You don’t have to take my word for it … (Part IV)

Colleague reflections

I asked my colleagues to reflect on why they consider arts therapies important and what they observe the ATCO participants gaining from their experiences in the class.

Jeff, mentioned previously in this post, works with the ATCO participants every day, including attending every session of our class. He pointed out that the class “hits a lot of areas at once,” providing opportunities for the participants to be actively engaged, move, work their muscles, interact in a group setting, follow directions and provide chances for peer leadership. He also noted that doing something “new,” like traveling to the dance studio or getting the chance to take off their shoes (something that many of the participants also mentioned they liked) is important. Jeff talked about the positive effect the class had on the participants’ self esteem, giving them a sense of enjoyment and accomplishment. He described how one participant showed his signature “move” from dance class in another setting (thoroughly confusing everyone around him!), very proud that he had invented and could execute it. Jeff also recalled seeing the smile on another participant’s face while moving as a “very dear” moment.

Haley, my co-facilitator, captured the essence of the class, describing it as “a special place where [participants] can move their bodies in ways that they aren’t able to anywhere else.” She also talked about sharing the joy of participants when they discover the power and capability of their own bodies, achieving a personal sense of accomplishment. When talking about one of the participants, she said “his smile is so incredible, experiencing the pure enjoyment of how his body can move. I think all of [the participants] have gotten to that place at least once.” Like Jeff, she discussed the value of the social interaction that participants had with each other and with us, noting the support and personal growth it encourages.

Anna, a theater student interested in drama therapy, also highlighted the success of the group’s social interaction. She used the example of Irene gently passing the “baby” (blanket) to Rex during the drama therapy class (my picture of it is below) to illustrate the kindness and compassion the group members show for each other.

You don’t have to take my word for it … (Part III)

Participant reflections

When I sat down with members of my creative movement group to discuss their experiences and feelings during our classes, I was impressed by the openness and vividness of their remarks. They painted an incredibly positive picture of the experience and recognized not only the directly movement-related results that my co-facilitator and I plan, but they also talked about the social and emotional achievements inherent in the group activities and new experiences.

Irene said it best in her own words: “I’m pretty good at it. It makes me feel wonderful. It makes [my body] feel stronger, happy, gentle.” She talked about enjoying holding the “sweet” baby in our drama activities. While doing so, she got up, found a blanket in the room, and after cradling it, passed it to Jeff (the ATCO Community Inclusion Coordinator, who works closely with Haley and I in organizing the group). This was a perfect, active demonstration of the type of social sensitivity and skills developed in group activities such as arts therapies classes.

Dawn said she felt “inspired” and “light as a cloud” during creative movement classes. She likes these feelings because they “make her feel better about herself.”

Chase had a bit of a difficult time verbalizing his feelings about the class. Rather, he preferred to stand up and move, associating my presence with the movement we do in class. When I asked him more questions, he responded with short, positive phrases including “thank you” and “hooray!” while continuing to move.

Jason’s emphatic response was “It makes me feel GOOD moving around. Not sitting around doing nothing.”

You don’t have to take my word for it … (Part II)

Articles

These articles are just two of many that highlighted the extraordinary effect that arts therapies can have on peoples’ lives.

“Moving Moments,” from the Daily News in New York (available through Lexis-Nexis or other periodical search engines) tells the story of a group of typical office workers and their first encounter with dance/movement therapy. Because they are “everyday” people, it is easy to relate to their feelings and thoughts. Perhaps the workers’ positive experience could serve as a useful testimony to similar creative arts novices or even skeptics.

“Why Art Therapy,” published on the Web site of Darkness to Light, an organization that deals with child sexual abuse, describes the very important therapeutic role art therapy had in helping a group of young survivors deal with their pain. The article describes how art succeeds where words often fail.

You don’t have to take my word for it … (Part I)

So, my last entry was a bit of a damper. I really focused on the lack of quantitative research in arts therapies, but I’d really like to stress that the qualitative information that does exist is extraordinary insightful. Not only does it provide a look into why different therapy methods work (what results they produce), each study is like a living testimony of the power of arts therapies.

I’d like to share some of this information – stories about the value of art therapies from people who are involved in them firsthand – with you. It will come from three perspectives: nationally published articles, my conversations with participants in my own creative movement class and my colleagues in the creative movement class.

I’m going to break these reflections up over the next few posts so that the length isn’t too overwhelming! Enjoy.

Can I get some research in here?

Up to this point, the Living Arts blog might seem paint a very sunny picture of arts therapies – happy, supportive places where people can be free to express themselves and experience personal and social growth by dancing, painting or acting. While this “painted picture” is accurate, hopefully my inclusion of photographs in the blog will illustrate that arts therapies are true, professional undertakings of people working together and not just a group of new age hippies getting in touch with their “inner selves.”

