Fw: [Adta] Response to Heather, Lora re: neuroscience

[Heather Hill]

Just re-sending this message as it didn't get through to the listserve.
HH
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Heather Hill 
To: Lora Wilson ; Adta listserve 
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Adta] Response to Heather, Lora re: neuroscience


Dear Lora,
Thanks for such a full and thoughtful response which I think highlights lots of the issues which are ongoing for all of us as we try to do what we do - and be allowed the opportunities (ie workplaces) to do this.

The meeting with other professionals essentially mirrors our meeting with others in the world generally - how to retain one's personal integrity/sense of self, yet be able to connect and relate to others.  The added difficulty for us is of course that often the "other" is much more powerful in terms of status and recognition, so I guess that's where it's even more important that we have a strong sense of who we are, what we stand for so that in the connecting with the other, we do not completely lose our own vision and our own sense of worth.

To me it has been a challenging, but also exciting, project to be able to verbally represent what I do - and again, it's walking that line between self and other. Using language which opens up conversation rather than shuts it down, but at the same time, not compromising one's own values. Thus I will aim to "humanize" some of the medicalspeak so it's still understandable but makes sure we are reminded that we are talking about people when we discuss "patients".

>From my experience working in a psychiatric hospital with older adults with psych. disabilities and/or dementia, I found that initially the staff didn't really feel the need to talk to me.  I think I was just the "lady with the scarves".  But I made sure I talked to them!  And I wrote reports and I offered to do inservices and - very importantly - the work I did spoke for itself.  Over time the staff became interested in how patients responded to the sessions both during the sessions and after - they didn't understand it, but they were curious.  Eventually, I would meet after each session with the unit manager to report back to her what I had observed and how individual people had responded during the sessions.  She told me that this provided really useful information and a different perspective. In fact, my descriptions, highlighting what was important from a dmt perspective, served to illuminate and enhance what they observed from a medical perspective.

Which leads me on to your point about working/interacting with other professionals.  From my experience, the exciting aspect of this interaction has been, not the reduction of my language/conceptual framework to theirs, or vice versa, but rather how our two "stories" expand upon each other.  Not only do you gain understandings of another perspective, you learn so much more about your own!  For this reason I've had fantastic collaborations with physios, music therapists and nurses.

Oh, one more thing about the psych hospital experience.  While I did not receive funding to do so, I did receive hospital support in terms of staff and physical resources to carry out two dance therapy research projects.  Incredibly, one of these - a phenomenological study - was passed by  a very medically oriented ethics committee.  I attribute this to the fact that over time the dance therapy program at the hospital had gained credibility, and that my research proposal was well thought out, well constructed and rigorous, even if not a traditional positive study.  When I left the hospital, the dance therapy position (which I had established) continued - as have many that I have left. 

Of course, the arts therapies will inevitably be the first to be cut, but - remembering "ideological hegemony" - this is not really about individuals, or about even the perceived worth of the program.  It's a larger picture thing, and we need to be realistic about how much we as individuals can do about that.  And of course, we still have our daily struggles with individual staff, new staff etc.  It's a constant process we need to undertake to inform and educate.

Finally (for now at least), thanks to Elissa for her inspiring words.  I think almost all my inservice sessions have involved dance, because I believe that unless people get some sense of how good they personally feel in moving, it will just be something that they intellectually reject.  Yes, we do tend to divide ourselves into movers and non-movers, but if people can be given access to a movement and dance experience, then that will really convince them in their bones and muscles that this is a worthwhile experience for their clients/patients.  Getting all sorts of people to move is what we're good at.  Over the years I've seen the most unlikely people move and dance - ocker Aussie males are a real challenge but they succumb in the end!

One more thing!  My interests in recent times have been in using the dance experience to help people understand more about the experience of people with dementia, and from that point of knowledge, they themselves come up with ideas about what people with dementia really need in terms of care.  At that point, I then introduce the framework of Kitwood's person-centred care which emphasises the social and emotional/psychological needs of people with dementia and the role their carers can and should be playing.  I'm also exploring with my masters students in creative arts therapies using movement to assist with thinking through conceptual processes related to research and thesis writing.

I think your experience Lora reinforces what one of my colleague points out which is something to the effect that moments of dissonance (which you experienced with your colleague) offer great opportunities for learning and moving beyond what you already know.

Best wishes,
Heather



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.adta.org/pipermail/adta/attachments/20071008/2380f859/attachment-0001.htm