HUM 6930 – The Art of Self-Care

In this next to last week of our course, we are asked to consider how our self-care program supports our professional practice well being and our professional longevity. Carter & Barnett (2014) recognize we are all told to work hard in order to achieve success; however, they also subscribe to the notion that working hard to the exclusion or neglect of other important aspects of our life can actually paradoxically result in less success in our career.

An important part of my self-care program is expressing gratitude. When we look at the Wheel of Wellness, every area is affected by the expression of gratitude. Much of my work is done with senior citizens. I am grateful for the opportunity to spend time with them, to acknowledge them and hopefully to inspire them. Working with them helps me improve my feelings in terms of purpose, spirituality, personal growth, relationships and creativity. While this work can be challenging, it is also so rewarding in that I have come to care for my participants and I am also given a window into what it is like to be an older adult. Butler (“Social Worker Self-Care — The Overlooked Core Competency,” n.d.) stresses the importance of not waiting to cultivate mindfulness. I think the insight gained by working with senior adults will help me in my self-care in the long run in that I will have learned so much about the senior health experience and challenges that this will help alert me to my own issues early on because I will be more aware.

Each week I need to bring something new to the workshops that are held for my seniors, so this keeps me searching for new techniques and supplies, and I often must create an example so that puts me in the studio participating in creative endeavors. Because a large part of my self-care plan is to make sure I have more creative time, it seems that my work enables that and that my creative time supports my work. I can’t imagine a time when I would not be doing something creative on a regular basis and I am finding that I am having more creative time lately than ever before. Morriss-Kay (2010) says that creating visual art is one of the defining characteristics of the human species. I think this is very true because making art makes me feel human. The more time I spend practicing my art, the happier I am, and this overflows into other areas of my life. I find that my mental attitude is better on days that I have done something creative.

My objective of getting more exercise will certainly sustain my professional practice and longevity in that I will be stronger and able to stand on my feet as required in my work. I also think the extra exercise will help me sleep better, which in turn will make me more resilient for my days. That is a definite plus because it takes a lot of energy to keep up with those seniors!

Making more time for my family, especially my spouse will provide me with the love and support I need. Having this support will help me persevere when things get tough. The support and encouragement will remind me of all that I have accomplished and help quiet the negative voices on those days when I feel like I am not doing enough.

And creating an environment that is comfortable, clean, safe and happy will provide me with a “welcome home” at the end of the day; a place that I can go to and escape the outside cares of the day. My studio is already such a place and any time spent there fills me with happiness.

I think all of these activities enhance my creative practice because they nourish me and make me feel like everything is going to be okay. Doing these activities also make me feel that I have control over my life and that eliminates a lot of stress. Having less stress makes me feel more like getting in the studio, playing with my things and letting go of needing to be perfect. This is when the really good stuff happens and this is when I am most creative.

Carter, Leigh A., & Barnett, Jeffery E. (2014). Self-Care for Clinicians in Training. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=613582

Morriss-Kay, G. M. (2010). The evolution of human artistic creativity. Journal of Anatomy, 216(2), 158–176. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2009.01160.x

Social Worker Self-Care — The Overlooked Core Competency. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2016, from http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051214p14.shtml

HUM 6930 – The Art of Self Care

Making Progress

This week we are asked to continue to populate our template for self care. We are further asked to contemplate the following:

• What am I going to do?
• Spend more quality time with family and friends, especially with my spouse and granddaughter.
• Spend more time pursuing my creative activities
• Get my spending under control
• Get more exercise and lose a few pounds
• Develop a stronger spiritual practice
• Create a well loved, comfortable home environment
• When am I going to do it?
• All of the above will be worked on daily
• What can prevent me from doing it?
• Family and friends may be busy when I am free
• The muse is absent when I want to be creative
• Some times I spend more than I make
• The weather could prevent me from walking
• Interruptions
• Expense of repairs, resistance of spouse to plans
• How will I try and ensure I carry out my plan?
• Set dates ahead of time so that we are on each others calendars in advance
• Just do it! Even if only in 5 minute sketches or collages
• Ask myself do I really need this or can it wait until later so that I can save the money to buy it without using credit card
• Go to mall to walk or to the gym
• Remember to write in my gratitude journal and read inspiring literature daily. This will keep me from backsliding and make me thirsty for more
• Ignore the resistance, plan and save for the expense by putting it in my monthly budget

