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Will Anyone Play with Me? Building Resilience through Community Play with Transgender and Gender Diverse Young Adults
No full textThe recent increase in anti-trans legislature in the United States has negatively impacted the mental health of transgender young adults nationwide. Current research suggests that creative expression in a group setting may be uniquely suited to help transgender people combat the negative mental health effects of internalized anti-trans messaging. Based on this research, a community engagement project was designed for transgender young adult participants to explore resilience building through drama therapy-informed community play. Three play-based support groups, facilitated by a drama therapy graduate student who identified as a peer to the participants, were offered to transgender young adults in their local community. Each group invoked the drama therapy core processes through a different form of play: storytelling, toy- based worldbuilding, and dress-up. These groups were positively received by participants and increased the facilitator’s sense of community connection, resilience, and self-validation. Challenges with scheduling, accessibility, and public perception of play impacted the success of these initial support groups, which in turn impacted the facilitator’s self-efficacy as an emerging transgender drama therapist. The discussion offered suggestions for changes to recruitment procedures that may facilitate wider accessibility for future groups
UTILIZING FOOD AS AN ART MEDIUM IN EATING DISORDERS TREATMENT
Get PDFThis research explored food as an art medium in an innovative art therapy intervention for adults with eating disorders (EDs) and what this nontraditional art material can evoke. Several interventions (e.g., food exposure, cooking, and some family-based therapy) incorporate food in ED treatment, but none use it as an art medium.
Six Israeli adults (one with bulimia nervosa, two with atypical anorexia, and three with anorexia nervosa) individually participated in three meetings, each with a 30-min experiential component and an interview. While wearing a GoPro camera, participants created spontaneous artwork using foods (e.g., vegetables, legumes, pasta, flour, candy). The researcher edited the videos, allowing her and other viewers to follow the process from the participants’ viewpoints. Semistructured interviews focused on participants’ experiences of food as an art medium and their thoughts on this potential treatment.
Following each meeting, the researcher created a reflective response from food and wrote short texts, which she shared with the participants at their next session and asked for their thoughts. Follow-up meetings were held to summarize the process. The researcher’s qualitative, phenomenological, art-based data analysis revealed five major themes: (a) artistic commonalities, (b) desensitizing food-related fears, (c) food as a catalyst for psychological issues, (d) life-changing events and conditions, and (e) contradictory forces and feelings.
The results showed that food as an art medium could be a desensitizing tool against food-related fears. Food could also serve as a gateway to processing core psychological contents related to ED onset or maintenance in art therapy
Implementing a Six-Week Intermodal Expressive Arts Therapy Program for Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease: A Practitioner-Based Perspective
Get PDFParkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects motor function, emotional well-being, and social engagement. While traditional rehabilitation approaches emphasize physical therapy and medication management, emerging research highlights the potential of creative arts therapies in addressing the multidimensional challenges of PD. This thesis explores the implementation of an intermodal expressive arts therapy intervention designed to support individuals with PD through dance, music, drama, and visual arts. Conducted over six weeks within a community support group in Nova Scotia, the program included guided visualization, Brain Dance exercises, creative movement, drama-based activities, and reflective art-making. A qualitative, practitioner-based method was used, with data gathered through the facilitator’s reflective journaling, observational notes, and arts-based responses. Observations highlighted recurring patterns of emotional expression, social engagement, and cognitive stimulation. This study offers a practitioner perspective on the integration of expressive arts in community-based care, contributing to the growing recognition of holistic, creative approaches in neurorehabilitation. Future research is recommended to incorporate quantitative measures to assess physical outcomes and to further evaluate the benefits of expressive arts interventions for individuals living with PD
Using Symbolism and Jungian Art Therapy Techniques to Promote Empowerment in the Treatment of Adolescents in a Partial Hospitalization Program
Get PDFThis thesis used the implementation of an original experiential that sought to justify the relationship between Jungian art therapy, symbolism, and the use of art therapy with adolescents in mental health programs such as a partial hospitalization program (PHP). Through the direction of a facilitator, four groups of clients in an expressive arts group at the program were encouraged to explore themes of empowerment through the use of symbols and unconscious thought. This was done by using the creation of a power object to represent a superpower that would fulfill a missing need and encourage the identification of traits, settings, and people that provide those needs. The results of this research highlighted the communicated themes of safety, views of self, and independence while also allowing the participants to have greater emotional access to existing sources of empowerment. These results show promising effects on the establishment of a positive view of self and the beginnings of a more empowered living experience, and how the establishment of a symbolic representation can facilitate this
Dance/Movement Therapy Interventions That Can Address and Decrease Impacts of Developmental Prosopagnosia: A Literature Review
Get PDFThis literature review explores dance/movement therapy (DMT) as a treatment modality for developmental prosopagnosia (DP) or face blindness. Research on DP causes and assessments are limited, as well as research on treatments and supportive management. In order to conceptualize how DMT might support people with DP, this paper focuses on mitigating the impacts of having the condition by exploring treatments for conditions with similar impacts including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and social anxiety disorder (SAD). The interventions included were pharmacotherapy, behavioral contingencies, mainstream therapies, and alternative therapies including DMT and drama therapy (DT). The various DMT interventions that were found for ADHD, ASD, and SAD addressed impacts that were similar to the impacts that DP holds and would need to be researched in future studies to test for positive outcomes and validity. The hope is that this thesis begins the research towards mental health related coping strategies for people with DP including arts-based interventions
Belonging to Self: Moments of Body-Oriented Expressive Arts Psychotherapy & Inpatient Trauma Recovery
