AHS Research Overview 2019
Voicing Into the Unknown: Vocal Improvisation in Expressive Arts Therapy
This expressive arts therapy thesis explores the use of vocal improvisation in expressive arts therapy with creatively blocked artists. The research methodology is both heuristic and arts-based, and includes expressive arts therapy sessions with co-researchers as well as a personal research component using vocal improvisations of one note. The research shows that the voice can be a helpful tool in expressive arts therapy in working with creatively blocked artists, and points in particular to openings of the imagination that come from singing with eyes closed. This research naturally leads towards further questions around the connection between somatic and expressive arts therapies, the connection between imagination and the senses, and the voice and one’s concept of self.
2019: MA Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Bonnie Nish
Student: Natasha Duchene
Keywords: expressive arts therapy, improvisation, voice, somatics, interoception, heuristic, creativity
A Blue Riddim: Polyrhythm as the Ethos of Gullah-Geechee Drumfolk Tradition, a Reservoir of Cultural Vitality (ISBN: 978-1-7341134-0-2)
This auto ethnographic work addresses relevant life experiences of the author which are illuminated by the question: In what ways does the polyrhythmic ethos of the Gullah Geechee Drumfolk tradition embody a reservoir of cultural vitality and social critique? The full writing, an encapsulation of a 500+year old legacy, honors themes of both olyrhythm and Drumfolk as performative and expressive engagements of language, person and tone. This dissertation, likewise, re-composes expected sequence and structure into freshly syncopated content. Carried throughout the whole is social critique such as that found in blues, Ring Shout, fife and drum, jazz and other African American folk forms. They all offer crucial life-enhancing ideals which generate counter-hegemonic content: bent, folded, elastic and re-coded.
An appendix, not included in the final dissertation, accompanies this work. It contains practical applications of the theories through examples, historiographies, photographs, and journals specific to present Gullah-Geechee corridor circumstances. Available upon request.
2019: Ph.D. Dissertation (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Paul Antze
Student: David Pleasant
Keywords: gullah-geechee, polyrhythm, mdrast, cosmology, epistemology, agency, quantum, chaos, syncopation, improvisation, justice, chirality
A Case for Weaving Critical Theory into Practice: Demystifying the Experience of ExAT Trainees as they Learn about Power and Privilege
As an expressive arts therapy institute begins to integrate anti-oppression training into the curriculum, students in the field encounter themselves, each other, the training institute, and the global expressive arts therapy community. This study explores the experiences of five expressive arts therapy trainees, the researcher, and one teacher who attended the third iteration of a training titled, “Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity: An Expressive Arts Therapy Approach to Anti-Oppression,” and ultimately asks, what is the experience of expressive arts therapy trainees as they learn about power and privilege? Arts-based research and phenomenological methods of inquiry guide the exploration, and theories regarding systemic power and privilege, intersectionality, white fragility, liberation psychology, disability justice, decolonial frameworks, the pedagogy of the oppressed, and expressive arts therapy inform the discussion. Concepts from expressive arts therapy including the intermodal arts, architecture of a session, and resource orientation are integrated in theory and practice throughout the study. Finally, possibilities for ways of furthering the integration of a theory and practice around power and privilege in the field of expressive arts therapy emerge.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Sabine Silberberg
Student: Brianna Buhr
Keywords: critical theory, white fragility, anti-oppression, power, privilege, resource orientation, intersectionality, arts-based research, phenomenology
A Mirror Held Up: Can Feedback to a Client in an Art Form Enhance the Therapeutic Relationship?
