenses in movement: Video-analysis of conflict patterns in group communication. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 2(1), 29-45
- Koch, S. (2014). Rhythm is it: effects of dynamic body feedback on affect and attitudes. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1-11
- Kestenberg-Amighi J., Loman, S., Lewis, P., & Sossin, K. M. (1999). The meaning of movement: Developmental and clinical perspectives of the Kestenberg Movement Profile. New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge.
- History and future of the Kestenberg Movement Profile. In S. Koch & S. Bender (Eds.). Movement Analysis—Bewegungsanalyse: The legacy of Laban, Bartenieff, Lamb and Kestenberg. Berlin: Logos Verlag.
- Lewis, P. & Loman, S. (1990). The Kestenberg Movement Profile: Its past, present applications, and future directions. Keene, NH: Antioch New England Graduate School.
- Loman, S. (1992). The body-mind connection in human movement analysis. Keene, NH: Antioch New England Graduate School. Loman, S. (1994). Attuning to the fetus and the young child: Approaches from dance/movement therapy. ZERO TO THREE Bulletin of National Center for Clinical Infant Programs, 15 (1)August/September.
- Birklein, S. & Sossin, K.M. (2006). Nonverbal indices of stress in parent-child dyads: Implications for individual and interpersonal affect regulation and intergenerational transmission. In S. Koch and I. Bauninger (Eds.) Advances in dance/movement therapy: Theoretical perspectives and empirical findings. Berlin: Logos Verlag
- Loman, S., Cellini, N., Johnson, M., & Hallett, E. (2009). Magical Moments in Movement: Antioch University New England Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling Students Quest in the Real World. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 31(2), 159-169.
- Lewis, P., Loman, S., & Antioch/New England Graduate School. Master's Program in Dance/Movement Therapy. (1990). The Kestenberg Movement Profile : its past, present applications, and future directions. Keene, N.H.: Antioch New England Graduate School.
- Reale, A. E. (2011). Maternal Growing and Shrinking Movements in Mother-Infant Interaction Correspondent to Maternal Self Criticism and Dependency: Application and Utilization of the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) in a Microanalysis (3483895 Psy.D.). Pace University, Ann Arbor. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
- Sossin, K. M. (2007). History and future of the Kestenberg Movement Profile. In S.Koch & S. Bender (Eds.). Movement Analysis—Bewegungsanalyse: The legacy of Laban, Bartenieff, Lamb and Kestenberg. Berlin: Logos Verlag
- Kestenberg Amighi, J. (1990). The application of the KMP cross-culturally. In P. Lewis & S. Loman (Eds.), The Kestenberg Movement Profile: Its past, present applications, and future directions. Keene, NH: Antioch New England Graduate School.
- Kestenberg Amighi, J. (1990). The application of the KMP cross-culturally. In P. Lewis & S. Loman (Eds.), The Kestenberg Movement Profile: Its past, present applications, and future directions. Keene, NH: Antioch New England Graduate School.
- Merman, H. (1990). The use of precursors of effort in dance/movement therapy. In P. Lewis and S. Loman op. cit. Pp. 85-100. Moore, C.L. "A beginner’s guide to Movement Pattern Analysis." www.colum.edu/.../movement_pattern_analysis Pfd file accessed 3/5/12.