Get PDFExpressive therapists have reported difficulty working in inpatient settings due to the gap between what the expressive modality theoretically offers and what is possible in practice due to both acute patient symptomology and limitations of the institutional setting. Early career clinicians especially contend with finding meaning in their clinical work, belonging among the clinical team and exploring how their expressive modalities are applicable or not to the systemically established treatment goal of stabilization. Concerns that excessive restriction upon patient expression inhibits possible aspects of recovery beyond stabilization, such insight or creativity, are explored. The subgoal of increasing momentary experiences of self-possession for populations with trauma and trauma-related diagnoses is likewise presented. Findings suggest that symptom/setting-appropriate adaptation and application of the theoretical bones of body-oriented expressive arts therapies may increase space for outcomes measurable by both clinical and expressive means. Clinician use of somatic indicators to modulate the therapeutic space to allow for either more expression or more containment is also examined
A Method for Developing Multicultural Musical Fluency: Reclaiming a Relationship with Traditional Ashkenazi Music
Get PDFCounseling and music therapy scholars recommend that students and clinicians engage in self-inquiry to explore their cultural values to build multicultural competence. I created an arts-based method for deep reflection using theory and techniques in the literature regarding culture-centered music therapy, including ethnographic inquiry, the cultural unconscious, intersubjective theory, active imagination, embodiment, and artistic reflection. I engaged with music from my own cultural background, which included Ashkenazi klezmer music and Yiddish folksong, to reflect on my cultural values and to build a living relationship with the music. Thematic analysis revealed eight themes, including the function of the music, personal memories evoked, emotions evoked, personal or cultural values uncovered, connections to the cultural unconscious, moments of intersubjective connection, empowerment, and catharsis. In addition to improving multicultural humility, I found this process healing and empowering through reconnecting with ancestors and intrapersonal cultural resources. Furthermore, engaging deeply with my own cultural music improved my ability to understand the social function of each piece of music, enhancing my understanding of how cultural music can be utilized in clinical practice. I argue that cultural and traditional musics carry generations of wisdom and are technologies of survival that must be preserved and protected and can be used in clinical work for cultural identity formation and social reconnection
A Time to Build and a Time to Break: Processing Grief through Art with Older Adults
Get PDFGrief comes in many forms and is an expected part of living as an emotion-oriented being. Within this framework exists forms of grief most commonly understood and accepted in society and others that often go under the radar, especially for older adults. A wealth of literature exists for the exploration of grief and a sizeable subsection in grief around older adulthood, but few explore a breadth of grief-based experiences through the lens of art therapy in an assisted living environment. This thesis explores how arts-based directives can be used to process grief with older adults in an assisted living setting. This study was conducted through observations taken over the course of several hour-long sessions at an assisted living facility in the Boston area with seven participants and a variety of therapeutic art experiences oriented around grief. Observations and data are comprised of a combination of notes taken from sessions and response art created by the author. With the support of additional literature, the results of the groups indicate that art in a group environment with an older population can not only assist participants in expressing and processing their grief but also in building connections, confidence, and their identity as artists
Emotional Pathways: A Literature Review of Emotion Process in Emotionally Focused Therapy and Drama Therapy
Get PDFThis capstone thesis explored how emotionally focused therapy (EFT), and drama therapy (DT) could be integrated to improve emotional regulation, self-awareness, and mental healing. Based on attachment theory and emotional process framework, how these two different but complementary interventions could increase emotional participation and transformation was explored. This literature review indicated that although EFT’s structured and verbal approach is different from DT’s creative and embodied skills, the two approaches share common goals and target the same emotional process. In DT, several techniques can be found that are closely related to EFT’s emotional process. These techniques can provide a unique and complementary model that can be utilized in therapy. This thesis critically analyzed the EFT and DT studies focusing on emotional processes and transformation to find out a possible connection between these two approaches. Finally, the research suggested that connecting these two approaches would offer flexibility and could be easily used in therapy. The research suggests it would be especially beneficial for clients who have difficulty with verbal expression, thus opening a new pathway for emotional healing and growth through drama therapy. Future researchers could develop a structural intervention model that integrates EFT and DT and continue to explore this approach to see its effectiveness
Write the Way: A Healing-Centered Model for Moving Toward Liberatory and Transformative Experience
Get PDFWriting can be a source of affirmation, empowerment, liberation, healing, and joy, but it can also be a source of dread, oppression, and identity-based harm, particularly for people who have been marginalized or minoritized. Write the Way is a theoretical model for writing and pedagogy, intended to help writers and teachers of writing clear out and tread safely along various pathways toward healing ourselves and our relationships—with writing, with others, and with ourselves—as we move together in the direction of a healing world. The purpose of this study was to identify the ways in which the Write the Way model can nurture healthy relationships with writing, and support teacher embodiment of a healing-centered and humanizing approach to writing. This study draws on multiple theories, including humanizing and healing-centered pedagogy, embodied literacy, as well as clinical and social theories of trauma. Through a case study design, this study utilized survey and interview methodology and involved 11 adult participants, all of whom were teachers either in traditional settings (K-12 or higher education), community settings (workshop and non-profit), or both, and each resided in the Northeastern United States. Pragmatically, this study fulfilled two key objectives: 1) to flesh out Write the Way as a theoretical model for embodying a healing-centered approach to writing, and 2) to define what a healing-centered approach to writing is, and how and why it can be embodied. Write the Way has implications for writers, teachers, teachers of writing, teachers of teachers, and students of all ages, but it also has implications for any of us seeking to move in the direction of wholeness, toward liberatory and transformative experience