The Perfect Therapy - All About Tango Therapy: Tango Therapy Neurotango

The NTT concept incorporates music and techniques derived from
Argentine tango, making it an integral part of Tango Therapy.
However, it encompasses much more than just tango:

It is a method based on tools that are easy to apply, requiring no previous dance or
music skills. These tools can be adapted to exercises involving movement, sitting, or
lying down.

The Neuro Technical Tools (NTT) are designed for physical, psychological, and social
therapy forms. They incorporate physical, cognitive, and interactive exercises with
music that are rooted in scientifically proven principles of brain functioning.

The book describes all target groups, effects, the nature of each tool,
the application mode of the exercises, and their use in neurological
therapies and psychotherapy.

Currently, therapists and medical doctors in approximately 17 countries are engaged in the rewarding work as Neurotango/NTT practitioners. The book includes the fundamental knowledge covered in the certification seminar.

Copyright, trade mark
and EU-CONCEPT EU-BRAND PAPER 2019/08.
Simone Schlafhorst
Main Concept Developer

www.tango-therapy.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Mar 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9783910719330

Book preview

INTRODUCTION: THE PERFECT THERAPY

For therapists, medical doctors, practitioners

How would you imagine the perfect therapy as a therapist, medical doctor, or practitioner?

Above all, your working day should not be characterized by such heavy physical work that you get physical pain or discomfort. But a lot of movement would be good instead of just standing or sitting on the spot. You would have patients who left your therapy session smiling, joking, and chatting nicely. Your patients should not be afraid to come to you because they fear physical pain (If you are a physiotherapist, for example). Or you are a psychotherapist, and your patients fear emotional agony because they have to express their experienced trauma verbally. Situations and emotions that words can hardly express and that bring up shame and pain. A new method should avoid all this.

The perfect therapy would avoid or even relieve pain through the production of opioids and endorphins in the brain. After their therapy, there would be a feeling of physical and mental lightness. Yes, even feelings of happiness and better mobility due to more dopamine would be present.

Instead of many using words, the patient would get more self-awareness through his body or body language and could process emotional burdens.

The best thing about this therapy would be that the psychotherapy patients would also suddenly have fewer physical problems and symptoms. All the patients would suddenly develop more activities and new interests. Sometimes they would only change small positive things in their lives, like regular walks or better nutrition. But big and important changes also could take place. Examples include having a dog for more movement, love, joy, and caring emotions. It could also be moving out of a flat that is emotionally connected with painful memories or choosing a dream job or a new university career or a sexual coming out or traveling around the world, or a new hobby that was already a long time in the mind. In short, all the things which are strongly connected to the inner self.

As a therapist, you would get a lot of praise and recognition because you could bring about these great changes. Your form of therapy would have a holistic effect on a physical, psychological, neurological, and social level. Your professional recognition would be motivating every day of your life. But there would be much more for you.

Your new therapy method would be very special. The production of hormones and messenger substances for motor control and cognitive brain processes leads to new action patterns and connections. All that takes place in one specific section: The brain. This is exactly where the new therapy method starts to work.

People with neurological diseases such as strokes rebuild new connections between both brain hemispheres in a very short time. After several therapy hours, the symptoms, such as paralysis and speech disorders, already showed visible and noticeable improvements for the patients.

Of course, patients with degenerative neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, MS, or incipient dementia would also notice visible and perceptible effects for themselves immediately. After a session with you, they would rate themselves about 2 - 3 points better physically and mentally on a scale of 1 - 10 than at the beginning of the class.

The effect would always be immediate and not at the end of the therapy or when the patient leaves the hospital.

