Stealing Sacraments: What Protestant Educators Can Learn from Other Religious Traditions

This somewhat provocative article is not a treatise on theological doctrine and interfaith dialogue, but addresses how adherents of various faith traditions practice their faith in ways that can enhance their witness in the world and from which Protestants should learn. The author calls these faith-building religious practices sacraments. He proposes that Protestant educators – whether in faith-based or in public schools which teach religion classes in their curriculum – would be wise to adapt the most effective means of nurturing faith in subscribers to other religious traditions; these means should be incorporated as a supplement to those practices most-commonly attempted in our instruction in religion or in other educational ministries. Examinations of three other-than-Protestant faith traditions – Mormon, Judaism, and Islam – are considered, and a case is made for a particular educational aspect of each to be rebaptized into the educational ministries of schools and/or churches

Exploring Kinesthethic Empathy in the Medical Setting: A Heuristic Inquiry

The purpose of this heuristic inquiry was to understand how I used kinesthetic empathy while working with children hospitalized on the general pediatric unit and pediatric intensive care unit. I was also interested in exploring whether aspects of kinesthetic empathy might be useful for child life specialists in relationship building. Data were collected using journal entries that depicted my use of kinesthetic empathy after 15 individual dance/movement therapy sessions. The data were analyzed using Forinash’s qualitative data analysis approach. The findings demonstrated that I engaged in kinesthetic empathy by being present, self-referencing, embodying, and using touch. The findings were shared with child life specialists of a similar population to determine if any aspects of kinesthetic empathy were applicable to their work. The child life specialists resonated with the themes of embodying and sensations. This research informed my understanding of my own ways of practicing kinesthetic empathy as an emerging dance/movement therapist in the medical setting. Exploring the use of kinesthetic empathy in the child life profession elicited further inquiry into the collaborative work of creative arts therapists and child life specialists. 64 pages

Body and the senses in spatial experience: the implications of kinesthetic and synesthetic perceptions for design thinking

Human perception has long been a critical subject of design thinking. While various studies have stressed the link between thinking and acting, particularly in spatial experience, the term "design thinking" seems to disconnect conceptual thinking from physical expression or process. Spatial perception is multimodal and fundamentally bound to the body that is not a mere receptor of sensory stimuli but an active agent engaged with the perceivable environment. The body apprehends the experience in which one's kinesthetic engagement and knowledge play an essential role. Although design disciplines have integrated the abstract, metaphoric, and visual aspects of the body and its movement into conceptual thinking, studies have pointed out that design disciplines have emphasized visuality above the other sensory domains and heavily engaged with the perception of visual configurations, relying on the Gestalt principles. Gestalt psychology must be valued for its attention to a whole. However, the theories of design elements and principles over-empathizing such visuality posit the aesthetics of design mainly as visual value and understate other sensorial and perceptual aspects. Although the visual approach may provide a practical means to represent and communicate ideas, a design process heavily driven by visuality can exhibit weaknesses undermining certain aspects of spatial experience despite the complexity. Grounded in Merleau-Ponty's notion of multisensory perception, this article discusses the relationship between body awareness and spatial perception and its implication for design disciplines concerning built environments. Special attention is given to the concepts of kinesthetic and synesthetic phenomena known as multisensory and cross-sensory, respectively. This discussion integrates the corporeal and spatiotemporal realms of human experience into the discourse of kinesthetic and synesthetic perceptions. Based on the conceptual, theoretical, and precedent analyses, this article proposes three models for design thinking: Synesthetic Translation, Kinesthetic Resonance, and Kinesthetic Engagement. To discuss the concepts rooted in action-based perception and embodied cognition, this study borrows the neurological interpretation of haptic perception, interoception, and proprioception of space. This article suggests how consideration of the kinesthetic or synesthetic body can deepen and challenge the existing models of the perceptual aspects of environmental psychology adopted in design disciplines.Includes bibliographical references

A Journey Through the Embodiment of Aggression

The purpose of this research study was to understand what I could learn from my body as I experienced movements based on the observation of children’s aggression. There were several research questions that guided this study: how could the embodiment of aggression prepare me in my journey of becoming a dance/movement therapist? What would develop for me on a body level when I embodied movement qualities I associated with aggression? How could I gain a greater sense of empathy for my patients who act out aggressively? And are there recuperative or preventative measures I could help my patients take, based on my learned body knowledge? The methodology was artistic inquiry, which guided the study and supported my creative process. The research was focused on myself and I modeled my embodiment of aggression after the behavior of patients age 3-12 in a behavioral health hospital. The data was collected using video and journaling, and was analyzed through movement exploration, dance making, and creative synthesis. Embodiment provided an opportunity for a deeper understanding into the children’s impulsive behavior and difficulty with recuperation. Concluding the research, I found based on the embodiment of movement qualities associated with childhood aggression, and my subsequent empathy for these children, I was able to develop new insights regarding intervention in order to help this particular population. In addition, I found my body’s ability to regulate while experiencing the aggressive movements contributed to my ability to regulate while witnessing these movements. I feel these insights are transferrable to other populations dealing with aggression or experiencing crisis, which will contribute to my development as a dance/movement therapist. The project culminated in a dance performance of the experience and conveyed the results of the research