 Below is my week:

We were also asked to discuss:

• What worked?
• From my perspective this was a very good week. I felt extremely happy all week and felt like I accomplished many things in terms of my Wheel of Wellness and self-care.
• What did I enjoy?
• Creative time was wonderful. My husband was at work most days this week and this allowed me to spend as much time as I wanted in the studio. I really liked being in my space playing with my things. I also really loved spending the afternoon with my granddaughter. And I loved going out with my husband, we haven't been out to dinner in a while so this was a nice diversion.
• Is it sustainable?
• I really think this is sustainable because it is something I want to do. It is making me happy and I like how that feels.
• What else do I need?
• Make a better habit of exercise. This really seems to be the most difficult thing for me. It is just so darned hot to get outside and the gym is boring to me. I would much rather go hiking, walk along the beach or do yard work but can't take the heat anymore.
• How will I manage unforeseen circumstance? 
• Improvise of course! Part of taking care of your self is learning to be flexible and accepting less than perfection. The object is to feel well and balanced, not create more stress. So when things don't go as planned, I will just need to adjust to what is and take it from there.

HUM 6930 – The Art of Self Care

Working on Balance

As we make the turn towards completing the course, we have begun to populate our self-care template. As posted last week, I chose to utilize an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my self-care activities. I am still undecided about using this format as it feels like work rather than a ritual practice that I would look forward to on a daily or even weekly basis. Bloom (2001) shares a checklist that looks suspiciously like an Excel spreadsheet in which he populates the header with activities and then provides a key of various symbols to document whether the activity was performed or not as well as to what degree of success. I also like his twelve week program suggestions, especially the one about placing an image of a person, place or activity that I enjoy on my bathroom mirror as well as in locations at work where I would see it regularly. For many years, I had a practice of posting affirmations on my bathroom mirror and kept a deck of 3" x 5" cards with affirmations in my purse so that I could read them when I was having a bad day. I still have those cards and come across them every now and then and it makes me pause and realize just how much they helped me during the troubled times in my past marriage.

This week I bought a little picture frame to put on my desk at work. I should have bought two so that I could put both a picture of my granddaughter with her parents and of my husband – the people who bring me the most joy in my life. And now that I am writing this, I need three so that I can also put a beautiful photo of the Caribbean, the place that makes my heart sing.

Below is the beginnings of my self-care activity documentation. It was a busy but very satisfying week. I was able to spend time with my son and his precious family, visit with friends and support my husband at a work event. We had a very successful launch at work and our CNO is receiving all kinds of praise for the program. I love being a part of that good work and being able to share it with others. As a result of that launch, I walked a lot more than normal. One day I actually went over 5,000 steps! I wish I did that everyday.

But the best part of the week for me was that I made it into the studio every day and completed one of my best works yet. It is also posted below. I am so proud of it and of myself for getting in there and making it happen and getting it done two days before the show entry deadline. Normally, I am stressed out to the max and frantically trying to upload the image at the last minute, which never results in really great work. I am hoping this new habit will continue and that I will safeguard this dedicated time in my studio. This activity makes me feel whole and calms my busy mind and as my husband says, I "go somewhere else". I am going to practice Richardson's (2009) practice of saying no to the things that are not in my best interest when saying no is what is right for me. I also like her idea of creating a soul-loving space. My studio is close to that, but still needs some work so that I can be more organized and have only those supplies that will serve my creativity. Right now it is overflowing with stuff that I may never use or bought and didn't really like as well as I thought I would. It is such a great space, that my loving husband had built for me, that I really love being in there, so getting it organized needs to be a priority. And I think doing so will only help my creative juices get going strong.

So here are the spreadsheet and my painting.

 

The Wild Hawk to the Windswept Sky

Bloom, W. (2001). The Endorphin Effect. London: Piatkus.

Richardson, C. (2012). The Art of Extreme Self-Care. Carlsbard, CA: Hay House.

HUM 6930 - The Art of Self Care

Creating a Platform for My Self Care

At the halfway point of our semester, we are asked to review our WOW exercises to date and identify the segments that seem particularly important to us and our individual self care needs.