Many neurological patients, such as young MS patients and Parkinson's patients, would be given a new life if they continue their therapy because that point is important in degenerative diseases. It is always a race against time, and a building up of new neuronal connections happens, while elsewhere, there is incessant degradation due to the nature of the disease. These patients would be able to go to work normally again, use the bus or train independently and even drive their own cars at the age of 80. Many depend on it, and losing their independence is the first step towards depression. This could also be prevented here. For Parkinson's patients, the feeling of losing something of their own abilities every day is unparalleled in terms of sadness, and thus also of experiencing their own decline on a daily basis. How fantastic it would be that through your new therapy, the patient could regain some of his lost abilities and even learn new things. The most important precondition would be that the therapy would be started as early as possible. Because unfortunately, even the new therapy would not be able to override natural laws such as aging or degenerative processes completely.

Of course, all positive changes would also give new impetus to the patients' partnerships and marriages. These are the social side effects. Especially because the patient can do the therapy together with a friend or a loved one. Physical and mental well-being depends crucially on personal relationships and the motivating aspect of togetherness.

But now, back to your individual wish list:

You should be able to practice the therapy form in one-to-one sessions, as mentioned above, in pairs and in groups, to care for as many patients as possible simultaneously. You also should have the opportunity to work intensively with the individual. Also, for systemic reasons, it can often be a help to include the life partner in the therapy, as big changes are imminent. If the patient suddenly starts becoming more independent again, this can often cause confusion and problems in everyday life. If both partners are involved in the therapy, they are evolving together because both would be aware of all changes, they are experiencing through body language.

It would also be important that this therapy could be done sitting, standing, lying down or, at best, moving at some point or immediately. Their movement tools would be tools that make this possible and make the exercises modifiable accordingly to their abilities. The nature of the tools would also give a comparability of the level of improvement to the movements of earlier stages, other participants, or movements of healthy people. This facilitates your professional assessment, scaling of symptoms, and using the tools for scientific studies.

The training for this therapy is based on a tool-based system that one could learn quickly without prior knowledge or special skills. Like taken from a toolkit, one could be able to take out a specific tool and apply it to a specific symptom or problem to solve it. There should be additional tools for psychological and neurological patients, as some of these patients need special preparation before doing the main tools. Their limitations can result from e.g., anxiety, trauma, advanced age (motor or cognitive limitations) or pre-existing neurological conditions.

 There would be no need to learn all tools of all application areas in the few weekends of the Practitioner seminars. You could slowly grow into it, try them out bit by bit and notice miraculous developments in yourself. You would become even stronger, more self-confident and find the missing element of your work. A therapy form that suits you personally and the personal way you are doing it. This will make you happy and satisfied because you will understand your inner self more and more through your own body work. Body language never lies and is always authentic. This is the secret of embodiment. Always 100% YOU.

The perfect therapy would, therefore, fulfil not only professional wishes but also personal and private ones.

Read this book, and you will realise that such a method of therapy already exists.

For patients or affected persons

How would a patient imagine the ideal therapy?

Above all, it would be important for the patients not to have any pain during and, at best, soon after the therapy. The therapy should be pleasant and even fun. In this way, patients would be more motivated and get better healing results. Something that has been shown in many scientific studies. A therapy form with soft movements and pleasant music would be ideal for this goal. The immediate movement-meditative effect leads to a feeling of physical and mental relief. The cognitive and movement-coordinative workload of the brain would be the reason for a direct meditative state. Active thinking is impossible at the same time.

The patient should also be able to control the intensity of the exercises easily and not feel overstrained, as no pressure from the therapist would be necessary. Both physical and psychological developments could be adjusted individually by the patient himself and his own body language.

This way, the patient would have the feeling that the therapy is tailored to their needs, abilities, and personal development.

In many cases, pain is suppressed by the brain during therapy because it is simultaneously busy with other brain processes and blocks the work of pain receptors. Because of the sense perception mode and special brain frequencies, the brain could produce endorphins, opioids, and dopamine. The result would be joy, more mobility, and less pain.

Another improvement for the patient would be fast progress and success, especially in rehab or healing processes where there was no progress for a long time. Slowing down a steady degenerative process leads to less depressive moods and reduces even severe depression.

The brain would learn to create new patterns through emotions and movement. New movement and behaviour patterns create what the patient needs in terms of new or regained abilities. For example, balance, more fluid gait, resolution of physical and or psychological