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Rhythmic Co-regulation as a Recovery Tool for Grief, Loss, and Change: A Literature Review
Get PDFRhythm is a core tenant in the field of dance/movement therapy. Rhythm is a particularly noteworthy tenant due to its easeful translation and universality across populations and cultures. The literature review below is a trauma-informed exploration of how rhythm might aid in the recovery process of change, grief, and loss at both the individual and collective levels. Research is explored across historic and present-day rituals which embody dance and rhythm while societal expectations, the denial of death and the harmful effects this produces are scoured closely. This literature review looks at bereavement processes in family and group systems and how rhythm can assist in regulatory behaviors among its members. Through the presented research and in self-reflection, it became apparent that although rhythm has guided mourning processes throughout human history, the practice of honoring self-and-community expression in modern grief practices while utilizing conscious rhythm has been carried onward with a fading and diminishing light
The Benefits of Sensory Exploration in Art Therapy with Children with Social, Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties Through a Trauma Informed Lens
Get PDFThis thesis looks at sensory-specific art mediums with children with social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties (SEBD), interact with sensory-specific art mediums through the expressive therapies continuum (ETC) framework. This thesis acknowledges and explores how trauma and adverse childhood experiences impact a child’s cognitive and developmental capabilities and their role in how individuals engage with and process their art. This thesis is based on qualitative, arts-based research. Data was collected via note-taking, self-reflective journaling, and self-engagement of sensory-based art responses. The benefits of sensory and kinesthetic art were explored with children ages seven through fourteen, in a therapeutic day school during art therapy groups. The participants are children of various cultural backgrounds, demonstrating social, emotional, or behavioral difficulties. These children were introduced to different sensory-based art materials during their weekly 45-minute art therapy groups over the course of six weeks. This method highlights the benefits of traditional and non-traditional therapeutic art materials such as paint, slime, Play-Doh, rice, and cardboard. All materials were given through both structured and unstructured directives of exploration
Art Therapy and Chronic Pain: Exploring Pain Tolerance, Body Sensations and Emotions
Get PDFOver four weeks, topics of emotion, physical and body sensation, and chronic pain using art therapy were explored. The therapy provided a foundation for practicing mindfulness, increasing awareness, and expressing various symptoms such as somatic discomfort and emotional dysregulation. I co-facilitated a group consisting of individuals between the ages of 23 and 70 identifying as male or female, with a mix of white and black clients from the middle-class bracket. The group participated in art therapy and mindful meditation sessions in an outpatient program. Through this experience, I discovered that many individuals dissociate from their pain and emotional well-being. While chronic pain and mental health are comorbid, dissociation was a common theme that emerged from research and observation. While the group members felt comfortable discussing their chronic pain, they struggled with learning how to live with it and listen to their bodies. However, through mindfulness and art therapy, the group was able to become more aware of where the pain existed in their bodies and how to associate with it. I observed clients discussing their intolerance to pain through art and helped them learn to build tolerance while changing their core beliefs about their physical and emotional health
Applying Self Care Methods: Burnout Prevention for an Art Therapist in Training
Get PDFThis paper explores the literature and the relationship between burnout and self care. Though a range of resources are investigated, the primary focus is on mental health clinical intern graduate students. Specifically, using a burnout tracker and self reflective data, I examine my own relationship to burnout and self care as a clinical intern while sustaining a full time job and final semester graduate level coursework. Using an individualized method of data collection and analysis, I can understand my own relationship to self care and burnout. This journey of both self discovery and evidence based research provides insight into burnout as a phenomenon that is spoken about freely, frequently, and yet is not fully addressed. This paper demonstrates and applies the balance between clinical practices regarding burnout and implementing self care strategies
Applying Self Care Methods: Burnout Prevention for an Art Therapist in Training
Get PDFThis paper explores the literature and the relationship between burnout and self care. Though a range of resources are investigated, the primary focus is on mental health clinical intern graduate students. Specifically, using a burnout tracker and self reflective data, I examine my own relationship to burnout and self care as a clinical intern while sustaining a full time job and final semester graduate level coursework. Using an individualized method of data collection and analysis, I can understand my own relationship to self care and burnout. This journey of both self discovery and evidence based research provides insight into burnout as a phenomenon that is spoken about freely, frequently, and yet is not fully addressed. This paper demonstrates and applies the balance between clinical practices regarding burnout and implementing self care strategies
The Influence of Prison Skills Programming on the Reentry Process
Get PDFPrison skills programming that is focused on employment readiness, reentry skills, parenting and family relationships, life skills, and anger management is offered with an understanding that the information will support individuals with reentry in areas such as family reintegration and employment. The purpose of this mixed-methods dissertation study was to explore the reasons that individuals chose to participate in skills programming during incarceration and their perceptions about the ways in which skills programming influenced their experiences with family and employment during reentry. Data were collected from diverse participants using a Reentry Experiences Survey (RES) (Appendix A), in-depth interviews, and archival data from a background questionnaire administered to prisoners for a large national longitudinal literacy study (PIAAC PBQ). Findings showed that for skills programming participants, when programming was available and accessible, participation was viewed as a pathway to self-improvement and learning was positive, productive, and transformative. Participants revealed a range of experiences with direct and ambiguous loss during incarceration, difficulty with employment post-release, and a lack of availability of supportive programming for partners and children in their communities. They also identified a longing for opportunity to build skills, explore career options, and experience success with employment and relationships. A final finding emerged from inviting participants to imagine developing a prison education program from their lived experience that would better meet their needs for reentry. Crossing all guiding research questions, their responses identified social-emotional development, practical skills, and prescribed training programming as “must have” components of an ideal prison skills program. Findings suggest that asking those who experienced prison skills programs firsthand about their reentry experiences provided valuable insights that can inform both curriculum and instruction in prison program development and implementation