We were tasked with designing a shell structure to present our self care program, which made several of us ask what exactly does that mean? Basically, we were informed that it can take the form of an Excel document, a table in Word or even a calendar entry as a place to record those activities we will utilize as self-care. So with that in mind, I set out to create an Excel document to hold my self care activities.

I am not sure that I like it as I am wondering how I will make it visible to me on a regular basis. I looked at creating it in my Outlook Calendar, but that didn't feel right either. I no longer use a paper calendar which would have been easy to keep up with. I am thinking that as we go along, I may alter the actual container to something that will be more inspirational and therefore more likely to get used.

What I like about the Excel version is that I am able to see the entire year at a glance. That is to say, I can see each day of the week for each month, every quarter and every year. Plus, I added a 5-year column as there are self-care needs that must be met at that time. 

It is really easy for me to forget to do things so I am still seriously considering setting up something in my Outlook calendar as a reminder but I don't want it to become another chore. 

I put in the things that I already know I will do for the upcoming year as they are the things I regularly do as self-care. I'd like to make a lot more room for journal writing and art-making and will most likely set that up as a regular event. The challenge is not in doing it, but in putting it first so that it happens instead of being last on my list of things to do. 

In addition, I know that there will be activities to enhance my relationship with my family, especially time spent with my granddaughter! And I need to plan a trip to see my parents as it has been at least 2 years since I have seen them. Same goes for my siblings, we are all scattered about and rarely are together all at once. 

Here is what I have put together so far.

HUM 6930 The Art of Self Care

Art Timeline

 

 

HUM 6930

Wheel of Wellness

Career 

 

Orem's theory of self-care concerns the practice of those activities an individual does on their own behalf to maintain their life, health and personal well being. This week we look at career and how it affects our ability to perform self-care for ourselves. As arts in medicine practitioners, students, wives, mothers, and grandmothers, we are often in danger of taking on more than we should and doing for others that we are at the risk of forgetting to apply our own self-care.

Fortunately for me, I have a built in system that tells me when I am on overload. By built in, I mean that I am old enough to recognize symptoms of doing too much, not eating well, not getting enough sleep and so on. When I start to notice my skin breaking out, my body feeling tired and achy, pounds adding on, or my temperament on edge, I know I must pull back and get back on track to wellness. 

Forty years in the demanding, deadline oriented advertising industry, raising a family, moving 18 times in 20 years, volunteering for my art groups and my child's scouting troup nearly burned me out. After my divorce from my second husband 15 years ago,  I restarted my life and really try hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating well, getting regular medical care, getting some exercise, going to bed at a reasonable hour and being with people that are loving and supporting. 

Since 1998, I have been at a career level that allowed me to have 6 weeks of vacation a year ( 4 weeks vacation, 18 days of sick leave and all holidays). Until I remarried in 2004, most of those days were either taken in pay as we needed the income more than the time off. Or so I thought. After the divorce I went into counseling because I knew I needed help on many levels. Not only did this help me get to a good place, it also taught me that putting myself first was okay and that I deserved and needed to take time off to do nothing if that was my choice.

People think my now husband and I are crazy for taking a minimum of 4 cruises a year, but I can tell you that it totally replenishes the well for us. We spread it out over the year so that it is once a quarter. We come back refreshed, recharged and ready for action. It's great to turn off the phones, TV and computers and just be. We will continue this respite for as long as we can as it brings us closer together and brings joy to our lives every time.

HUM 6930 – The Art of Self Care

Career Path Timeline

This week we were asked to create a timeline of our career path and observe what has or hasn't been addressed through our lifetime career lifeline? Looking back on mine both made me feel tired and accomplished. Tired because I have been working a very long time and because there were so many different jobs due to my various marital situations that would cause me to have to re-invent myself frequently. Yet, each job change led me to a better job, new skills and more confidence in myself and what I could do in life.

Accomplished because in spite of all that, I have had a very successful career journey. I've completed both my associates and bachelors degrees and if all goes as planned will graduate at age 63 with my Masters of Arts in Medicine. I can't say that there is anything that needs to be addressed at this point in my career except for deciding how much longer I will work. And that I really can not answer because I love what I am doing now more than any other job I've ever had. If anything, additional training in working with the senior population may be in the mix, but other than that I feel I have done what I set out to do career wise.

