Abstract:  Empathy is a usual intervention in counseling and psychotherapy. In the field of dance/movement therapy (D/MT) field, empathy mainly refers to kinesthetic empathy. It is a core concept that has long been stated in dance/movement therapy literature and applied in dance/movement therapy practice. According to the literature and techniques of kinesthetic empathy, it consists of mirroring, witnessing, and leaderless dance. Mirroring is a popular technique in dance/movement therapy studies. Researchers considered the reason of effectiveness of kinesthetic empathy in three main perspectives. Examining previous studies, we find that there are still some existing questions in this field need to be explored in future: 1) clarifying a precise definition of kinesthetic empathy, 2) developing an assessment tool directed to kinesthetic empathy, 3) carrying out more empirical studies about dance/movement therapeutic process and outcome.

Key words: dance/movement therapy, kinesthetic empathy, mirroring technique