The Meaning of Movement: Embodied Developmental, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives of the Kestenberg Movement Profile

The Meaning of Movement advances the KMP's importance for developmental psychology, clinical and therapeutic practice. It will be rewarding reading for psychologists, therapists, scholars, and scientists seeking understanding of the nature of human movement as expressive gesture. It provides sensitively observed structure to an account of the affective and embodied mind.

Dr Jonathan Delafield-Butt, Reader in Child Development and Director of the Laboratory for Innovation in Autism, University of Strathclyde

Kestenberg Amighi, Loman and Sossin have made the complexity of the movement-psyche correlation greatly accessible, particularly through their multiple examples and short exercises that are intermingled with the scholarly description of the system. The compelling theory and method of the KMP broadens our awareness of the intricate relation of body and mind. A must have for any book shelf.

Dr. phil. habil. Sabine C. Koch, M.A., BC-DMT, psychologist and dance movement therapist, Head of the dance movement therapy master program at SRH University Heidelberg; Director of the Research Institute for Creative Arts Therapies, Alanus University, Germany.

In human interactions, communication occurs not only with words but with a variety of non-verbal communications, such as facial expressions, gestures, postures, and complex bodily movements. Parents, educators, and mental health professionals often do not appreciate that there may be a discordance between the words that are used and the subliminal non-verbal communication. The Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) is a valuable tool to broaden the understanding of human interactions. Kestenberg Amighi, Loman, and Sossin are to be congratulated.

Leon Hoffman, MD, Co-Director Pacella Research Center of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

The Meaning of Movement offers a rich, invaluable approach to understanding nonverbal communication through The Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP). Unlike the analysis of face-to-face communication in infant research, the KMP includes all aspects of nonverbal behavior, including gestures, postures, full body motions, muscle tension levels, the shapes of each person's body, and how each partner navigates personal space and shared dyadic space. These perspectives provide remarkable avenues into relational dynamics at every stage of development.

Beatrice Beebe, PhD, Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology, Columbia University Medical Center