[Adta] Research project - getting started
Marcia Plevin
plevin at tiscali.it
Mon Oct 8 06:58:59 EDT 2007
Dear collegues,
I am responding to Heather who wrote in a post about two research projects
that she conducted in a psych. hospital.
This is a call for HOW to get stared structuring the question for the
research, the methodology for a project and then going about implementing
it.
A researcher I am not, but I have the urge, itch, energy to start...which
counts for getting out of the gate.
I have 3 years exprerience on the oncology unit of a large children's
hospital in Rome; one day a week, for 3 hours. I work with the children
individually in their beds, on their feet or when the day hospital is empty
( almost never) because it has more space. I can see a child one week and
not for a month when they come back for treatment or have a fever, others I
get to work with consecutively for a few weeks.
I would like to run a research project ( or does one do a pilot study
first)? - evaluating the use of DMT on the unit. I am aware that L. Hervey,
Robyn Cruz C. Berroll have been involved in research ( through the Journal)
and I do have Hervey's book on Artistic Inquiry.
I may be able to get funding but I need to articulate the project first.
I would be very grateful for your responses, Best wishes, Marcia Plevin
p.s. Our national organization understands that this part of our profession
is essential, but to date, here in Italy, we haven't published 'research".
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Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 5:20 AM
Subject: Adta Digest, Vol 24, Issue 24
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. Thanks Christina!!! (Sabine Koch)
> 2. Videotaping Future Conferences (Lora Wilson)
> 3. Fw: [Adta] Response to Heather, Lora re: neuroscience
> (Heather Hill)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:55:38 +0200
> From: Sabine Koch <sabine.koch at urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
> Subject: [Adta] Thanks Christina!!!
> To: adta at adta.org
> Message-ID: <470947CA.8070402 at urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed
>
> THANKS, Christina!!!
> This is simply amazing!
> Go get some sleep now...
> Sabine
>
> --
> Dr. Sabine C. Koch
>
> Institute of Psychology
> University of Heidelberg
> Hauptstrasse 47-51
> 69117 Heidelberg/Germany
>
> phone: ++49 (0) 6221 547297
> eMail: sabine.koch at urz.uni-heidelberg.de
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 01:04:11 +0000
> From: Lora Wilson <writelora at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [Adta] Videotaping Future Conferences
> To: Donna Newman-Bluestein <dbluebirds at rcn.com>, <adta at adta.org>
> Message-ID: <BAY142-W45D6DD3391C60354694574A2A40 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
> Donna,
>
> I loved what you said to your children "imagine how much of a culture
> shock it is for us, who move so easily and attempt to be embodied, to live
> in a world which doesn't value expressive body movement". What a great
> teaching moment with them... and for me. I've never thought of our
> explosions onto the annual conference dance floors in those terms but ...
> exactly! I've also shared anecdotes with non-dmts about how we fill up
> the floor in 10 seconds flat. It's a great illustrative image.
>
> And I LOVE LOVE LOVE your idea about videotaping the conference in it's
> entirety. It's so brilliant it seems obvious but why haven't we done this
> before? Simply a money issue? Maybe we could reach out to graduate level
> film depts in the upcoming cities where the conferences will be (Austin
> and Portland) and see if we couldn't get soon-to-be professionals to help
> us do that with professional level skill and less than professional level
> funding? That's just brilliant, I think. What great PR and educational
> opportunities.
>
> I hope we can make that happen. What do others think? Are there snafus
> other than money that others foresee?
>
> Lora Wilson, MA, DTR
>
>
>
> From: dbluebirds at rcn.comTo: writelora at hotmail.com; adta at adta.orgSubject:
> Conference highlights & educating the publicDate: Sat, 6 Oct 2007
> 09:00:32 -0400
>
>
>
>
> Hello Lora, Heather, Jenn, and Everyone,
>
> Lora, you sparked quite a lot of neurons in my brain. You made me want to
> learn more about neuro-science and dance therapy myself.
