I feel that CI and dance therapy offer you opportunity to know yourself better. Mary Whitehouse said, "Any means of self knowledge is therapy." (Mary Whitehouse, "The Tao of the Body") With this notion, contact improvisation certainly fits into this category. There are many contactors that feel that they have gained self knowledge through the practice of contact improvisation and have grown emotionally through the work.
Therapy work goes deeper and it analyze more, which gives the client more awareness about her/his body; about the connections as well. In CI it is happening as well, but it is not high lighted.
Dance/movement therapy works with the emotional state through movement, or perhaps uses movement to tap into and move emotions and feelings to a surface level. Contact improvisation is one way to do this too.

The duet form

Both contact improvisation and movement therapy use the duet in their practice. A duet or partnership inherently involves at least two people. The duet form breaks the pattern of isolation. By simply entering into a therapeutic relationship the isolation is broken; someone knows. Being in contact with another involves some level of intimacy and sharing. This itself may be powerful. This is an opportunity to develop and work on a relationship. Through moving, responding and dialoguing there is a possibility of working through old patterns and developing new pathways. This occurs on a movement level. It can then be integrated into other parts of “normal” life.
The contact improvisation partner responds to the movement of her/his partner. The feedback is immediate, direct and physical. This communication is often in relation to a partner's weight or touch. It is a sensitive relationship in which one is aware of oneself and one's partner creating a dialogue, a conversation. Each person is a witness for both him/herself and for his/her partner.
In movement therapy by witnessing a client, the therapist invites an awareness that encourages a client to become more aware of how he/she is moving and what he/she is feeling. A dialogue may occur in which each partner responds honestly. Sometimes there becomes an acceptance of each person's feelings. Through this there may be a change or a new awareness.

The nurturance

In both contact improvisation and dance/movement therapy there is a quality of nurturance. At some point you can discover ways of receiving nurturance through the movement and the touch. The physical touch is nurturing. Touching is a basic human need.

The touch

In contact improvisation physical touch is often used as a means of communication between two partners. Touch is also a way of breaking through isolation. There is a need to allow oneself to be touched. This is similar to dance/movement therapy. The term 'to be touched', to allow another to touch you, to feel or empathize with another is a foundation of movement therapy.
When you touch someone, you are touching the Self. You touch not only the physical body; you touch the outer layers of existence constituting the entire person. When you touch, you touch the larger entity that Jung called; The Self. If you take on what is brought up by touch without knowing what touch can produce, trouble may arise before you realize you are in deeper that you intended.
There are different kinds of touch; sexual, aggressive, nurturing, playful, supportive, gentle, etc. The purpose, the intention of the touch needs to be clear. Touch can give a clear message of a boundary. "This is you and this is me."
It is important to give power to say "no" and to talk about feelings that surface around touching and being touched.

In both forms touch is used and its use in both dance/movement therapy and contact improvisation has a similarity in communicating, sensing boundaries, support, feeling the self and nurturing.

Touch is one way of supporting each other.

The support and weight

Support is another area that a partner or a therapist provides. Contact improvisation directly strengthens one's presence. Contact improvisation nurtures a basic physical trust between two people and among a group. Appreciating that invitation is one of the basic challenges improvising offers.
In a contact improvisation dance the weight and sharing of support is more or less equal between partners. Although the weight fluctuates, a therapist takes on more 'weight', more responsibility. She/he frequently takes on the role of supporter. This refers not just to physical weight but also to emotional weight. Being comfortable in either role, giving or receiving, is important. Physical exercises in experiencing weight can bring emotional weight to the surface. Trying to stop or hold too much weight is dangerous. This statement could apply to the physical weight of a partner, the emotional weight of a client or partner or to your self. One needs to feel the support before giving or receiving weight. It can happen if the trust has already been built.

The trust

Before the depth of touch can occur either on a physical level or on an emotional level, a partner or therapist needs to develop trust. This involves safety on both physical and emotional levels.
Marion Chace developed trust through approaching her patients from a distance. She played with the space that was comfortable between her and her patients. She did not move closer until an opening was clearly available. She respected a person's personal space and through this respect developed a trusting relationship.
In contact improvisation trust is necessary for the dance.
It's important that students notice the trust and confidence they gain in themselves and their partners to stay with a moment, and meet the needs of each changing moment. Trust, patiently nurtured through confidence and familiarity, prepares the way for diversity.
Without trust, one cannot be in contact with the depth of feelings and emotions or the depth of one's process needed to continue working. It is important that the therapist feels trust in him / herself, that the client feels trust in him / herself and that they trust each other.
Trust develops through time and experience. If you take some risk you can stretch your boundaries of what felt safe.

The spontaneity and flexibility

Round robin is a form in used to change or rotate partners. In contact improvisation, the group forms a circle. A dancer begins moving in the center, another enters and they begin a duet. At some point a third enters. The first leaves and the second and the third dance. This structure continues with a fourth person joining and the second person leaving, and so on. The dance is always changing. There is a sense that each dance transitions into the next. This is a practice in beginnings and endings. Because of the round robin structure, the dancers are obliged to let these endings occur. “The round robin” is the fluidity of change.

The social part

Marion Chace refers to her movement therapy sessions in context of the social element; the creation of community and interactions that positively affirm the patients. Contactors also have a community or social connection that is part of the support that nurtures the individuals and affirms the dance.

“I was able to become a stronger self than I lived with day to day. I became impressed with a sense of responsibility to myself and those I was dancing with to create a healthy interaction. The realm of contact improvisation I realized was not "dance" but living the forces at play between two people dancing and those forces which exist day to day, the stronger self I had experienced was nothing but myself." (Danny Lepkoff, Contact Quarterly, Vol. II #1)

Working with teenagers

I teach teenagers in secondary school. First it was very difficult for me and for them as well. CI and improvisation meant a completely new world for them.  I didn’t use fixed forms, and they hardly believed that dancing their own movements could be interesting and inspiring.

Their body change a lot in this time and it’s hard to accept the new body. Lot of problems appears from the distorted body image. Since the sensations just below the surface of the skin are the primary source of body image. Touch and being touched can help to find the real image of their body and the body mind; which lead them to find their real, healthy Self.
Marion Chace also talks of the use of touch in working with patients with distorted body images, "By touching or rubbing the skin or by moving muscles which stimulate the skin we delineate the surface of our bodies.” It helps the patient find where the body is. All of the therapeutic body movement is geared toward getting in touch with as much of the skin surface as you can.

At this age—when they really feel that they are mature—it’s difficult to play with them and teach in a playful way. Touch has another meaning for them; it has become more sexual and it has lost its neutral way. Because of these difficulties, I had the idea to use images to lead them to this “strange new world“ of CI. This way it is not too personal and they can use a little mask to relax their boundaries more easily. Touching and giving weight, moving with eyes closed becomes no longer embarrassing.

            They have to trust each other too. I realized that release technique helps a lot to release the body and the soul as well. The experience of releasing one's weight into the floor and trusting the support of the floor builds one's own trust in oneself. And later it can build the trust in the others.

Contact improvisation offers them a movement practice that develops physical and mental flexibility and strength within a state of constant flux. It is an invitation to extend one's limits - physically, conceptually, aesthetically, and psychologically.

Because of these facts their body knowledge can improve, they accept themselves more easily, they can connect in a deeper way, they can share their ideas, fears, and they feel themselves in a group and not alone. The improved self knowledge opens more opportunities, more ways to express themselves in dance, in movement. It helps them to find their own dance, their own Self. Witnessing the others give the community feeling. All these self experiences offer them self confidence in dance and in life as well.