Below is my timeline. Make sure you are comfortable because it is long. I started working summers when I was 12 and have not been without work ever since.

HUM 6930 – The Art of Self Care

The beautiful papers are from paper I hand painted and had stored with my collage materials. When I found the barn image,
I was inspired to used these as they perfectly complemented the image. The little flower was also among my materials
and reminded me of many adventures and collecting flowers for my grandmothers.

Me at my great grandpa's farm.

Week 2

Malchiodi (1998) in her book points out that all children, unless severely handicapped, are prone to create a series of lines from approximately 18 months and that they generally go through six different phases of development. From my personal experience, it seems that we are naturally disposed to be creative. Every child I have ever been around creates art, music and stories from early on in their life. It is not until they reach the teen years, a time Malchiodi (1998) calls the period of decision, that this creative imagination begins to fade. Some will continue their creative endeavors while others for whatever reason will stop, yet all will still appreciate the creative work of others throughout their life.

We were also asked to continue to work on our Wheel of Wellness by first looking at it as a whole, then pulling out a section and defining what goes into that section. Because we have been working diligently to create a home environment that we are happy with, I selected environment for this week.

We recently added a third bedroom, which is now my studio, because we had tried to sell our home and could not due to it being only two bedrooms. I moved out of my studio in a warehouse repurposed for artists studios and still have so much that needs to be dealt with taking up space in our garage. Being a mixed media artist, I have collected far too many things that "could become art". I worked on getting the things closest to the entry into our home sorted out and placed away from the door to make our coming and going more safe.

When grocery shopping this week I was attracted to the beautiful display of fresh cut flowers. Normally, I would say how pretty but pass up as it is not a necessary expense. This week I said, "Why not? Don't you deserve something beautiful to look at?" and proceeded to pick out some very lovely flowers for our dining room table. It is so nice to look there and see this splash of color and the natural world in my home that I think I will splurge a little more often.

That got me to thinking about my front entry which had giant flower pots sitting empty because winter had destroyed what was there previously. So off I went to Lowe's to pick out something more hardy to plant there. I must say it is a welcome improvement and it looks like someone lives here now. It was very satisfying to look at my work when finished and I am inspired to try some other gardening around the home.

 

Of course the weekend means housekeeping time and this weekend was no exception. With 3 dogs there is constant clean up! This weekend, all 3 received baths and all their bedding was washed. It certainly made the house smell better. 

We bought light bulbs and additional lamps for both indoors and out, too. A pretty lamp for our foyer and some spotlights to put out in the yard so I can see where the dogs go at night when I let them out to do their business. Hoping that will also deter the cats from entering the yard because it drives the dogs crazy and I can not get them to come back inside if they get a whiff of cat scent in the yard.

 And last, but not least, we created an environment for relaxation this weekend by filling the crockpot for meals without lots of work, ordered movies and sat back with a glass of wine and enjoyed just being together. We always try to make sure we have dedicated us time each week because we are both very busy. This weekend we were able to download our luggage tags for our upcoming cruise, which always gets us excited because we will get to shut off the computers and phones and really be focused on our relationship without the distractions of work and life.


Dissanayake, E. (1990). What is Art For? University of Washington Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=9hcvuQYWQ5UC

Malchiodi, C. A. (1998). Understanding children's drawings. Guilford Press.

Morriss-Kay, G. M. (2010). The evolution of human artistic creativity. Journal of Anatomy, 216(2), 158–176. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2009.01160.x

 

HUM 6930 – The Art of Self Care

Week 1

This week we were asked to identify principle models of ‘Wellness’ and their origins from our assigned reading. We were also given the opportunity to take the Warwick and Edinburgh Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) test. I am pleased to that that my WEMWBS score is 65. I knew I was happy before taking the test but did not realize just how happy I actually am.

