Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Keyana Jones Johnson, LMHC, BC-DMT. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Keyana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
I absolutely have a defining moment in my life that changed the trajectory of my career, and I remember it like it was yesterday. I was shuffling through my dance bag in search of my dance sneakers when a group of seven dance students entered the dance studio I worked at in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It was mid-July, and seventy-five degrees that morning but thirty degrees cooler if you counted the sadness on the students faces as they walked into the dance studio.
On that day, I was preparing to teach the students a hip hop routine for an upcoming performance they had which was less than one week away. As I stood up from rumbling through my dance bag, I noticed the decaying faces of the students as they entered the studio. As I watched them all settle into the room several questions raced through my mind: Why are they so quit? Why do they look so sad? Why aren’t they running and laughing onto the dance floor like they normally do? Did they get robbed on the way here? Did someone die? What happen to them?
I did not have an answer to all my questions at that moment. I asked the students repeatedly what was wrong, but to my surprise, no one answered me for minutes, which felt like dreaded hours. All the students plopped down in the middle of the dance floor and sat there silently. I felt frustrated and concerned because it appeared as though they were all ignoring me. The lack of movement in their bodies, the stillness in their breath, and the consistent downward gaze of their eyes towards the floor caused an uncomfortable serge of panic, hesitation, coldness, and fear throughout my body.
I had no idea what to do.
With no answer from any of the students, I reached two conclusions. First, we aren’t going to be able to get through this dance class. Second, I am not prepared to help them because I have no idea what to say, and they won’t talk. The more questions I asked the students the more tears I watched roll down their faces with no verbal responses. I felt like I was in a cesspool of pain; and with that I stopped talking. I let my nervous chatter leave the room and I too just sat on the floor in silence and stillness with them.
After a period of time, the students began to speak and the more they spoke the more frozen I felt in my body. I wasn’t prepared for the stories the students shared with me on that day. The students shared stories of trauma, stories of rape and molestation, stories of parents committing suicide on that very morning, stories of children being ripped from their homes and placed in foster care, and stories of children coming out as gay and being rejected by their family members at the age of twelve and thirteen years old. All I kept thinking was, “I am just a dance teacher, what am I supposed to do about this?”
I wasn’t ready!
I wasn’t ready to hear what I heard, but I was ready for whatever obstacle came next because in that moment my passion choose me.
In that moment, my passion to use dance for healing and not for performing was birthed. With no announcement, and no words, I slowly got up from the semi-circle we were sitting in on the dance floor. I put on some slow jazz music, and we began to stretch, warm-up and then dance. Three hours later I found myself asking the question again as the children walked out the door: What happen to them? As I walked behind the children, waving good-bye, and watching them run out of the dance studio with smiles on their faces and laughter in their heart, I recognized that somehow we just moved, twirled, jumped, and danced through their pain. In that moment, I learned that talking is not the only form of therapy, and in that moment, I also learned that you can heal through dance.
Up until that point, I was a dance teacher in pursuit of one day owning my own dance studio. After the last child left the studio, I was convinced that dancing just to perform was not enough; I now needed to dance in order to heal brokenness in the lives of my students. As I walked back over to my dance bag, I sat back down on the dance floor, and I cried. I cried because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to those children when they got back home. I cried because I felt unprepared and not sure if I had really helped the students in a way, they needed it most. When I was done crying, I told myself I will never be unprepared like that again, and in that moment, while sitting in my tears, I made the decision to go back to college, obtain a master’s degree, and become a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with a specialization in Dance Movement Therapy. In that moment, I was no longer in pursuit of owning a dance studio but rather a mental health clinic that specialized in dance movement therapy for the purpose of healing more souls.
Keyana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Sure thing! My name is Keyana Jones Johnson. I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Board-Certified Dance Movement Therapist, and Licensed Social Worker with seventeen years of social work and counseling experience. I am a passionate, trained Dancer since the third grade, a Dance Minister, and a Dance Educator for the past twenty-five years. I am also an Author and in the process of publishing my first book!
I am the owner of Movement In The Moment Inc., a mental health company that specializes in Dance Movement Therapy, and Health and Wellness education. At Movement In The Moment, we offer individual and group therapy, wellness events, programs and an amazing podcast to help people heal and grow.
My mission and the mission at Movement In The Moment Inc. is to simply heal souls.
We prioritize helping our clients suffer less and live more freely.
We are different because we move! We are not your traditional talk therapy mental health service. We use dance and movement as a form of communication, and as a form of therapy. We move our minds, we move our emotions and we move our bodies for healing, wholeness and wellness. We help clients to not remain stuck mentally, emotionally, and/or physically by providing our clients with a safe space to heal, accountability to grow, and high-quality evidence-based mental health treatment.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele was being true to myself and my calling and learning about my ideal client. Once I learned who I was called to serve it became easier to grow organically. Knowing my ideal clients’ wants, needs, fears, pains, and deepest desires helped me to find and create tangible solutions to help solve their biggest problems.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
Other than training and knowledge, I believe professionals in the mental health industry need a few things to succeed. I believe they need authenticity, they need to be great listeners to their clients, they need to give hope consistently to their clients, they need to be certain in the therapy they are providing, and they need unwavering passion in pursuit of healing souls and transforming lives.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.movementinthemoment.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/movementinthemomentinc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MovementInTheMomentInc/