Portraits of Vocal Psychotherapists: Singing as a Healing Influence for Change and Transformation

The purpose of this study was to explore the personal singing and vocal journey of music therapists who are also trained as vocal psychotherapists with the Austin model of vocal psychotherapy. I was interested in learning how singing has been a healing influence for change and transformation in their lives. It is my hope that this research will offer music therapists new perspectives and information about how singing is important in healing for their own change and transformation, and for that of their clients. This research also may have implications for leaders of change as well as those who engage in vocal and singing groups, choirs and projects. Foundational literature relates to topics such as vocal improvisation, vocal psychotherapy, therapeutic singing lessons, sound healing, and singing for health and wellness, but no research exists that specifically explores the healing influence of singing as experienced by music/vocal psychotherapists nor the full spectrum of healing domains (energetic, emotional, physiological, etc.). I gathered data by recorded in-person or Skype interviews with five Canadian music/vocal psychotherapists, and analyzed the data from the interviews using portraiture. Five MP3 audio files are embedded within and are attached to the dissertation. A video recorded MP4 author introduction is included. The electronic version of this dissertation is at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/ and OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Portraits of Vocal Psychotherapists: Singing as a Healing Influence for Change and Transformation

The purpose of this study was to explore the personal singing and vocal journey of music therapists who are also trained as vocal psychotherapists with the Austin model of vocal psychotherapy. I was interested in learning how singing has been a healing influence for change and transformation in their lives. It is my hope that this research will offer music therapists new perspectives and information about how singing is important in healing for their own change and transformation, and for that of their clients. This research also may have implications for leaders of change as well as those who engage in vocal and singing groups, choirs and projects. Foundational literature relates to topics such as vocal improvisation, vocal psychotherapy, therapeutic singing lessons, sound healing, and singing for health and wellness, but no research exists that specifically explores the healing influence of singing as experienced by music/vocal psychotherapists nor the full spectrum of healing domains (energetic, emotional, physiological, etc.). I gathered data by recorded in-person or Skype interviews with five Canadian music/vocal psychotherapists, and analyzed the data from the interviews using portraiture. Five MP3 audio files are embedded within and are attached to the dissertation. A video recorded MP4 author introduction is included. The electronic version of this dissertation is at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/ and OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Enter Bugs Bunny: Matador and Star in Bully for Bugs [LA ALTERNATIVA DE BUGS BUNNY, MATADOR Y ESTRELLA EN “BULLY FOR BUGS” (CHUCK JONES, 1953)]

In Disney’s 1922 Laugh-O-Grams cartoon Puss in Boots, there’s a scene a third of the way through in which the protagonist (named simply ‘The Boy’), despondent at the King’s disapproval of him as a match for his daughter, is persuaded by his feline friend Puss to visit the local cinema. There, they watch a cartoon billed ‘RODOLPH VASELINO In THROWING THE BULL In Six Parts’, the title of which unmistakably alludes to Rudolph Valentino’s starring role in the silent version of Blood and Sand (1922). Here, the cartoonalising of Valentino as Vaselino and the young boy’s emulation of this star by becoming a masked matador who ends up having to rely on hypnotic help from Puss to defeat the bull comically deflates this actor’s privileged status as human star by re-presenting him within a form (animation) traditionally regarded as the poor relation to live action cinema. As such, this cartoon skit of Valentino in Blood and Sand illustrates animation’s penchant for ‘import[ing] […] nonanimated movie star trappings to re-perform the artifice of stardom’, using ‘parody and creative reperformances of “straight” stardom’

TURTLE CONSERVATION AND CITIZEN SCIENCE A WINNING COMBINATION FOR YOUR CLASSROOM

N o v e m b e r 2012 ccording to Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, "disconnection from nature…has enormous implications for human health and child development...Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and therefore, for learning and creativity" (2005). How can science teachers help their students learn the joy of the natural world? By helping them discover nature, engage with it, and be present in it in a safe and nurturing way. While the idea of implementing hands-on wildlife explorations makes many teachers nervous, this needn't be so; wildlife explorations can be manageable and fun

Policy Brief #1: Child Care Assets: What are 14 Key Assets of Child Care Providers that Support Quality?

In 2000, university researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Iowa State University, University of Kansas and the University of Missouri and state child care and early education program partners in four states (Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska) initiated the Midwest Child Care Research Consortium (MCCRC). The focus of the Consortium’s work is to conduct a multiyear study on a range of issues associated with child care quality and conditions. Across the four states, a stratified random selection of 2,022 child care providers participated in a telephone survey conducted by the Gallup Organization, representing licensed child care centers, licensed family child care homes, registered child care homes, and subsidized care license exempt family and (in one state) license exempt center care. Providers responded to questions about background and practices often associated with quality. Of the providers responding to the phone survey, 365 were randomly selected for in-depth observations to assess quality, using conventional measures of child care quality (see back of this brief). This report shows the relation between observed quality and many provider characteristics and professional improvement efforts