For all of arts therapies’ positive attributes and successes, there are undoubtedly people (maybe even you yourself!) who believe that the therapies’ only supporters are those “new age hippies.” Interestingly enough, when I began to search for articles criticizing arts therapies, I failed to find any!

When I mentioned this to Anna (a theater student interested drama therapy), she brought up an interesting point: almost all of the research done in arts therapies has been qualitative – not quantitative – research. The result? Even critics – who might disagree with arts therapies’ practices – have no solid, universal facts to challenge. Because the majority of the research and articles about arts therapies have involved small groups or case studies, it is impossible to generalize their findings to use in large-scale, theoretical arguments.

Anna also pointed out that this lack of research is actually the beginning of a vicious circle hampering the expansion of creative arts therapies. More extensive research, of course, requires funding. Funding, however, requires hard-tested support and facts produced by research. And bam, arts therapies researchers are right back where they started.

Staying power

When it comes to the arts, they seem to continuously go through “periods” and trends – modernism, postmodernism, deconstruction, focusing on complexity or simplicity, using arts to make political statements or simply performing and creating for the beauty and joy the arts can bring. Are arts therapies simply one of these “trends”?

It’s important to realize that the arts therapies are indeed relatively new disciplines. According to each of the Web site of each of the arts therapies' professional organizations, (all available at the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations) most arts therapies began evolving around the 1940s. However, professional organizations – what most people consider a way to “validate” such disciplines – were not established until the 1960s and 1970s. As comments on previous Living Arts blog posts demonstrate, most arts therapies are still relatively obscure today.

Arts therapies are growing in popularity and familiarity. For example, according to the American Music Therapy Association, the U.S. government decided music therapy is a “reimbursable service under benefits for Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP)” in 1994. In nongovernmental jabber, this basically means that under certain circumstances, music therapy treatments can be covered by Medicare. This kind of recognition and validation from the government is a sure sign that arts therapies are steadily being accepted as a more traditional part of American society.

Two arts are better than one

One of the best things about the arts in general is that they provide endless opportunities for collaboration. Working together, artists from different disciplines can use their unique skills to look at a project from different angles and combine their talents to create something truly wonderful.

Arts therapies are no different. While each can be successful on its own, participants can have multiple different experiences by taking part in more than one type of arts therapy. Haley and I wanted the ATCO participants to be able to take advantage of this variety. We asked Anna, a theater student interested in drama therapy, to be a guest teacher.

What is drama therapy?

The National Association for Drama Therapy defines drama therapy as “the systematic and intentional use of drama/theatre processes and products to achieve the therapeutic goals of symptom relief, emotional and physical integration, and personal growth.” Its goal include helping clients to “tell [their stories], solve problems, set goals, express feelings appropriately, achieve catharsis, extend the depth and breadth of inner experience, improve interpersonal skills and relationships, and strengthen the ability to perform personal life roles while increasing flexibility between roles.”

It’s easy to see that drama therapy has similar goals to dance therapy. It simply uses a different art form to tackle the same objectives.

Drama in action

Anna, who had already been working with our group for several weeks, decided to focus on developing the participants’ personal growth by encouraging creative thinking through miming and props. She worked to break down “functional fixedness,” a mental barrier that prevents people from easily forming new ideas with existing data. The example she used was only being able to see an object as useful for what its “traditional” uses. Her activities were designed to overcome this barrier and encourage imagination.

The following pictures (which I took during the class) and text illustrate the activities during the class.

The first prop Anna (below) introduced was a blanket.

ATCO participant Chase (left) and most of the other participants first thought the blanket could be best used as a cape.


ATCO participant Rex (below) found other uses for the blanket. He cradled it as a baby (top) and wore it as a veil (bottom).


The second prop Anna introduced was a pillow.

Rex (left) and Anna (right) pet the pillow, imagining it was a cat, while volunteers Morgan and Janelle and ATCO participant Irene (left to right) look on from behind.

Using great creative thought and superb balancing skills, Irene turned the pillow into a hat.


Music therapy student Amy (top) and Chase (bottom) both used the pillow to become “pregnant.”

Rex used the slit in the pillow case to turn it into an oven mitt.

The class ended on with a high-spirited game as the pillow became a soccer ball.

Dance Therapy 101: A crash course as experienced at Ohio University

OK, so maybe skeptics can accept that arts therapies can serve useful functions, including improving communication and expression and increasing physical, emotional, cognitive and/or social functioning. But how exactly does this happen?

It’s necessary to understand that different therapy sessions target different objectives. For example, the primary area of focus for the weekly dance therapy group with ATCO participants is to increase physical functioning. My co-facilitator, Haley, and I find that they – like many adults – typically do not have the opportunities to use their bodies freely and to their full potential. As a result of this attitude toward movement (viewing it in a purely functional light, therefore minimizing its possibilities), the ATCO participants have developed a limited range of movement patterns. Because our primary objective is to increase physical functioning, our class tends to be run almost like a creative movement class, focusing on the exploration of using the body in different ways.

