scholarly journals Striking a Balance: Improving Practice as a Student Doing Group Music Therapy with Adults with Substance Abuse and Dependence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sharon Yearsley
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Music Therapy ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Clinical Notes ◽  
Client Group ◽  
Group Music Therapy ◽  
Musical Interactions ◽  
Learning Points

<p>An action research project was devised to help a music therapy student improve her practice in a group alcohol and drug treatment setting. The project initially focussed on improving practice by delivering more creative, sustained and holistic experiences. Four action cycles of one week each were carried out, each cycle comprising planning, action and reflection stages. Data sources were gathered in the form of clinical notes, a reflective journal and supervision notes from meetings and session de-briefs with counselling staff at the facility. The data was then woven into narrative accounts of each cycle, and key learning points for each cycle were identified. Cycles were also examined for common themes, and nine themes were identified. Findings show the student developing a deeper understanding of practice through the examination of structure and flexibility in facilitation style and musical interactions, and how and when to find balance between structure and freedom. Other key factors relevant to improving practice such as building confidence and working with the interdisciplinary team, are explored. Findings are discussed, along with ideas about the value of carrying out an Action Research project, and suggestions for future projects focussed on improving practice with this client group.</p>

scholarly journals Striking a Balance: Improving Practice as a Student Doing Group Music Therapy with Adults with Substance Abuse and Dependence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sharon Yearsley
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Music Therapy ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Clinical Notes ◽  
Client Group ◽  
Group Music Therapy ◽  
Musical Interactions ◽  
Learning Points

<p>An action research project was devised to help a music therapy student improve her practice in a group alcohol and drug treatment setting. The project initially focussed on improving practice by delivering more creative, sustained and holistic experiences. Four action cycles of one week each were carried out, each cycle comprising planning, action and reflection stages. Data sources were gathered in the form of clinical notes, a reflective journal and supervision notes from meetings and session de-briefs with counselling staff at the facility. The data was then woven into narrative accounts of each cycle, and key learning points for each cycle were identified. Cycles were also examined for common themes, and nine themes were identified. Findings show the student developing a deeper understanding of practice through the examination of structure and flexibility in facilitation style and musical interactions, and how and when to find balance between structure and freedom. Other key factors relevant to improving practice such as building confidence and working with the interdisciplinary team, are explored. Findings are discussed, along with ideas about the value of carrying out an Action Research project, and suggestions for future projects focussed on improving practice with this client group.</p>

The music matrix: A qualitative participatory action research project to develop documentation for care home music therapy services

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-85
Author(s):  
Stuart Wood ◽  
Fiona Crow
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Music Therapy ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Care Home ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Music Therapists ◽  
Client Participation ◽  
National Team

This article presents a small Participatory Action Research project involving music therapists working in a care home company, creating a documentation tool (The Music Matrix) that is fit for purpose. The project emerged out of a commonly held dissatisfaction with existing documentation among the Music Therapists in the care home company’s national team. The Music Matrix tool uses graphic notation to record observations of client participation, systematised into 10 dimensions of activity. The tool was developed in a cycle of practice and reflection between members of the music therapy team and stakeholders in the wider organisation. This was systematised in a three-stage trial process of profiling, peer review and thematic synthesis of feedback. Findings suggest that the tool was viewed to be useful in a number of aspects. First, it enabled insights for Music Therapists, in seeing patterns and recognising unacknowledged habits in their own practice. It helped show complex experience in an immediate graphic way. This was useful for reporting to stakeholders and was flexible in applying to numerous formats of practice. However, this flexibility also created a level of uncertainty for some research respondents, as the tool’s wide applicability does not have the appearance of objectivity afforded by other methods. Stakeholders saw applications beyond music therapy, particularly for non-musical care work and activities. Insights emerged regarding how Music Therapists can usefully meet the many demands that care documentation serves.

scholarly journals How We Talk when We Talk About Disabled Children and Their Families: An Invitation to Queer the Discourse

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maren Metell
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Music Therapy ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Community Music ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Attitudes Toward Diversity

Despite contemporary perspectives in resource-oriented music therapy, community music therapy, and anti-oppressive practice, there seems still to be a tendency to describe disabled children and their families in a pathologizing, problem-focused way. Disability is often located within the child and not in the societal structures that sustain and support the concept of disability as tragedy and burden for the families. Queer theories challenge the concepts of normality and fixed identities, reject pathologization, and politicize access. In this paper, I attempt to explore how queertheories offer a critical perspective on normativity, identity, and power. I will do this by exploring the concept of normality and normativity and discourse current representations of disabled children in the music therapy literature and by reflecting upon an ongoing participatory action research project where I aim to co-create knowledge on musicking, its accessibility, and meaning together with disabled children and their families. I argue that we need to change the way we talk and write about our practice as well as to challenge the concepts and attitudes toward diversity in order to contribute to inclusive environments that appreciate and celebrate diversity.

Exploring the Fourth Order

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barend KLITSIE ◽  
Rebecca PRICE ◽  
Christine DE LILLE
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Fourth Order ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Building Trust ◽  
Current Business

Companies are organised to fulfil two distinctive functions: efficient and resilient exploitation of current business and parallel exploration of new possibilities. For the latter, companies require strong organisational infrastructure such as team compositions and functional structures to ensure exploration remains effective. This paper explores the potential for designing organisational infrastructure to be part of fourth order subject matter. In particular, it explores how organisational infrastructure could be designed in the context of an exploratory unit, operating in a large heritage airline. This paper leverages insights from a long-term action research project and finds that building trust and shared frames are crucial to designing infrastructure that affords the greater explorative agenda of an organisation.

Wonder-inspired leadership: Cultivating ethical and phenomenon-led healthcare

2021 ◽  
pp. 096973302199079
Author(s):  
Finn Th Hansen ◽  
Lene Bastrup Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Ethical Leadership ◽  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
New Type ◽  
Danish Hospital ◽  
Sense Of Wonder

Three forms of leadership are frequently identified as prerequisites to the re-humanization of the healthcare system: ‘authentic leadership’, ‘mindful leadership’ and ‘ethical leadership’. In different ways and to varying extents, these approaches all focus on person- or human-centred caring. In a phenomenological action research project at a Danish hospital, the nurses experienced and then described how developing a conscious sense of wonder enhanced their ability to hear, to get in resonance with the existential in their meetings with patients and relatives, and to respond ethically. This ability was fostered through so-called Wonder Labs in which the notion of ‘phenomenon-led care’ evolved, which called for ‘slow thinking’ and ‘slow wondrous listening’. For the 10 nurses involved, it proved challenging to find the necessary serenity and space for this slow and wonder-based practice. This article critiques and examines, from a theoretical perspective, the kind of leadership that is needed to encourage this wonder-based approach to nursing, and it suggests a new type of leadership that is itself inspired by wonder and is guided by 10 tangible elements.

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