Active Imagination, Wellbeing and Ways of Seeing: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Experiences of Adult Learners with Visual Impairments
Get PDFSix female and two male adult learners who became blind between the ages of 20 and 75 years participated in this study conducted by a blind researcher. The purposely sampled eight were interviewed virtually by way of Zoom. In combination with Johnny Saldana’s work on codes, this study used the NVivo framework for determining structuring categories, selecting node themes, code frameworks and final codes from the first interview. 291 codes were clustered under 26 node themes. NVivo’s word frequency search and Word Tree were applied to clarify and lend a number value to participants’ codes. The second interview, administered after participants had listened and read the first, was treated to the psychological features inherent in interpretive phenomenological analysis, and the relational research tendencies drawn from Carol Gilligan and Jessica Eddy which granted participatory voice to the marginalized, their wellbeing and ways of seeing. The expert group through their codes, provided answers to three research questions: (i) what value do adult learners with visual impairment say they place on using their active imaginations; (ii) what are the various imagination experiences adult learners with visual impairments report they encounter; and (iii) what do adult learners with visual impairments believe are the factors and conditions that promote and hinder the use of their imagination and active imaginations. The blind experts reported that active imagination permeated and enhanced their memory, that is, remembering; their visualizing and picturing, and energized the use of their other senses as they created in, and navigate personal and public spaces. Imagination experiences ranged from depression to strengthening of faith, the discovery of value in caretakers to final acceptance and wholeness. The factors and conditions that hindered or promoted were spread across their 291 codes and significantly, identified changing their impressions of themselves as the point of entrance to their healing and psychological wellbeing
A Literature Review Furthering the Field of Expressive Arts Therapies Through Acts of Decolonization
Get PDFThis literature review examines how decolonization can further the use of expressive arts therapies by addressing racist structures and ideologies that impact the mental health field. In order to execute my research and develop my research question, I examine the normalcy of Western ideology’s reinforcement of colonization through the normalization of behaviors including operations that currently cause harm. I came to my proposed question: How are the branches from the planted seed of colonization inflicting harm on the field of expressive arts therapies and those whom the mental health field seeks to serve? I urge examining our past and present by considering appropriation of Native culture, becoming aware of possible complacency, and recognizing systems of power that have normalized harm to Indigenous communities. This normalization also has damaging effects on other marginalized groups. Putting in the work to acknowledge the possible normalization within ourselves can help change our habits and prevent future damage as clinicians. I will prioritize moving forward, utilizing existing documentation to take concrete action focused on decolonizing institutional and systemic racism. The goal is to make structural changes that can have a positive impact in the mental health field while simultaneously helping advance the field of expressive arts therapies. We must bring to the forefront the academics and scholars who advocate for unprejudiced change in the mental health field and take action
“Too Pretty to Be Brain Injured” Dance Movement Therapy and Women With/Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury: A Literature Review
Get PDFThe objective of this literature aims to first, elucidate the history of the exclusion or absence of women in research examining traumatic brain injury (TBI). Second, in reviewing more recent published research examining women and traumatic brain injury, trends indicate women are prone to injury at increasing rates to men, due to biological sex, physiological makeup, and different etiologies. Finally, this literature review endeavors to examine published dance/movement therapy (DMT) research, and recommendations, for suggested interventions to apply to women with traumatic brain injuries and common comorbid diagnosis of depression, and PTS. Unique challenges this population experiences. In doing so this thesis contributes to the small but expanding collection of published resources pertaining to women\u27s TBI healthcare to serve as basic education to healthcare providers and researchers in the field and serve as a valuable resource for empowering female survivors to explore dance movement therapy.
The American Dance Therapy Association (2023) defines DMT as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual, for the purpose of improving health and well-being. While the intersection of DMT and traumatic brain injuries has not been extensively explored, existing studies indicated a reduction or improvement in individual, common comorbid symptoms including depression, PTS (Post Traumatic Stress), cognitive impairments, and body image concerns. Moreover, these initial findings point to the potential applicability of DMT to address the unique symptomatology of female TBI survivors. Further investigation into the application of DMT within the traumatic brain injury population is essential to uncover potential interventions and bolster the credibility of this field within the medical community. Ultimately, this increased recognition may lead to referrals for DMT and its recognition as a viable treatment modality for female TBI survivors
When Words Weave Wings: Just Beyond the Bars
Get PDFNarrative and storytelling creates a formidable foundation for individuals to convey their lived experiences. Utilizing indigenous arts-based research (ABR), poetics as an inquiring and exploratory tool, and an ABR interviewing technique called poetic emergence by the researcher, this study asked two essential questions: What are the lived experiences of individuals in and outside of carceral states? Will these experiences reflect certain aspects of an individual’s life journey? The purpose of this study was to explore the embodied voices and lived experiences of adult Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), diagnosed with mental health issues who were formerly incarcerated (n=3) along with BIPOC that worked with this population (n=4). The researcher combined personal narratives of the participants, found poetic and reflective/reflexive fieldnotes, and storytelling and created the term poetraiture, as a presentation. The findings conveyed the participants’, who the researcher referred to as Winged Warriors, experiences during and after their time in this setting. Using the indigenous arts-based research (ABR), the Winged Warriors reported their emotional, psychological and traumatic lived experiences in this setting and its impact on their lives and others. Findings showed how an indigenous arts-based approach created an embodied, engaging, and non-intrusive space without re-traumatization. Furthermore, this study suggests that the use of indigenous ABR may provide opportunities for critical reflection and space for creativity and prosocial behaviors. This process may promote changes needed to realize transformations both in individuals and communities towards sustainability. It is my hope that you are touched by the skin of their words