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Tell people more about the services you offer. Use this repeating layout to display content. It's an easy way to keep your customers up to date with what's happening. Want to make this content your own? Simple drag and drop elements like text, images and links, or connect to data from your collection. Tell people more about the services you offer. Use this repeating layout to display content. It's an easy way to keep your customers up to date with what's happening. Want to make this content your own? Simply drag and drop elements.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
magna cum laude
Advisor: Ellen Levine
Student: Daniela Garcia Prieto
Keywords: aesthetic feedback, aesthetic response, aesthetic responsibility, aesthetic relationship, documentation, expressive arts therapy, therapy
A Resource-Oriented Intervention: Working with Children with Disabilities and Their Parents in Expressive Arts Therapy
The reader is taken into the world of the work and play of an Expressive Arts Therapist, to explore resource-oriented intervention within Expressive Arts Therapy. Starting with my autobiography, I share why I am passionate about working with my clients and how I arrived at this topic, through disclosing my own identity and relationship with my family, on my journey of becoming a phenomenological Expressive Arts Psychotherapist. A mixed method of using case studies and art-based research is used to analyze four target groups, including families of children with disabilities, a group of children with special needs, parents of people with disabilities, and a child with autism and intellectual impairment. Research results suggest that having a supportive therapeutic relationship, and a safe architecture of the therapy session, are crucial when facilitating clients to discover their own inner resources, which motivates them to make changes in life. Along the journey, I am led to develop a new tea-making metaphor for resource-oriented Expressive Arts Therapy.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Markus Scott Alexander
Student: Venus Wing Lui Yiu
Keywords: autism, expressive arts therapy, family, inner resources, mixed methodology, play, parent and child relationship, people with disability, resource-oriented, richo’s five a’s, safety, therapeutic relationship
An exploration of how the Expressive Arts Therapy increases the play range of the trauma survivors through exploring dreams
This thesis is to explore the ways in which the therapeutic potential of Expressive arts therapy can connect and explore the images and stories of dream for those people who have experienced trauma as a treatment. Dream is connecting the unconscious part of our world, how the expressive arts therapy can integrate the conscious and unconscious part of our world through exploring dream. Firstly, the literature on the relationship between dreams and trauma is reviewed. The second section explores how expressive arts therapy can as a way of illuminating some of the therapeutic processes which can increase the play range of those who have experienced trauma through exploring dream. This paper will use different cases to examine the perspective of the dream and Expressive arts therapy.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Lai KK
Student: Wai Yu Tai
Keywords: trauma, expressive art therapy, dream, images and range of play
Archetypes, Alchemy and Expressive Arts: A Soul-Informed Therapy of the Imagination
This thesis was catalyzed by a surprise encounter with an image during an introductory expressive arts therapy workshop. The image prompted the question: How can trauma survivors transform psychic entropy into vital psychic energy through expressive arts therapy? Psychic entropy refers to blocked energy that is caused by painful emotions, such as anxiety, fear, frustration, anger and depression. While it is natural to experience some degree of psychic entropy in daily life, it is more pronounced and debilitating after trauma. The investigation utilizes arts-based research, archetypal phenomenology and auto ethnography. These qualitative modes of research make it a subjective, lived and embodied learning experience in which the processes of imagination and the emerging images become the guides and key informants. The imaginal adjacent to theory examines the work within a larger interdisciplinary field. In-depth descriptions of the researcher’s phenomenological encounters with a multiplicity of images over a two-year period of art making and play are provided. By staying on the surface of the images and viewing them through an archetypal and mythical lens, they can be appreciated as more than self-expression and thereby connect the personal to the cultural and universal. Lessons learned and insights gained from working with children in an elementary school are also discussed. The research highlights the importance of being soul-informed and demonstrates how acts of imagination and, most importantly, love can help bear and transform even the most unbearable pain and suffering.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Carrie MacLeod
Student: Baljit Kaur Dhillon
Keywords: trauma, psychic entropy, psychic energy, arts-based research, archetypal phenomenology, embodied learning, imagination, soul-informed
Artful Awareness: Towards a Spiritual Practice of Mindfulness and Attunement in Expressive Arts Therapy