You see, my life has not always been happy, but 15 years ago I decided it was time for me to take steps that would change my life for the better. This weekend while searching for an empty journal, I found the many journals filled with entries from a woman who was trapped in a loveless marriage due to her spouse's drug and alcohol addiction as well as mental and physical abuse. A woman who had spent 21 years trying to love him and pretend he did not have this terrible problem. A woman who had moved 18 times because he couldn't keep a job, which meant she was always starting over. She had been divorced once already basically for the same reason and she wondered what was wrong with her that she kept choosing this kind of relationship. Now she had a child with this second husband and did not want to raise him alone. Plus she absolutely adored this man's parents. But by 2001, both had passed and the child had left home and she was finally able to say enough is enough and let the marriage go. It was the best thing she had ever done for herself.

Re-reading some of those entries made me realize how wonderful my life is today. I couldn't ask for a better marriage than I now have. We just celebrated 12 very happy years of marriage. With his support, my artwork has flourished, I finished my Bachelor's degree and am now nearly through my Master's program. He has had his health issues lately, but we are closer than ever because we can communicate well and can count on one another to always be there for each other. Because I take that giant leap of faith, I have been able to stay put in a city I love for nearly 18 years now. I have wonderful friends, a job I love deeply and feel more secure than I have ever felt.

One may wonder why I would share such things about myself. Secrets that were kept for years. Living with those secrets is so hard for fear someone would find out is exactly what keeps women in situations they should flee. And no one who hasn't been through it could ever understand why you would stay for so long. I get it and one day plan to write a story about the journey in hopes that my story may change the life of someone else. That it might just give another woman the courage to begin again.

And of course, becoming a grandmother for the first time just 5 short weeks ago brings such joy to my life that I can't even begin to explain it. Watching my son with his little daughter just makes my heart feel so big. And it has brought us, his wife and her parents closer together.

Life is good.

I'm going to be keeping an art journal this semester and may or may not always share what I have written or created here. I don't have any way of knowing what will surface as we go through the lessons. And just like therapy some things must stay in confidence.

This week's creations are posted here along with the first of my wheels of wellness. I'm feeling pretty good about most areas of my wellness wheel but none are a "perfect 10". The area I need to work on the most is my physical health. After taking a fall and re-damaging an already torn rotator cuff, I realize that I need to be more careful and that my arm is weaker than it should be. Making time to exercise need's to become a priority. It used to be my escape and I would work out every day, sometimes twice a day when I worked at a location that had an onsite gym. I was in great shape then and would like to get there again. I have also become interested in meditation again. I tried it when I was much, much younger but couldn't quiet my mind long enough to get the hang of it. I did learn to practice Yoga, which I loved and think that would be a great exercise for me to begin again.

We are working on our home environment to make it more comfortable for us. My husband has serious chronic pain from 2 failed back surgeries along with neuropathy in his toes. So we are adding things like thick carpeting with extra thick padding over top of our terra cotta tile floors and better lighting throughout the house. Plus, last winter destroyed a lot of our plants and I just never replaced them so I am working on that, too.

Then there is the looming presence of my student loan which will need repayment beginning January 2017 as I will graduate at the end of December. The plan I had to repay it has hit a snag due to the lovely economic downturn and super low interest rates. But I know I will figure it out. I managed to get myself out of $60,000 of debt I was left with from my previous marriage, so the $12,000 in student loans will be a piece of cake compared to that.

Finally, here are my 2 art journal creations. I love collage and just playing with color so had a really good time creating these pages. The first is about being happy and feeling well. The second is about my inner child.

I found this Shakespeare quote written in one of my old journals while searching for an empty one and found that it really resonated with me today. I've been thinking a lot about spending more time in nature and have really been enjoying the nice weather the last couple of weeks. Before my husband's back issues we loved to go boating and spent a great deal of time out on the water. I do miss that, but at least I still get to live on the river and enjoy the view along with all the egrets, herons, geese, ducks and the occasional dolphin or manatee. We've had 2 little Carolina Wrens building a nest and it has been a delight to watch them flit too and fro with all kinds of things to add to their nest.

I've learned that I can choose to be happy or well or I can also choose to be unhappy and therefore unwell. I will always lean towards happiness and wellness. It is my natural state and that is where I always want to be.

The Kellogg Foundation’s Strategic Communications guidebook points out that communications have the ability to:

• Show the importance, urgency, or magnitude of the issue
• Show the relevance of the issue
• Put a “face” on the issue
• Be tied to specific audience values, beliefs, or interests of the audience
• Reflect an understanding of what would motivate the audience to think, feel, or act
• Be culturally relevant and sensitive
• Be Memorable (“Template for Strategic Communications Plan,” n.d.).

