[Adta] Re: "Ramblings" Adta Digest, Vol 16, Issue 42

[Cmpssn2000 at aol.com]

Saturday, 9:30 am CST, 17 February 2007

Heather, et all,

Good question to pose.  "Pill" therapy developed in the past seven or eight 
decades.  It does improve biological aspects of therapy, but it alone cannot 
bridge the biographical aspects of meaning and by itself in time often wanes as 
the body adjusts to the medication.

What is "cause and effect??"  It is more than a "scientific" formula or 
equation or chemical reaction.  The facts and figures again depend greatly, as in 
statistical research and analysis do, upon the hypothesis and the questions and 
especially the sample criteria.  The statistical elements of dance/movement 
therapy are equally as important and valid as those of other of the physical 
sciences.  Kurt Lewin once wrote or said that "nothing is as practical as a good 
theory."  And historically, a good deal of what was considered science a 
century ago has long since been antiquated and discarded.  But the human body has 
not been.

Your question, seems to me, to be "what are the valid perimeters and criteria 
for statiscal research and reporting in dance/movement therapy?"  I can agree 
with that discussion.  And I believe that they are there and can be refined 
and presented just as authentically and solidly as any solely-physics research 
can be, too.

Many thanks for raising this question.

On with the discussion.

Chuck Yopst, D.Min., D.T.R, ADTA-Illinois Chapter

In a message dated 2/17/2007 7:50:31 AM Central Standard Time, 
adta-request at adta.org writes:

<< Message: 1
 Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 19:08:11 +1100
 From: "Heather Hill" <heatherhill at hotkey.net.au>
 Subject: [Adta] Ramblings!
 To: "Adta listserve" <adta at adta.org>
 Message-ID: <002401c7526a$c4e791f0$0201a8c0 at NewPC>
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
 
 Hi Susan!
 I thought I would accept your invitation to do some rambling on the subject 
of research, specifically the notion of evidence-based practice.  I guess I 
just want to raise some issues/questions which I think are important for dance 
therapy.
 
 The idea of "evidence-based" practice has been and still is the buzz word in 
the health field particularly and it is clear that for survival if nothing 
else, we have to address the need for research to underwrite our practice, if we 
are to maintain and increase the practice of dance therapy - if we are to 
find jobs, in fact!  
 
 I support strongly the idea of research in our field - we need have no fear 
that questioning our work will result in negative findings!  However, the 
problem for dance therapy, as I see it, is that the "evidence" talked about 
generally signifies evidence on someone else's terms, invariably a 
biomedical/natural sciences standard of measurement.  This is always going to make it difficult 
for us, since applying "pill" methodologies to dance therapy (ie trying to 
isolate the "treatment", talking in terms of cause and effect, requiring large 
numbers to show "significance", etc) is bound to disadvantage us.   - indeed 
you can be sure that the standards of proof for something as "alternative" as 
dance therapy is likely to be higher than for traditional, accepted practice. 
Yet for pragmatic reasons, we do need to find ways to demonstrate the 
effectiveness of the work - for our employers, for funding bodies and so on.  That's 
part of the current reality.
 
 So the question for me is how do we deal with this.  Do we focus on 
developing evidence in scientific terms, or can we develop other methods which can 
capture what dance therapy actually achieves but still serve to "prove" to the 
relevant authorities that dance therapy is a bona fide therapy.  Also, I would 
like to think that we do not focus our entire research efforts on supplying 
evidence, but also explore our work more fully and seek understanding within this 
very rich field that we work in.
 
 Anyway, those are just some thoughts and I welcome further "ramblings" from 
others.  This is very much a work in progress.
 
 Kind regards,
 Heather >>