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Emergency situations disrupt many of the conditions typically assumed in psychotherapy, including privacy, continuity, predictability, and the availability of emotionally regulated caregivers. In such contexts, therapeutic work unfolds within instability rather than outside it. This presentation draws on findings from a qualitative study exploring the experiences of dance/movement psychotherapists who provided early community-based interventions for displaced parent-child dyads during the acute phase of crisis.

Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, interviews with ten experienced therapists were examined to explore how therapeutic engagement emerged under conditions of ongoing threat, displacement, and uncertainty. The findings describe a process through which therapists created temporary therapeutic ecologies within unstable environments, supported embodied forms of expression and communication, facilitated co-regulation through shared movement, and helped restore relational vitality within parent-child relationships.

The analysis led to the development of a conceptual framework highlighting several interconnected processes: provisional therapeutic ecologies, dyadic simultaneity, embodied permission, movement-based co-regulation, and the rebuilding of relational vitality. Together, these findings suggest that therapeutic change in emergency contexts may begin with the restoration of relational contact through embodied participation, before reflection, interpretation, or meaning-making become fully available.

The presentation argues that the arts contribute to health through multiple interconnected pathways. Beyond supporting expression, communication, and meaning-making, the findings suggest that the arts may also function as a form of relational infrastructure. Through rhythm, movement, play, and embodied presence, creative processes may help sustain connection, participation, and continuity when ordinary structures of safety have become fragile. The findings offer a perspective on embodied and relational processes in crisis intervention and contribute to broader discussions within Arts & Health concerning how creative and embodied practices support individuals, relationships, and communities under conditions of instability.