Reconceptualizing Rehabilitation of Female Survivors of Violence: The Case of Sampoornata Model of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) in India

Abstract This article discusses an intervention for rehabilitation of female survivors of violence that reconceptualizes rehabilitation through a feminist lens: the Sampoornata model of Dance Movement Therapy, which has been created and is being practiced by an NGO called Kolkata Sanved in Kolkata, India. Feminist rehabilitation is seen as a perspective which, in contrast to dominant rehabilitation praxis, recognizes that individual experiences of violence are embedded in patriarchal social structures and aims for survivors to internalize a sense of agency by deconstructing internalized patriarchal norms that legitimize violence against women and girls and stigmatization of survivors. The article highlights how Sampoornata enacts feminist rehabilitation through the medium of the body. Survivors reclaim the body from patriarchal control and reflect on the embodied experience in order to question patriarchal norms, remove self-blame, and negotiate a space for themselves within society.