Analyzing Erikson's Theory

The video I viewed was Christina’s and Jordyn’s video about a mother coming in to discuss concerns she had about her daughter whom she adopted at age three. Now, her daughter is seven years old and still is not forming a connection with her parents. The mother expressed concerns about how her daughter is withdrawn from her and treats her like any other adult in her life. The mother was also concerned about her daughter’s ability to interact with peers her age and making friends. These were the major points that the mother brought up during the therapy session, and the therapist agreed to continue to work with the client in order to help form a better attachment with her daughter. From the information presented, there seems to be two major
Erikson theory looks at the development of life through different stages (Newman & Newman, 2018). Here, each individual progress through the stages and resolves different psychosocial crises. If done successfully, people develop in a “normal” and healthy manner, but if one does not master that stage, they may be stuck in that stage and cannot move onto other stages. This can then impact their development and they can lose their sense of self. The first stage of Erikson’s theory is Trust versus Mistrust, which spans from an infant’s first two years of life. In this stage, infants try to figure out the world around them, and they depend on their caregiver to provide a sense of stability and comfort. If the caregiver is present and consistent in their interaction and caring for the infant, they will develop a sense of trust which then will transfer over to future relationships as they become older. However, if the relationship between caregiver and infant is inconsistent and there is no sense of stability, the infant will develop mistrust. This then impacts their ability to interact with the world and can affect future
One is through empathic reflection which is also referred to as mirroring. In a dance/movement therapy session, usually the therapist will mirror the movement of the client. This helps to build a connection and bring awareness of self from others. In this case, the therapist could help with the mother mirror her daughter to help establish that connection with one another and work towards strengthening their relationship. Another way dance/movement therapy can help with fostering this relationship is through allow the daughter to use movement to express herself. Perhaps one of the reason why her daughter is more closed off is because she does not have words to say what she is feeling. Movement can be a great tool to help her be aware of her emotions and be able to express herself nonverbally. This can be done through having her pick a movement that represents how she is