This thesis explores the role of expressive arts therapy in cultivating mindfulness and attunement. Inspired by my own experience with expressive arts therapy, I sought to explore the potential of the expressive arts with others who had spiritually based mindfulness practices. In the course of the thesis I explore the roots and principles of mindfulness and attunement, including their developmental and neurobiological factors. I strategize the application of mindfulness and attunement through expressive arts based practices at a remote residential retreat. Intermodal sessions included contemplative photography, textural sensing, nature theatre, creating with clay, musical musings, painting with presence, dance of the elements, group painting, and finally, fairy tales in the forest. The results establish that expressive arts is a means to become more mindful, more attuned, and more open for both clients and facilitators.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
magna cum laude
Advisor: Richard Wainwright & Roberta Rasmussen-Merz
Student: Michelle Grace
Keywords: mindfulness, attunement, becoming, vulnerability, self-discovery, self-care, flow, non-attachment, the emergent, surrender, group process
Deep Play - Die Erfahrung von Flow durch intermodales, freies Spiel
Deep Play describes a form of decentering which is non-directive and rooted in intermodal, free play. Deep Play is connected to the concept of flow by Mihaly CSIKSZENTMIHALYI (1990). In accordance with the characterization of flow moments, experiences were described as inherent a quality of deep play when 1. the participant felt equal to the task. 2. the participant could concentrate. 3. Focus on a reasonable, clear goal. 4. the participant can effortlessly surrender to the current activity. The dedication to the game process is the prerequisite for the experience to become deeper and more intense. 5. there is a sense of control over one's own activities 6. the sense of time changes. Often, in the flow moment of deep play, the passing of time is experienced as being faster, or the deep play moment is described as out of time. 7. It succeeds in putting yourself in a role and if the person participating in the play shop can stay in the role. 8. in the play experience, a seriousness can be achieved in which children normally play. 9. there is a sense of security to the person participating in the playshop. In three consecutive workshops (called playshops) participants had the chance to experience Deep Play. With the methods of participatory observation, art-based research and interviews the evaluation in this research showed, that Deep Play is helpful to strengthen the autotelic parts of the personality and therefore is a useful tool to support the development of a healthy self.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Barbara Hielscher
Student: David Widmer
Keywords: play, intermodal, flow, decenter, non-directive, deep play, autotelic personality, participatory observation, art-based research
Dynamical and embodied model of Expressive Arts practice: working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder
The introduction of dynamical systems theory forms a metaphorical analysis that constitutes the foundation of this inquiry. Building on the conceptual foundation, the sensory and experiential character of expressive arts practice receives further attention in Part II. The discussion of the intimate relationship between cognition, morphology, and emotion demonstrates the saliency of such characters in relation to individuals and emphasizes the pivotal role they play in therapeutic intervention. Part III focuses on insights derived from phenomenology, a 20th century philosophical movement emphasizing the experiential character of existence. The works of a number of scholars is analyzed as an effort to accentuate the philosophical orientation of expressive arts practice. Part IV of the thesis reflects on certain aspects of art making and its therapeutic relevance. The thesis concludes with several clinical vignettes in order to highlight the implication of expressive arts practice being nested within a transdisciplinary network.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Barbara Hielscher-Witte
Student: Joey Sheung
Keywords: dynamical systems, embodied cognition, phenomenology, autism, thelen, greenspan, buber, husserl
Enacting Perception
The use of movement in Expressive Arts practices can be especially effective when the practice facilitates the widest possible range of movement options. Facilitation techniques that moderate the contradictions that emerge in movement improvisation can enable a wider range of play by increasing capacity for movement invention. To understand capacity, we must understand the barriers that interfere with achieving capacity. Therefore, this research first explores the question: What are the factors that mediate facility in movement improvisation in Expressive Arts practices? This research explores these mediating issues with interest in identifying moderating options. The second question tackled in this research is: How might a methodology focused on attending to specific aspects of an art work's expression moderate movement facility to expand a participant’s range of play? The proposed methodology promotes inactive attunement, creating a bridge between what is perceived and how that perception might be embodied. A partially field-tested resource with potential to guide users to aspect-specific attention in aesthetic responding is offered as a way to dissolve barriers and enhance options in movement-based inquiry.
2019: Ph.D. Dissertation (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Judith Greer Essex
Student: Constance Schrader
Keywords: movement-based inquiry, dance, expression, improvisation, art, aspect, facilitation
Evocation • Exploration • Exaltation: How can the expressive arts evoke the spirit of inner child from exploration to exaltation?
