Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploring Silence In Music Therapy With Autistic Children: A Qualitative Study, Shannon Harper-Bison

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Silence is essential for human connection, communication, and expression. This paper presents an inquiry into the experience of measurable moments of silences within music therapy with children on the autism spectrum: what happens directly after moments of silence preceded by sound, what might that indicate about the function of silences, and how they can be used therapeutically? Literature about silences within psychotherapy and music therapy suggests that silence can have multiple functions within therapy. Using both a specifically designed data sheet and anecdotal summaries, I documented silences within individual music therapy sessions with children ages 3-14 diagnosed with Autism Spectrum …

Mindfulness, Music, & Art: Development Of A Mindfulness Based Expressive Arts Therapy Method For Adults In A Short-Term Psychiatric Hospital Setting, Annabelle Lord-Patey

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Existing literature shows that mindfulness is a modality that promotes human mental wellbeing, as is the use of creative forms of expression such as art and music. There is some emerging evidence that these two modalities are particularly useful when used in conjunction with one another. Utilizing such methods has been found to have notable results in the context of clinical mental health counseling. This kind of research, while promising, remains to be relatively new and there is a significant need for more data to be collected on this topic. To further explore the use of these modalities in clinical …

Enhancing The Quality Of Life For Senior Citizens: A Facilitator’S Guidebook For Mindful Music And Movement, Shannon Sexton

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Music appreciation and enjoyment enhance well-being throughout the lifespan. The challenges and constraints that people experience as they age can lead to lack of access to music, decreased physical activity, and fewer avenues for creative expression. Group music and movement interventions created for older populations offer opportunities for social connection and improved quality of life. Mindful practices add further benefit when combined with these interventions. Current available programs are scarce and most often do not encompass mixed modalities. In addition, the benefits of these programs do not show long-term sustainability. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the effects …

Studio Expressive Arts Therapy: Towards A Classroom Method That Incorporates Art And Music, Michael Greenberg

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explored the ways in which expressive arts therapy (ExAT) could be incorporated into a small therapeutic high school’s visual arts program. Through the development and implementation of a method, intermodal exchange between visual art and music was integrated into both the school’s art program and its group counseling offerings. Informed by a literature review of studio art therapy (SAT) as related to ExAT, three different interventions were used to fit within the frameworks of the high school’s offerings. The first intervention focused on making music with a few students within art classes while the rest of the class …

"It's The Way You Sing It": Translating Music Therapy For Isolated Older Adults Affected By Covid-19 To The Television Screen, Eunice Wong

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The current Covid-19 pandemic has increased the likelihood of loneliness and social isolation among older adults due to the restrictions on movement and visitations in care facilities. Loneliness and social isolation have consistently been identified as risk factors for poor mental and physical health in older people. Meanwhile, a growing number of older adults are utilizing technological resources to enhance their interpersonal relationships and overall quality of life. In the winter of 2020/2021, an innovative music therapy-informed television program was designed and produced for isolated older adults in need of mental and emotional support. This project, produced jointly by a …

Lived Experience Of Music Therapists As Musician-Therapists, Kotoe Suzuki

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The dissertation research explored the lived experiences of music therapists who are performing musicians. A conceptual foundation of music therapists as musicians, a “musician-therapist” who is deeply versed in the unique properties of music can be identified in the literature (Ansdell & Verney, 2008; Nordoff & Robbins, 1973). The objectives of this study were to explore three topics: 1) deeper understandings of music therapists’ musical improvisation both in clinical and nonclinical settings, 2) the connection between music therapists’ personal and professional musical growth, and 3) identity formation. A qualitative method was chosen for this research including reflexive/embodied/interpretative phenomenology, and arts-based …

How Dance And Music Stimulate Therapeutic Change In A Personal Movement Ritual, Cassidy Bingham

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis investigates the therapeutic effects of the researcher’s own arts practice or personal movement ritual, which is based in her tacit knowledge and intuition. The researcher is also the participant of this study. Her personal movement ritual, which was formalized as the method, was conducted before the literature review in order to prioritize tacit knowledge before introducing the influence of other scholars. In the literature review, Ellen Dissanayake’s and other scholars’ rationale for the emotional and cognitive changes that take place during rituals through music and dance are explained. These rationales, or the five constructs of entrainment, “ …

Multicultural Orientations In Music Therapy Education, Debra Jelinek Gombert

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This mixed-methods study examined music therapists’ experiences with, education regarding, and attitudes about music therapy with people who have multiple intersectional cultural perspectives. In the first phase, a survey created by the researcher was used to gathered information about participants’ (n = 474) education, training, attitudes, and skills regarding culture. In the second phase, 7 individuals were interviewed to learn about their experiences regarding multicultural education.