Inside the dancer’s studio

A typical 35-minute dance/creative movement session with ATCO participants might follow a schedule like this:

11:10 a.m. – ATCO participants (usually six) arrive and remove their shoes, a ritual that helps them shift into a “movement” mindset. They are joined by about six volunteers, college students who partner with the ATCO participants in all activities. This one-to-one (participant-to-volunteer) ratio is important because the participants having varying levels of mobility and activity comprehension. Volunteers help the participants tailor movement activities to the level that will be most beneficial to them.

11:15 a.m. – We begin warm-up activities, such as moving different body parts to music. This helps participants begin to acknowledge movement in places they might not have previously considered, such as their shoulders or knees.

(I've included several pictures in this entry to help illustrate different activities I describe. I took all of them during a recent creative movement session.)

In this picture, my co-facilitator Haley and ATCO participant Rex work together to stretch their arms as far as possible during a warm-up.

11:20 a.m. – The group begins to do more, larger movement within the context of different dance concepts, such as level, speed and locomotion. Haley or I will lead an activity, giving the participants and volunteers movement directions. For example, when exploring speed, we might say, “When the music is loud, move quickly around the room and when it is soft, move slowly.” This allows participants with different skill levels different movement options ranging from simple walking to running, galloping, jumping, etc.

In the pictures below, we used scarves as a prop to encourage movement. Their floating quality encourages large arced arm movements and tossing movements (to throw them up and catch them as they floated down). Participants focused on upper body movement in this activity.

Here, (left to right) ATCO participants Jason and Rex, and volunteers Haley, Sjannake and Ashleigh explore the movement possibilities of the scarves.

Volunteer Ashley and ATCO participant Marcia begin to warm up to the idea of holding on to the scarf while simlutaneously doing other movement.

11:40 a.m. – We gather together as a group to recap what we have done during the session and usually go through some slow, cooling down movements. This gives participants time to store the session’s “movement knowledge” and to make the transition to their next activity.

It’s important to remember that this is only one type of dance therapy session. Many other types, which are more specialized and likely to address emotional and cognitive issues, are led by professionals certified by the American Dance Therapy Association. These cognitive and emotional focuses – as well as the physical focus that the ATCO group takes – can be useful to all populations of people.

Begin at the beginning: an exploration of arts therapies

Taking the first step

Once in a while, you see, hear or do something that just makes you stop and say, Wow. Of course, exactly what sparks that “magic moment” will be different for everyone: it might be seeing a thought-provoking documentary, driving a certain car for the first time or meeting a truly inspirational person. For me, a wow moment occurred about a year ago when Ashleigh Ochs, a friend of mine, asked me to help her with a new project.

Ashleigh (an Ohio University social work major with a dance minor) was serving an internship with ATCO, an organization in Athens, Ohio that helps adults with disabilities to “picture their potentials,” according to its Web site. ATCO provides opportunities for its participants to develop life skills, gain employment and acquire social skills and friendships through various activities and outings in the community. When Ashleigh’s supervisor learned she had a background in dance, he excitedly encouraged her to try something new with the ATCO participants – dance therapy.

Ashleigh began organizing the group and asked another dance major (Haley Dulman) and I to join her in the formation of a weekly creative dance/movement group for the ATCO participants. And with that, I was brought into the world of creative arts therapies.

What are those people doing??

Even in today’s society, which is increasingly using “alternative” types of therapeutic and medicinal treatments, most people have a fairly ambiguous and unclear idea of what exactly arts therapies are. When I mention my involvement with dance therapy sessions, people sometimes ask if we “dance about our feelings” or “just run and dance around and let out emotions.” These responses have elements of truth in them, but they do not touch on the full power or breadth of the spectrum of functions covered by dance/movement therapy or arts therapies.

The Web site of the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations (NCCATA) does a great job in giving a simple, brief overview of exactly what arts therapies are – and what they do. The organization comprises the professional organizations of the six main types of creative arts therapies: art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, poetry therapy and psychodrama.

Each of these arts therapies uses different creative processes to achieve a variety of goals, including
• improving communication and expression
• increasing physical, emotional, cognitive and/or social functioning.

Another misconception that I encounter is that arts therapies are really only appropriate for certain populations, such as people with disabilities or those in psychiatric hospitals. In reality, however – as the NCCATA points out on its fact sheet – anyone can benefit from arts therapies, particularly people with
• mental health needs
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• chronic illness
• head injuries
• substance abuse problem
• physical disabilities
• developmental disabilities.

While they are still considered unconventional, it is possible arts therapies to play an important role in people’s everyday lives – perhaps even yours.