How can the Expressive Arts evoke one’s spirit of the ‘inner child’, from the exploration of art-making to the experience of ‘exaltation’? How might this process help us to discover and restore our inner resources? Does every one of us have an ‘artistic child’, an-inborn sense of playing in the arts? This topic was inspired by an Expressive Arts Therapy Masters practicum project in Hong Kong, called “Smart Kids and Elderly Community Arts Project”. Being with the kids, I witnessed their powerful innate resources of creativity, courage, curiosity, sense of wonder, playfulness and joyfulness and how their influence on the elderly to become energetic and alive. When an elderly man with dementia engages with play in something he loves, his serious face changes to a naughty one, and he is able to laugh like a kid. This thesis explores my fascination with what is behind this phenomenon.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Ka Kit Lai
Student: Wai Yee Wong
Keywords: expressive arts, inner child, inner resources
Exploring Embodiment and Expressive Arts Therapy
This thesis follows a journey to integrate the theme of embodiment into a series of expressive arts therapy workshops. I considered the meaning of “embodiment” within expressive arts therapy as a lived experience that is unique for each individual. Participants explored this theme through four expressive arts therapy workshops that focused on the arts modalities of improvisational movement, painting and creative writing. During the workshops, I delved into my own personal heuristic research with the intention to pay attention to my own body and gain insight into what embodiment really means to me as an expressive arts therapist. This research illuminated the supportive and reciprocal connection between the physical senses of the body and the imagination. This thesis discusses phenomenology, poesis, polyasethics, low skill/ high sensitivity, decentering and the liminal space within the lense of embodiment and the expressive arts. Other themes that arose include sensitivity, community, individuality, nature, and embodiment as a creative process.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Mary Peterson
Student: Valerie Lange
Keywords: embodiment, somatics, expressive arts
How does Expressive Arts Therapy enhance the understanding of young adult in Hong Kong’s shifting IDENTITY
Shaun McNiff (1998) told his student to discover “the thesis you are living and cannot see”. Hong Kong is my home and my root, where I born in, I grew up in, I learnt in, and I committed in. This lovely place nurtures me, teaches me what is justice, and demonstrates me what is adherence. This is my IDENTITY as a Hongkonger. I keen on explore this attitude and belief with the next generation, to whom I am unswervingly enthusiastic to work with. This thesis relates to apply Expressive Arts Therapy to the young adults in Hong Kong, exploring the idea of identity. And it ends with foreseeing the contribution of Expressive Arts Therapy to the community, in order to generate a sense of shift.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Ka Kit Lai
Student: Wik Chi Nicholas Wong
Keywords: decentering, play range, tansitional space, identity, beliefs, hong kong
Many Strands from the Uncomplicated Smile of Everything
This thesis is a collection of threads. It is also the documentation of a research group made up of artists from different modalities coming together to explore soma. It is an extended reflection and act of digesting my learnings from my textile studio practice and training in Expressive Arts. I share my personal history and the experiences that led me to my research interest. I include a description, discussion and photos of my artwork, which I offer as Aesthetic Response to the artwork that was the group space. I discuss the group work itself and my reflections and learnings around this. This thesis explores art, communion and soma.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Mary Reich
Student: Alexandra Goodall
Keywords: studio art, textile, soma, somatic, embodiment, artists, inquiry, research, group work, collective intelligence
Masks of the World A Cross Cultural Exploration of Gender Identity and Sexuality Through Expressive Arts Therapy
This thesis explores the use of expressive arts therapy with at-risk youth in the LGBTQ(I) community in San Diego, CA, United States and Kathmandu, Nepal. Working with schools and LGBTQ(I) centers I explore identity and embodiment with the use of masks. I investigate individuals’ personal experiences of being a member of the LGBTQ(I) community in the United States. Research is arts based, focusing on experiential and exploratory processes through working with masks. Working with Gender and Sexuality Alliance Clubs and Blue Diamond Society in Kathmandu, Nepal we explore gender and sexual identity with masks made from plaster molds of the individuals' faces. I concluding that at-risk youth and the LGBTQ(I) population benefit from exploring their sexuality and/or gender identities with masks, working with them through expressive arts therapy.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Wes Chester
Student: Danica Teyssier
Keywords: lgbt, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, gender, sexuality, identity, embodiment, nepal, mask, expressive arts therapy
Material Oriented Expressive Arts Therapy- An exploration of Using Material to bridge between Arts and Autism Adults in Hong Kong
This study endeavored to investigate how material could help “autism adults” in Hong Kong to bridge the existing world through expressive arts therapy. The researcher had conducted a 1 year of 46 sessions expressive arts research group from sheltered workshop of the local Hong Kong non-profit making organization, NLPRA. The 1 year research group was designed into four phases from individual, group, friendship, family and gratitude and vocational respectively. Narrative and phenomenological approach was the main methodology for conducting six case studies on their journey of art transformation. The study concluded that material helped the autism adult to open up their sensory organs and they would “free” from their rigidity as they could expand their play range. Material also helped clients to have deeper exploration of imagination from sensitization and the material itself could help clients to engage and transform imagination into realism. The researcher used the “bridge” to describe material as the channel to come across different art modalities and senses under polyaesthetics theory and modalities of imagination.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Kai Kit Lai
Student: Chi Hung Clifford Lee
Keywords: material, modalities of imagination, polyaesthetics theory
Minds, Hearts and Arts: Uniting the Expressive Arts and Education
I exam in the intersection of expressive arts therapy and education through the lens of a/r/t/tography, simultaneously embodying the roles of artist/researcher/teacher and therapist. This thesis examines a shifting landscape of education, and the role that the expressive arts can play in supporting the development of the whole child: as thinkers, communicators, social and emotional beings, and contributing members of society. In attempting to unite and work within these two frames I came to the question: When poiesis is placed at the center of pedagogy, how does the low skill/high sensitivity and resource-oriented nature of expressive arts theory lead to a child’s increased awareness of self, others in their community, and learning?
