Sunday 30 March 2014

Fathers Support Groups

This week I am working on a group project for my Theories of Dance/Movement Therapy II course. The project was to pick a family member of a child with multiple handicaps and design six therapy sessions to be used with this client.

Our group chose to do a fathers only support group as we believe they are under researched and thought it would be interesting to learn more. So far we have identified potential issues that fathers with children with multiple handicaps face such as feeling isolated from their friends and family.

It has been an interesting challenge trying to devise movement interventions for a group of males. The challenge comes from creating a safe space and having movements that the men may feel more comfortable with if this is their first experience with movement. However our group has risen to the challenge and we are coming up with some really great ideas.

We still have to continue doing some research on the topic before presenting next week. It's nice to be able to have some choice in what our projects are on so that we can really find one that we find interesting and can then get more out of the assignment! Stay tuned for how the presentation goes!

Thursday 27 March 2014

Summer Classes

Talk about time moving along quickly! The time to register for summer classes snuck up on me and I just received an email about Fall registration coming up on April 1!

As I am doing the program here at Lesley in two years, I do have to take three courses over the summer. Luckily, they won't take over my whole summer but only June and part of July. The summer courses are only offered in week long or weekend intensives which will make them a bit...intense.

I successfully registered for Standards and Ethics, Group Process in Dance/Movement Therapy and then had to decide between Yoga and Therapeutic Touch or Body Oriented Psychotherapy. I decided on the latter as I really enjoy the professor who is teaching it and let's face it, as many times as I have said I would like to try Yoga I haven't found the time to do so.

It's going to be a busy summer!

Monday 24 March 2014

Judith Jamison

Before I took off back to Canada for Spring Break, I had the honour of attending a talk by Judith Jamison here at Lesley University.

For those of you who aren't familiar with her name, Judith Jamison is a renowned American dancer who, I would say, is most famous for her performance career with Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Her debut was when she performed "Cry" choreographed specifically for her to perform by Alvin Ailey as a birthday gift to his mother which he dedicated to all black women.

Judith Jamison moved on to choreograph and become the Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey and now holds the position of Artistic Director Emerita.

She was a fabulous speaker with her loving spirit and passion for dance being quite obvious to the audience. Being able to be in her presence is an experience that I will never forget.


Saturday 22 March 2014

The Parachute

Back from Spring Break and ready to blog again!

I tried something new for me at my internship this week. I have been comfortable using props before in my sessions but have only ever explored the use of balloons, scarves and more recently an octaband. This week I brought in a 12-foot parachute I was given.

Boy was I surprised by the reaction I got! I was hesitant to try the parachute as the more modern version, the octaband, wasn't a big hit in the fall with this group. The seniors I have worked with in the past respond the most to the use of balloons. They enjoy the bright colours and finding new uses for an old toy that also allows them to share stories from their past that have involved balloons. 

When this group's curiosity prompted them to ask what was in my bag and I replied with a parachute, I got a few "well that's interesting" and "a parachute!". I had decided that in honour of St. Patrick's Day, that had fallen earlier in the week, I would put on some music from Lord of the Dance and we would move the parachute to the music. My professor had done this at Perkins earlier in the week with the children and it had engaged some with others not showing interest. I thought I would try it at my site to see if I had a different experience with an older group.

When the time came I pulled it out from the bag and the group was full of joy about the colours in the parachute and how cheerful it was. As we began to play with it, smiles emerged with laughter close behind.

I expanded on how I had seen it used earlier in the week and began forming relationships within the circle by lifting the parachute above our heads and waving to the person across from us. It then turned into a bit of game to see how many people you could wave to before the parachute fell down. I was able to engage everyone in the group!

The group requested I bring it in again in the near future....I think it's safe to say that it was a success!

Monday 3 March 2014

Psychopathology

I have to say this course has completely taken me by surprise. When I received the syllabus over Christmas break and saw that we would be tackling the DSM-5 in one term, I immediately groaned and thought this course would be the end of me.

Although it is an intense course, it is one of my favourites thus far. I just finished my first assignment where we had to examine two case studies and write up the client's history,symptomology, differential diagnosis and then our final diagnosis while using clinical language. I loved it!

Yes the DSM is intimidating but the more I flip through it the more comfortable I am becoming with it and being able to know what symptoms fall under what categories etc. We have a couple case study textbooks for the course and it is helping immensely to be able to read examples of how a disorder could, maybe present itself. (I say could, maybe because of that disclaimer that no client is the same and no disorder presents itself the same in in two clients).

This course is reinforcing why I chose Lesley's program, because not only do I get my DMT education but also can become a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC). I realize now that it was this balance that I was missing at ISIS last year and is one of the reasons why I am enjoying this program!