The Essence of Contact Improvisation in Dance/Movement Therapy

Reading the book Caught Falling (Koteen and Smith, 2008) led me to explore and reflect on the relationship between touch and movement in Contact Improvisation. This thesis also integrates and examines Body-Mind Centering research (Cohen, 1993) in relation to Caught Falling in order to fully understand how touch and movement offer psychotherapeutic benefits. Although different from Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT), Contact Improvisation has elements that are relevant to DMT practice. These include connection, attunement and development. Case examples are introduced to highlight the benefits of attuned movement for connection and transformation

Considering a Voice of the Body for Adult Transformative Learning Theory

Unknowingly, much of the population of the Western World are thinking machines who live and learn isolated from somatic experiences. They distrust their bodies in the learning process and are stuck living out unquestioned realities of embodied socioculturalism and rationalism which guide decision making, learning and ways of being. Considering a voice of the body involved delving into the physical dimension of somatic transformative learning from the bodily-lived experiences of seven women who were in a first-level experiential Nia® dancing and movement training program. Together, these women offered a voice of the body offering that phases of transformative learning was moving through processes of being stuck, self-allowing, coming to awareness and being connected within the context of learning by experience. Transformative learning processes were (re)living and trying-on felt-meanings of the lifeworld mirrored within personal experiencing spaces and the social experiencing space of the training. Engaging the human body in transformative learning was learning by experiencing the body as a site of knowing and learning, capable of generating dilemmas, breakthroughs, and shifting perspectives. Accessing somatic knowledge were other ways of knowing about unconscious habits and meaning-making, offering a somatic perspective for a more inclusive theory of adult transformative learning

An Embodied Artistic Inquiry on Self-Compassion: Awakening the Warrior Goddess Within

The purpose of this self-study was to engage in an in-depth embodied artistic inquiry of my experience of self-compassion. My research questions were: How can self-compassion support my work as a dance/movement therapist? How does my body inform and communicate my experience of self-compassion? How do I experience self-compassion? Data was collected through video recorded dance/movement and creative journaling, by responding to moments of suffering with self-compassion. Data was analyzed concurrently through dialogue transcript and was further analyzed at the end of data collection using creative synthesis. 87 pages

Bringing the Body Into Art Therapy: The Use of Touch and Body Awareness in Creative Healing

The focus on the use of healing touch and body awareness in art therapy is critically lacking. Despite the research supporting the use of body-oriented techniques in clinical therapy, there is little research related to this use specifically in art therapy. Research reveals that healing touch and body awareness can be instrumental in healing trauma, if done with the proper training and boundaries in place. The first form of attachment and comfort for children is that of touch. Therefore, it is imperative to acknowledge the power of touch and body awareness when healing from traumatic experiences. The purpose of this literature review is to explore some of the reasons as to why this disconnect exists in westernized art therapy, and to begin to build a bridge between psyche and soma in the clinical art therapy setting. Through multiple avenues of literature, the use of touch and body awareness to inform art therapy treatment was found to be highly effective at engaging with suppressed traumatic experiences and in supporting the healing from said experiences. This literature review aims to present relevant research on the history of touch and body awareness, the neurobiology of trauma and trauma healing, additional bodyoriented techniques, the body-based aspects of art therapy, and specific body-focused art therapy directives

Clay: Qualities, Benefits, and Therapeutic Applications A Literature Review

Clay is ubiquitous. It is uniquely durable and plastic. It is a substance sourced from the earth that has been manipulated in numerous ways and used for a variety of purposes for thousands of years. Despite this, art therapy research is heavily focused on art making using two-dimensional materials. Research is lacking regarding the use of clay as a medium in art therapy. This literature review revealed many therapeutic benefits and qualities about clay. These qualities include increasing mood in psychiatric patients, increasing progress in self-development for patients with schizophrenia, increasing self-expression with older adults, and healing from trauma. This literature review intends to present relevant research on the unique characteristics of clay as a material used throughout history, the sensory processing of clay and the various ways clay can be used throughout art therapy as an effective treatment tool

Corseto: A Kinesthetic Garment for Designing, Composing for, and Experiencing an Intersubjective Haptic Voice

We present a novel intercorporeal experience - an intersubjective haptic voice. Through an autobiographical design inquiry, based on singing techniques from the classical opera tradition, we created Corsetto, a kinesthetic garment for transferring somatic reminiscents of vocal experience from an expert singer to a listener. We then composed haptic gestures enacted in the Corsetto, emulating upper-body movements of the live singer performing a piece by Morton Feldman named Three Voices. The gestures in the Corsetto added a haptics-based \u27fourth voice\u27 to the immersive opera performance. Finally, we invited audiences who were asked to wear Corsetto during live performances. Afterwards they engaged in micro-phenomenological interviews. The analysis revealed how the Corsetto managed to bridge inner and outer bodily sensations, creating a feeling of a shared intercorporeal experience, dissolving boundaries between listener, singer and performance. We propose that \u27intersubjective haptics\u27 can be a generative medium not only for singing performances, but other possible intersubjective experiences