Athletic Trainers on The Front Lines of Dancer Mental Health

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Abstract:
Dancers have uniquely valuable relationships with their athletic trainers and physical therapists. The value of these relationships is far more than one that fosters their physical strength because for many dancers their time in the gym with a trainer is a rare opportunity to be vulnerable. While medical professionals agree that there is a clear correlation between mental and physical health, dance culture continues to largely operate from a leave it at the door mentality when it comes to mental health. This session will look at survey responses evaluating dancers’ attitudes about mental health, their topics of greatest concern, and how likely they are to speak up in a dance environment if they are struggling with a mental health challenge.

Learning Objectives:

  • Participants will be able to explain why ATs and other healthcare professionals with direct access to dancers need to be especially diligent in trying to identify mental illness.
  • Participants will be able to describe ways in which their role as an AT provides them with key influence to change the stigma of mental illness in dance culture. 
  • Participants will be able to discuss how stigmatization of mental health in dance may impact the way dancers present themselves and cope with injury. 

Level:
Essential

CEUs:
0.5 Category A

Keywords: mental health, dancer, mental illness, stigma, 

On-Demand (Enhanced Access) Course Expiration:
Courses registered for after February 5, 2025, must be completed by December 31, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. CST.
For full details, refer to the expiration policy on our FAQ page.

Kathleen McGuire Gaines

Kathleen is a former dancer, a writer, and a fundraiser. She is also one of millions of people who have battled depression. 

As a dancer Kathleen trained at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School and the San Francisco Ballet School in their pre-professional divisions. She also spent summers at the School of American Ballet and the Chautauqua Festival program. 

Over the last 10 years, Kathleen has written more than 100 articles on dance for Dance Magazine, Pointe, Dance Spirit, and Dance Teacher magazines. As a result she has had the opportunity to conduct nearly 1,000 interviews with dancers, teachers and dance medical professionals. In 2014 she was named a contributing writer to Dance Magazine. 

Kathleen is also a dedicated nonprofit development professional and was the Director of Development at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy where she worked for more than 7 years raising money to support public parks. She serves as a member of the development committee for the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science.  

Minding the Gap was founded as a reaction to the outpouring of support Kathleen received after she posted the article Why are we still so bad at addressing dancers' mental health on the Dance Magazine website in the summer of 2017. Her ambition is to enact a movement which results in mental health being regarded with the same seriousness as physical health in dance culture. 



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Athletic Trainers on The Front Lines of Dancer Mental Health

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