Melcrum, a best practice insight and technology company whose purpose is to transform Internal Communication into the driver of employee, team and business success, suggests that questions like “Where to start?”, “What does it take?”, “How do I drive the process? And, “How will I measure success?” are common and give strategic communication planning a reputation for complexity and challenge that often far exceeds reality (“Communication Strategy,” 2012).

Over my 40 year career in marketing and advertising has taught me that all of these are critical to any business or products success. This final week's creative practice asked us to create using the theme(s) of Program Implementation: Boots on the Ground & the Bird's Eye View; Advocacy and Visibility. Again, going back to my previous career, my process was to first look at the program or product from a high level view (as if a bird flying overhead), then begin to really look into all the details, even to the point of having to get deep into the muck to suss out the essence of what made that item so special that it would compel someone to purchase it or participate in it if it were a program. Without this critical piece, any amount of advertising, marketing and PR would achieve less than hoped for results.


Communication Strategy: 9 steps to effective strategic planning. (2012, December 18). Retrieved April 13, 2016, from https://www.melcrum.com/research/strategy-planning-tactics/9-steps-effective-strategic-planning

Template for Strategic Communications Plan. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2016, from https://www.wkkf.org:443/resource-directory/resource/2006/01/template-for-strategic-communications-plan

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed — and gazed — but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude.

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

—William Wordsworth

Activity — Prompts for Reflection

What does the poem mean to you?

            The person was feeling alone when out walking, almost in despair when he came upon a spectacular site that caused him to be filled with joy and made him realize he was not alone at all.

Who is the speaker of the poem?

The poet himself

What circumstances gave rise to the poem?

The great feeling of joy that was felt upon viewing the daffodils and the fact that the author can close his eyes while on his couch and be reminded of the beautiful site which again fills his heart with joy.

What situation is presented?

            The situation of walking alone, as if just floating along, not paying attention and discovering something so incredibly beautiful that it becomes so ingrained in the viewers mind so that it is easily recalled and thus able to immediately bring joy to the heart over and over again.

What is the tone or mood of the poem?

The mood seems melancholy at first but then becomes joyful after the site of the daffodils.

Does the poem have a rhyme scheme?

It seems to have some rhyme but not in a sing-song way. For example, the last word in the first and third sentence in each stanza rhyme. And the last word in the second and last sentence rhyme. This continues throughout the poem.

What tense(s) does the narrator employ?

First tense

How does the poem make use of setting?

Through the description the author paints a picture of the scene.

Does the poem use imagery to achieve a particular effect?

Absolutely! The author describes how he is walking using the metaphor of floating clouds. He speaks of being alone when suddenly finding himself in a crowd, using crowd to describe the large volume of daffodils he has come upon. He describes them as out-doing the sparkling waves beside them. This description allows the reader to visualize the beauty of the span of daffodils.

In fact, while reading this, my mind wandered to visions of walking along the water and seeing this field of daffodils dancing so beautifully that their glory overshadowed the beauty of the sunlight glistening on the water. Wadsworth so elegantly crafted this poem that even a less than average reader could find himself imagining the scene.

Scope of Practice This is totally out of my scope of practice. While I love poetry and read it frequently, I would not have known to ask these questions about the poem. There were many more but I did not even know how to begin to answer them because I did not understand what the terminology was. I am sure I learned it somewhere back in high school but that was a very long time ago and has since been forgotten. Yet the love for the beauty of poetry and its ability to paint a picture for us with select and precise wording continues to exist and always will.

Poetry is a great way to open a workshop or close it and I will frequently read a short one that might be relevant to the group. But I would not be comfortable using it to analyze someone’s thoughts and feelings. And while I could teach someone to write a Haiku or 6-word memory, I could not teach them how to write an effective full-length poem.

 Freis,T. Poetry therapy seminar guide. Retrieved from http://toddharrisfries.weebly.com/uploads
             /5/1/9/9/5199097/poetry_therapy_seminar.pdf

“Mad Libs a-la Music” : Good for All ages – kids through adults

– Age: 6-12 =/-

-Goal Area: language arts

-Good activity for parents and teachers of special needs kids .