Survey data was analyzed to compare the attitudes/skills of participants. On average, participants were more confident in their ability to work with adults and people with disability than they were in their ability …

Giving Silence A Voice: Exploring Religion, Spirituality, And Rap Music As A Medium For Mindfulness, Brian Thompson

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Mindfulness has become increasingly popular in the modern world as a way to find balance in one’s everyday life. A challenge affecting the growth of mindfulness as it continues to gain recognition is the relationship between mindfulness and traditional religious frameworks. Music is an important area of interest in this discussion as research has revealed changes in trends towards contemporary music in favor of classic songs and hymns as markers of personal truth, and the embodiment of celebration and significant events. Rap music has a deep cultural connection and has been used throughout history to depict the lives of the …

"Music And Memory": Is It Personalized Music Therapy Or Just 'Good Music'?, Tamara Adams

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This review of the literature focuses on the benefits of music and music therapy for persons diagnosed with dementia. A summary of the role of music therapy is given and compared to the Music & Memory program. The question is whether it is fair to call the latter music therapy when assessments are carried out by individuals not qualified in music therapy, but trained in the Music & Memory program. The consequence of the lack of knowledge of this distinction is inconsistent communication which misleads stakeholders about the role of music therapy in healthcare. In my experience through volunteering in …

Exploring Intersections Of Queer Artist Identities Through Music: A Community Engagement Project, Derrick Lacasse

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Members of the LGBTQ+ or Queer community are likely to experience minority stress throughout their lives (Borgogna et al., 2018). This community engagement project explored the intersections of identity among artists in the queer community to better understand how art can be used to heal from minority stress. An all-queer space was created to allow members of the queer community to feel relief from minority stress and speak without feeling judged. Through art making, sharing, discussions, and singing together members of the queer community were able to build resilience and deepen hope. Findings for this project indexed queer artists’ use …

Expressive Arts Therapy As A Supplemental Treatment For Schizophrenic Symptoms Through A Neurobiological Lens, Kayleigh Houlker

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature review seeks to investigate 3 modalities under the expressive therapies umbrella, music, art, and dance as possible interventions for reduction of intensity and frequency of symptoms of schizophrenia. By reviewing available literature on the effects schizophrenia has on the brain and comparing that to the available literature on these modalities as they have been studied neurologically, and any literature available on the intersection of these topics, this review attempts to make a case for the use of the arts as in addition to antipsychotic medication to alleviate schizophrenia symptoms. What was found is that music, art, and dance, …

Do The Expressive Arts Therapies Aid In Identity Formation And Authenticity In The Latina Community? A Community Engagement Project, Amanda Bravo

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Identity reflections lie at the core of empowerment and take place in a variety of settings. Unfortunately, many of these settings are tailored to serve the majority group, as well as the individual running the exploration, leaving “others” left out. So how do we transform the “others” from a state of questioning “Who am I?” to an empowered state of declaring “Who I am!”?

This project explored how the use of art, dance movement, narrative, and the uniting of a group of ones can promote identity explorations and empowerment of self and others so that the state of “Who I …

Dance Movement Therapy (D/Mt) And The Use Of Music For First Grade Students With A History Of Trauma At An Urban School, Ruinide Danger

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This paper describes a therapist intern’s work in creating a dance/movement therapy group with the use of music to help support students in an urban school. The therapist intern worked with a group of first grade students with a history of trauma who presented with behavioral issues with the classroom. The work consisted of three 30 minute sessions of dance/movement therapy group that implemented music as a tool to help support students in this setting. Based on the observations on the data collected, a theme of a sense of self began to emerge within the group. Insight on this project …

Effectiveness Of Dance Movement Therapy On The Quality Of Gait And Socialization Of Children With Cerebral Palsy, Ayşe Ni̇lgün Türkcan

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of dance movement therapy (DMT) on the quality of gait and socialization of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Participants (N=44) were randomly assigned to the intervention or the control group based on their diagnoses of hemiplegic (n=22) or diplegic (n=21) CP, with one misdiagnosed. The subjects, aged six to 12 (M = 8.4) diagnosed level I or II in the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), were from an outpatient rehabilitation center in Istanbul, Turkey. Measures of velocity, stride length and cadence were obtained by a registered physical therapist using …

Neural Activation On Guided Imagery And Music: A Functional Mri Study, Sang Eun Lee

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

Music and imagery have been used for working emotions such as awareness, arousal, enhancement, reflection and transformation of emotions in therapeutic relationship; these are crucial processes in music psychotherapy. To illuminate the empirical adequacy of concepts of theory in guided imagery and music (GIM) as one of music psychotherapeutic methods, the present study investigated the neural bases of arousal and emotional processing in response to recall and re-experience of personal negative emotional episodes via GIM and the efficacy of GIM for arousal and emotional processing via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. For this study, classical music and verbal stimuli …