Joan Chodorow

Joan Chodorow (born May 29, 1937) is an American dance/movement therapist, Jungian psychoanalyst, international teacher, scholar and author. Chodorow is a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in psychology, a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT), and an American Dance Therapy Association board-certified dance/movement therapist (BC-DMT). Her books include Dance therapy and depth psychology: the moving imagination and Jung on Active Imagination. A selection of her articles appear in Authentic movement: essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow edited by Patrizia Pallaro. Her work has been translated into 20 languages,

She was the co-developer of the Archetypal Affect System, with her late husband, Jungian psychoanalyst Dr. Louis H. Stewart, and his brother, child psychiatrist Dr. Charles T. Stewart.

In 1999, Chodorow was selected to present the Marian Chace Foundation Lecture for the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA). In 2009, she received the American Dance Therapy Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Early life Joan Chodorow was born on May 29, 1937 in New York City. and American journalist Lily Chodorow. In 1941, they moved together to Southern California. Chodorow later led individual and group movement therapy sessions with adults at Cottage General Hospital in Santa Barbara, California.

Chodorow also studied with Irmgard Bartenieff, a dancer, choreographer, and theorist who developed new possibilities in movement training, Her work as an analyst in private practice for over four decades integrated these theories. AMI (1993–2004) was co-founded by dance/movement therapist Neala Haze and dance/movement therapist and Jungian analyst Dr. Tina Stromsted. She presented the Marian Chace Foundation Lecture in 1999 and received the ADTA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Education Chodorow received her master of arts in psychology with a specialization in dance therapy from Goddard College.

The Archetypal Affect System Together with Louis' brother Charles T. Stewart, MD, a child psychiatrist, Chodorow and Stewart developed the Archetypal Affect System. Their work addresses human motivation and development, emotions, embodied consciousness, relationship styles, and creation myths.

"Children develop a sense of who they are through symbolic play. As adults, we do the same thing but call it creative imagination. Any in-depth approach to psychotherapy helps us develop a sense of who we are through the imagination. In a sense, active or creative imagination is play – play with images. All of us have ways of giving form to the imagination, and for some of us it has to be through the body. Some of us imagine best through our bodies." – Dr Joan Chodorow.