-Objective: Kids will provide nouns, verbs, colors, numbers, and more upon therapist request.

-Materials: Familiar song with key words removed. (Write down the part of speech you will request for each deleted word. This really helps.)

-Method: Ask the students a variety to “wh” questions and for parts of speech, incorporate into song.

-Adaptations: We all know how we used to play this game.  Tell the kids to keep it “clean!”

-Submitted by:  Margie@musictherapytunes.com

Lyrics and Chords: Of your choice. Here’s a mundane example. Also works well with holiday songs, pop songs, any group appropriate choice.

                                Try it with a song that the kids know already.

 

Oh, Susanna!

I came from ___________         with a ____________on my knee.

                    (a restaurant)                       (fav. instrument)

I’m going to _____________.                   My ____________for to see.

                     (a place you want to be)             (fav. person)

Oh, ______________ won’t you ____________ for me.

         (name)                                  (verb)

I’m going to _____________ with a ______________on my knee.

                    (place)                               (instrument)

 

 

 

My version:

 

 

Oh, Makayla!

I came from _McDonalds__________         with a _clarinet__on my knee.

                    (a restaurant)                       (fav. instrument)

I’m going to _the Caribbean____________.                   My __Sweetheart__________for to see.

                     (a place you want to be)             (fav. person)

Oh, _Makayla Nicole_____________ won’t you __sing__________ for me.

         (name)                                  (verb)

I’m going to the Caribbean_____________ with a __Clarinet____________on my knee.

                    (place)                               (instrument)

 

 

 

Reflection

So many interesting videos and activities for music therapy can be found on the Internet; so many in fact, that I found this assignment to be particularly difficult. I played a musical instrument beginning in the sixth grade and was quite proficient at it. I also sang in both the school and church choir and have always had a high level of appreciation for the art form.

I had planned to do something much more involved over the weekend and had spent hours on the Internet searching for just the right thing. However, late Friday night my daughter-in-law went into labor and I spent the majority of the weekend at the hospital with my son, his wife and their first child, who also happens to be my first grandchild.

There was one really cute activity that utilized the Laurie Berkner Band song Walk Along the River. But at this late hour there was not enough time to gather a couple of instruments and some other participants to really make this fun. You can see the video at https://youtu.be/1aDgyyMD5CA. They have numerous other songs that would be suitable for music therapy with children and could possibly be adapted for dementia patients as there is a lot of movement, clapping , etc.

So for simplicity and in order to make the deadline for turning in the assignment, I selected creating “Mad Libs a-la Music” : Good for All ages – kids through adults as my activity. In this activity a familiar song is chosen and certain words are to be replaced with something completely different than the original song. Now this is a very fun activity and works with all ages. I would imagine that giving the same fill in the blank song and get a different song for every person who played the game. There would certainly be lots of laughter and this would make a great ice-breaker for working with groups. 

 

Retrieved from: http://intuitivecreativity.typepad.com/expressiveartinspirations/100-art-therapy-exercises.htm

 

HUM 6354 – Advanced Professional Seminar

Sustainability, Funding, Research & Evaluation

For this week's creative practice we were to create with respect to Sustainability, Funding, Research and Evaluation. I created this Venn Diagram to show the intersection created when those elements are put in place into a program or business. The research and evaluation create value. When that value is equitable for all populations, it can catch the eye of funders who will invest in the program or business in such a way that the program or business can duplicate its processes and provide ongoing services to its target audiences. When all of these are achieved, a program or business can be sustained for the long term.

Many government agencies and community organizations have devoted significant resources to promoting research on evidence-based practices (EBPs), clinical guideline implementation, and quality-improvement programs because they understand the need to promote the use of best practices to achieve better outcomes in healthcare (Wiltsey Stirman, S., Kimberly, J., Cook, N., Calloway, A., Castro, F., and Charns, M., 2012). Wiltsey Stirman, et al., suggest that sustainability must be studied as a distinct and dynamic phenomenon, citing that while a program may be implemented, its relevance may yet diminish over time. They point out several reasons why a program may demise, but what stands out is their call to understand the processes and determine those methods sufficient to continue to provide the desired outcomes as just as important as knowing how to implement a program in the first place.

