Apports de la danse thérapie à l'éducation thérapeutique des patients obèses

It is nowadays recognized that therapeutic patient education (TPE) plays an important role in the managment of obese patients. These are frequently characterized by a distorted body image, poor self-esteem, and communication difficulties. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that dance therapy, integrated with a TPE program allows to acquire self care and psychosocial skills. Method: We used qualitative and quantitative analysis of verbatim collected from 12 obese patients (BMI 37.03 kgm2, mean age 47.2) randomly selected among 23 patients who completed a two years dance therapy program within the TPE program at the University Hospital of Geneva. Verbatim were treated by the SPHINX Tm program (quantitative analysis). For the qualitative analysis, seven content categories were created by the authors in reference to a list of self care and psychosocial skills. Results: The overall lexical analysis indicates 92 names, 50 adjectives, 38 verbs. Among the most frequently mentioned names, the “body” is listed first, followed by “envy”and “movement”. The qualitative analysis of verbatim shows that through the dance therapy patients achieve above all competencies linked to body awareness, transformation of body image and an improvement of self-esteem. Motivation to take care of his body and health, communication with others and quality of life, ability to formulate a plan for the future are mastered by the patient to a lower degree. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the pedagogical quality of dance therapy, that allows patients to acquire self-care and psychosocial skills. This practice seems to have its place in the therapeutic education programs for obese patients.