>
> It is very difficult to limit myself in describing the highlights of the
> conference. It was everything that people have named: the dance choir in
> the streets, the ending dance choir ritual honoring new DTR's and ADTR's,
> Marcia Leventhal's speech and the accompanying dance, Christina Deveraux's
> p.r. slide and NY chapter's new video, the Duncan dance performance, Libby
> Skala's performance about Elizabeth Polk, Stacey Hurst's workshop,
> presenting my own work, hanging out and dancing with like-thinking-moving
> people, sharing my profession with my daughter and my step-son, and
> selling octabands!!!! How rich and integrated our work is becoming.
>
> Lora, your story struck me as very familiar. Sometimes, when I am feeling
> particularly elated from a wonderful experience, it seems that something
> happens which knocks me off my feet, and both infuriates and humbles me.
> When infuriated, such as when our movement therapy department was
> "eliminated" from New England Rehabilitation Hospital, I have used that
> energy to write, and that has been some of my best writing. At that time,
> I wrote a list of cultural values, which I'm not sure I ever published in
> any form, but Heather's post reminded me of it. I also used that as the
> basis for writing a letter to the editor of my local newspaper, which was
> printed.
>
> So, I'd like to share an idea that I had at the conference. During our
> Saturday night dance, which is always my favorite part of the conference,
> I was seeing us from my step-son's and daughter's eyes in my own mind.
> Within 10 seconds of the music beginning, I'd say 90% of us were on the
> dance floor. My daughter laughingly said how different this was from most
> dances, where usually 2 or 3 couples get out on the dance floor, and
> slowly people join. I asked my step-son if this were a bit of a culture
> shock, and he said "a little". To which I responded, "imagine how much of
> a culture shock it is for us, who move so easily and attempt to be
> embodied, to live in a world which doesn't value expressive body
> movement". I started thinking about creating a video of us on the dance
> floor, but it didn't take long for me to realize that this would not help
> us gain professional credibility.
>
> However, a videotape of the conference as a whole would be another story.
> It would demonstrate the many levels where we take our work. I began
> wondering how much it would cost to produce such a video, and if it would
> be feasible. Would it be useful, do you think, as an additional tool to
> show who and what dance/movement therapists are?
>
> I also have to respond, Lora, to your attitude: "as I let that interaction
> sit me with throughout the rest of the day I observed it change from anger
> and defensiveness to a CALL TO ARMS. I began to reframe that interaction
> and be grateful for it, painful as it was in the moment. I have WORK to
> do here. Thank you, social worker, for reminding me that the majority of
> the hospital staff here really have no idea what I do and why it works and
> how it works. Thank you, social worker, for jolting me out of my
> complacency... AT A TIME, when I am MOST fueled with new knowledge and
> connections and networking support. THANK YOU for inspiring me to review
> the conference proceedings and journal articles and pitch to my Director
> of Nursing that I do an inservice for the clinical staff (yes, the
> psychiatrists and the doctors and the social workers) on Mirror Neurons
> and D/MT and speak to them on their terms so that they might finally
> understand. Thank you for stirring such indignation in me that
> I have no choice but to stand up before my colleagues and insist upon
> educating them."
>
> This is such a wonderful transformation of energy, and this IS the dance
> that we do. I am not only interested in our interface with neuroscience, I
> am interested in our interface with physics, and with mathematics, because
> what we ALL do is interconnected.
>
> Lora, it would be interesting to go back to that social worker,
> acknowledge her embarrasment, your shock, and ask her for help. Ask her
> what her association to dance is, and find out why the image of people
> dancing in the streets was so amusing. It's undoubtedly for a good reason.
>
> And, Jenn, write a letter to the editor about that killer game. We need to
> use the energy we have to make happen (see dance) what is closest to our
> hearts and minds.
>
> Thanks to everyone for such inspiration.
>
> Donna
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Peek-a-boo FREE Tricks & Treats for You!
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> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 13:19:40 +1000
> From: "Heather Hill" <heatherhill at hotkey.net.au>
> Subject: Fw: [Adta] Response to Heather, Lora re: neuroscience
> To: "Adta listserve" <adta at adta.org>
> Message-ID: <002201c8095a$10bdf410$0201a8c0 at NewPC>
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> 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
>
>
>
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