In their study surrounding what influences sustainability, Wiltsey Stirman, et al (2012) discovered that participation and support by the key stakeholders, along with funding were as important as all other factors. They noted that funding was rarely included in the analyses because most studies occur after the initial monitory resources had been removed. What is surprising is that they found that program effectiveness was reported in only nine studies. Their recommendations suggest program planners should include a sustainability plan when implementing a program.

According to Dose (2006), the largest single threat to the arts in medicine program is the lack of funding. Without the evidence of literature reviews, evaluations, testimonies and research studies to persuade funders, Dose implies that even the most solid of programs cannot survive. Financial backers want to know that their investments are going to projects with value. Staricoff (2006)states that the value of evaluating arts in health is that it provides evidence of the inherent ability of the arts to produce valuable clinical outcomes thereby adding another dimension to the work of health practitioners.



Dose, L. 2006. National Network for the Arts in Health: lessons learned form six years of work.
     Viewpoint. National Network for the Arts in Health. JRSH 2006;126(3):110-112.

Staricoff, R. L. (2006). Arts in health: the value of evaluation. The Journal of the Royal Society
     for the Promotion of Health, 126(3), 116–120.

Wiltsey Stirman, S., Kimberly, J., Cook, N., Calloway, A., Castro, F., & Charns, M. (2012). The
     sustainability of new programs and innovations: a review of the empirical literature and    
     recommendations for future research. Implementation Science: IS, 7, 17.

HUM 6365 – Collaborating Across Disciplines

While I love dancing and wish that I was better at it, I would not consider myself a dancer. We move every day just getting out of bed, walking, bending and reaching as the day goes on. Some days there is stretching and maybe exercise. Jumping is rare and so is running. Stair climbing is a frequent movement activity, as I live in a house with multiple levels downstairs (built in the 70’s when that sort of thing was popular) and then there is the long flight to the second floor. Just like you cannot go anywhere in Jacksonville without crossing a bridge, you can not go to any room in my house without traversing a few stairs or more.

For this week’s assignment, I selected a dance/movement prompt for the American Dance Therapy Association.  It said to “Imagine your name written in huge letters on the floor and travel on those lines as a pathway. Start with everyday walking, then change it up: travel backwards, sideways, circling. Add gestures, and a sense of character. Repeat some things, pause occasionally and then start up again”. I added the scarves because the same document said that children love to use scarves because it helps them to feel the movement. I can remember playing with scarves and pretending that I was some exotic dancer when I was a little girl. And doing this assignment made me feel rather childish. Yet it was oddly relaxing and energizing at the same time.

As you can see in the video, my little doggies decided to check this action out and seemed to be very happy to see me dance and move about. I sit for long periods of time at the computer so this must have looked very odd to them. It was fun to imagine my name written in script. The capital L is so beautiful in script format. I laid on the floor, too trying to spell it out in block letters. Very awkward. I much preferred the flowing letters of script.

This was out of my scope of practice for several reasons, but mainly because I am not a dancer and would most likely never encourage a patient to dance. I might ask them to do some Yoga movements but that is as far as any movement goes in my work.  In addition, I would not have any idea what kind of prompts to give someone to help them get in touch with their inner being and I believe that is what dance/movement therapy does for a person.

This was an interesting assignment for me as I did a lot of reviewing of dance/movement therapy videos on YouTube. During that process, I discovered a program called 5 Rhythms, which I am very intrigued by. You can learn more about it here. http://www.5rhythms.com/. Gabriella Roth is the founder of the program and there is a facilitator close to me in St. Augustine.  I could not discern from the web site whether it is therapist or an artist in residence but it does call more investigation, as it looks very interesting. Roth says the 5 Rhythms are flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness.

The dance/movement therapist I interviewed was an amazing person who is actually one of the founding members of the American Dance Therapy Association. Susan Kleinman, BC-DMT, uses her skills as a dancer and therapist to help women suffering from eating disorders. She says that the dancing helps the patient get into her body and out of her head so that she can get deep into the root cause of her eating disorder. I can see how moving and dancing can make you get there because you become very aware of your body as you make the dance movements.

Retrieved from:

http://www.adta.org/resources/documents/samhsa%202011%20adta%20sheets%20(2).pdf