2019: Master Thesis (English)
magna cum laude
Advisor: Richard Wainwright & Roberta
Rasmussen-Merz
Student: Brenna Willis
Keywords: poiesis, resource-orientation, low skill/high sensitivity, education, social and emotional learning, a/r/tography
Nurturing Our Natural Nature: A Holistic Approach to Mental Health Care Through Expressive Arts Therapy Inspired by Nature
This research highlights the benefit and potential of integrating arts-based and nature-informed interventions from an expressive arts therapy approach into formal hospital and health care settings. I used a group approach with 10 female participants, with a focus on addressing health and wellness concerns. The study explored and documented changes in two well-being-indicator measures over six consecutive weeks in a hospital art studio. The objective was to facilitate enhanced health and well-being, understand the processes better, and measure the changes influenced by intermodal art-making inspired by nature. Guided by current theory and best practice understandings in expressive arts therapy, both phenomenological qualitative analysis and objective quantitative measurement were utilized. Results indicate a positive influence on the psycho-social well-being and spiritual aspects of the participants of an intermodal expressive arts and nature inspired therapy intervention.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
magna cum laude
Advisor: Dr. Markus Scott-Alexander
Student: Marlessa A Wesolowski
Keywords: holistic, expressive arts therapy, nature, health and wellness, mental health, health care delivery, community
Playing Freely with(in) Restrictions: Qualitative Research for the Reciprocal Therapeutic Triad Among Arts, Therapist’s & Client’s Dynamic Play Ranges
Without restriction, there is no creativity. Play, as the operator of imagination, also needs an optimal range so that one can play freely with(in) daily restrictions. This thesis aims to study the criteria contributing to human dynamic state of play range, Dynamic Play Range (DPR) in EXA therapeutic setting. On interpersonal level, the reciprocal interactions between clients’ and therapists’ respective DPRs would be studied using the framework of Reciprocal Therapeutic Triad (RTT), with arts as a play-ground, the third space containing both parties’ shared imaginal experience. Case study about therapeutic experiences with five individual clients would be carried out. A Play Range Inventory (PRI) is devised for clients and therapists to draw as an art-based evaluation. Personal reflections by the therapist, also the participatory researcher, would be analyzed together with the back-and-forth responses (aesthetically and verbally) between clients and therapists to ensure intersubjective validity. The study reveals the importance of optimal restrictions in therapeutic setting, especially the therapist’s and client’s willingness of self-restrictions that lead to a “harvestable” expansion of play range bridging with daily life, which also opens further research possibilities regarding the role shift and hierarchy of power among clients and therapists, as well as the implementation of PRI within the architecture of therapeutic session.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Ka Kit Lai
Student: Wai Ho, Chris Chow
Keywords: play-range, improvisation/de-center, therapeutic presence, restrictions, imprisonment, reciprocity, space of third
Sketches of Dynamic Contentment: Transforming Depression, Suicidality and Grief through Expressive Arts Therapy
Stirred by the sudden loss of 5 people in my immediate social circles within one year in 2016, the undeniable importance of addressing experiences of depression and ways of dealing with loss and grief, especially from suicide, became clear. Inspired by an autoethnographic journey through the arts, tools for navigating such experiences emerged spontaneously through Expressive Arts Therapy practices as Arts-based research, especially word play, music and movement. Interviews were conducted to initiate conversations about process and possibilities. However, the research became a journey of conquering one’s own fearlessness towards life’s biggest internal threat, by honing the innate creative impulse.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Stephen K. Levine
Student: Tiffany Cheryl Chan
Keywords: word play, movement, music, depression, loss, suicide, death, grief, bereavement, presence, essence, resonance, autoethnography, arts-based research
The Heroine's Journey: using expressive arts to support empowerment for women in recovery
This thesis explores how expressive art therapy (hereafter EXA) can increase empowerment and be helpful to women in recovery. I am looking at the concept ‘rite of passage’ described by Stephen Levine as “a time where familiar structures have been given up and a time of confusion moving towards a new life”. The research fieldwork of the thesis is a ten-week’s course/study done at the Casa Treatment Center in Los Angeles, which is a drug and substance abuse treatment center for women. The thesis explores 1) how the arts based self-research of the therapist support a better client therapist connection, 2) if looking at an expressive arts rite of passage support women’s journey towards empowerment and 3) How the expressive arts methods of harvesting and dialogue with the image support the artists sense of empowerment.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Wes Chester
Student: Caecilie Carlsen
Keywords: women’s empowerment, recovery, expressive arts therapy
The Unknown Steps of Recovery
In this thesis, I explore how the expressive arts can help veterans recovering from addiction to cope with the unknown. I look at their fears, their past, and their future, by engaging in art making, ritual, and play, to see if we can find coping skills together to be able to substitute art for substance abuse. Through the Expressive Arts Therapy sessions and interviews, that I conducted with clients one-on-one, we look to see what tools and resources can be found to start living a healthier life.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Wes Chester
Student: Judith Drapkin
Keywords: veterans, recovery, addiction, coping, expressive arts therapy, unknown
The use of Silence to Ground an Therapeutic Experience in Expressive Arts Therapy
This thesis begins with a brief introduction to my encounter with silence, and how I find silence can enlighten my life. Living in Hong Kong which is known for the fast pace and busyness, how silence helps me to hear my inner voices in the midst of all the overloaded information and noises. My research questions are: What is silence? What are the benefits of silence? What are the silences in arts? How can silence contribute to ground a therapeutic experience? How can silence be used in Expressive Arts Therapy context? Using silence, how is the therapeutic experience different?
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Ka Kit Lai
Student: Wing Shan Fung
Keywords: silence exa ground arts
Wild Hearts: An Exploration of Arts Practices with Women Changemakers
Abstract Caring for our communities and leading change can be overwhelming in our fast-paced “wired world.” Work is almost synonymous with a religious identity in America, but it is also a significant source of stress. Women changemakers are highly empathetic leaders who work relentlessly to help vulnerable people and find solutions to our communities’ most pressing needs. This puts them at risk of stress, burnout and empathy fatigue. The question of this project examined the ways in which expressive arts might be a resource for women changemakers including but not limited to artists, educators, social entrepreneurs and community leaders, i. e. women effecting positive changes in our communities and the world. This qualitative case study based on phenomenology investigates the experiences of six culturally diverse women changemakers in the U.S.’ Greater Washington DC Metro area through a 40-hour professional development training in expressive arts. This work revealed that art practices steeped in mindfulness can help women changemakers surrender control and develop more flexibility, experience a sense of belonging, and cultivate resilience. Women changemakers can draw on art practices for self-care, inspiration, insight and overall well-being. This work could benefit women leaders, activists and changemakers, and professionals who train leaders, educators, entrepreneurs and people in caring professions.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Michelle LeBaron
Student: Marga Fripp
Keywords: women changemakers, educators, community leaders, overcoming stress, burnout and empathy fatigue, surrendering control, belonging, resilience
Women's Selfcare and Healing Practices Through Textile Arts
This thesis examines the potential of textile arts as a medium for supporting women’s healing and self-care practices. The following explores the healing benefits of textile arts for individuals and groups, through the lens of psychotherapists, social workers, textile artists and expressive arts therapists. Findings suggest that textile arts have a great potential in alleviating anxiety, depression, stress, trauma symptoms, chronic physical pain and other mental health concerns. Furthermore, research shows that individuals and communities who practice with textiles often transition from private self-narratives into self-empowerment, and eventually into political action. This is demonstrated through an analysis of past and current social movements that have utilized textile arts for healing, empowerment and protesting. Finally, a textile arts program is provided with hands on activities for anyone interested in exploring the benefits of textile arts.
2019: Master Thesis (English)
cum laude
Advisor: Carrie Mcleod
Student: Laura Maria Betancur
Keywords: women, textile arts, women and political activism, women's mental health, selfceare, women empowerment, anxiety, depression, women's issues, women's rights