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Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies: A Practical Guide
The Arts in Psychotherapy 30 (2003) 53–57
Book Reviews Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies: A Practical Guide Gary Ansdell and Mercédès Pavlicevic (London, Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2001, 255 pages, $23.95 paperback) It is no secret that arts therapists shy away from research. It is also apparent that many arts therapists feel inadequate when it comes to the art of scholarly writing. Written by arts therapists (in this case, music therapists) for arts therapists of every stripe, this book is one that works hard to address these concerns. In essence, it takes the reader by the hand and attempts to lead her (or him) gently through the intricacies of preparing a research proposal, carrying out the proposed research, and writing up the finished project— with much encouragement along the way. This is a big task, and as might be expected, it is more fully realized in some areas than in others. Nonetheless, this research text is the best and most comprehensive one for arts therapists that I have come across so far. I’ll start with the book’s plusses—which are significant. The authors employ the innovative device of creating two fictional arts therapists, a female music therapist and a male art therapist, who are about to begin research projects. The male therapist must do a quantitative study for his employer to demonstrate that his work has value, and the female therapist undertakes a qualitative study in order to satisfy the final requirements of her degree program. Neither has done any research before. The narrative then follows these two as they work through the stages of designing, executing, and finishing their projects—as well as their anxieties and concerns. Offering a smidgen of titillation, the characters’ story also involves a budding personal relationship that seems meant to keep the reader guessing as to the outcome, but that carries its own relevant message. (I won’t say more about this lest I spoil the fun for the reader.) Although such a device could come across as forced or a bit too cute, the authors are, on the whole, successful in using it to enliven what might otherwise be considered a tedious subject. And by focusing on two main examples, rather than presenting an array of
examples in bits and pieces, the book conveys a more solid sense of what research entails than it would otherwise. In particular, the comparison of an ongoing qualitative study with a quantitative one provides the clearest exposition of the differences between the two methodologies that I have found in a single text. Moreover, the authors strive to present these methodologies in an objective manner that does not place one above the other but underscores the need for both approaches in developing a comprehensive body of research. Additional merits of this volume include the lucid writing that is enhanced not only by the use of clear diagrams and engaging cartoons, but also by the authors’ ability (most of the time) to resist temptations to overload the content with excessive detail. Clearly, they realized the undesirability of attempting to cover every nuance of research in a single book—particularly one that has the goal of allaying arts therapists’ apprehensions about research. Further, considering that many good generic texts on research already exist, the authors wisely advise the reader to learn more about specific concepts by delving into some of these. A final plus is that a chapter on using questionnaire and survey methods has been included. These often-overlooked methods lend themselves well to investigation of therapeutic processes and opinions. They make it possible to gather and process large amounts of data with relatively little stress—and with minimal knowledge of arcane procedures for analyzing results. These are attributes that should endear these methods to arts therapists who lack research sophistication yet who may wish to make a research contribution. Now, some might argue—given the unevenness of arts therapists’ scientific knowledge—that it is not possible to produce a “perfect” research text for those in our profession. Still, I feel it necessary to point out a few shortcomings in this one so that the prospective reader does not approach it with unrealistic expectations. A significant defect is that the two categories of research (qualitative and quantitative) are not treated equally—although, as I have indicated, the authors apparently intended to do so. The device of follow-
0197-4556/02/$ – see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
54
Book reviews / The Arts in Psychotherapy 30 (2003) 53–57
ing two hypothetical inquiries breaks down as we pursue the quantitative example. Instead of providing a description of how this study’s data might have been analyzed, the authors present a potpourri of statistical nomenclature and methods that tends to blur the focus and leave the reader hanging. In addition, there are several errors in this particular section (e.g., the “range” is not, as stated, a measure of central tendency but is a measure of dispersion (p. 170)). Taken together, these flaws suggest that the authors were less attentive to the task of presenting a coherent picture of quantitative methods, possibly due to a covert preference for qualitative research. Using the adjective “artificial” to modify “experiment” at one point (p. 133) lends support to this conjecture. (To be fair, the authors’ barely perceptible bias is to be preferred to the more obvious partiality for qualitative methodology of arts therapists in general. Such one-sidedness would not belong in what purports to be an inclusive research text.) An additional criticism has to do with a notable omission in content. The authors missed an opportunity to do their target readership an important service: A review of the standardized arts-based instruments that have been developed by arts therapists would have been welcome. Textbook writers outside our field have largely neglected these instruments. Also, learning about our own data-gathering tools has the potential to generate more enthusiasm among arts therapists for undertaking the rigors of quantitative inquiry. Finally, although not exactly a defect, the book’s stylistic recommendations are only partially useful to arts therapists in the US. Because its authors and publisher are British, it does not conform to the style guidelines of the American Psychological Association, and this could prove disconcerting to some American readers. But I am starting to run the risk of being excessively picky. Overall, this text’s plusses outweigh its minuses. I have no hesitation about recommending it to novice researchers in the arts therapies and those who instruct them. It is a volume that, if used in combination with a well-written generic text on research, supplies much of what arts therapists of any nationality need to know about scholarly inquiry—and does it in a most palatable manner.
Frances F. Kaplan, MPS, DA, ATR-BC Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, OR, USA Present address: 19436 Wilderness Drive West Linn, OR 97068 USA PII: S 0 1 9 7 - 4 5 5 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 2 4 0 - X
Dance Movement Therapy: A Creative Psychotherapeutic Approach Bonnie Meekums (London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002, 130 pages, $29.95 paperback) Creative acts connect unconsciousness with consciousness, imagination with concretization, and lead to more integrated life experiences. In creative therapies, symbolism and metaphor are the core of expression, eliciting many healing processes and clinical insights. In Dance Movement Therapy: A Creative Psychotherapeutic Approach, Dr. Meekums demonstrates how movement metaphor is a catalyst for assessment, treatment, evaluation, and integrative healing. Her concise text is a practical affirmation “that DMT is a form of psychotherapy in its own right, mediated via the creative process and making unique use of the ‘movement metaphor’ in order to facilitate this process” (p. 12). Dance Movement Therapy is an evidence-based source of grounding information describing a body– mind psychotherapy that blends art with science, and moves clients toward healing through movement and dance. Dr. Meekums presents a metaphoric journey into the practice of DMT, complete with a “map” introducing the reader to the evolution and principles of the profession, and a “navigation” through her approach to DMT practice. She draws from her extensive experience with patients from a variety of backgrounds and currently works as a clinical specialist in DMT at Pennine Care (NHS) Trust in the United Kingdom. Dr. Meekums is also a lecturer for the DMT pathway of the MA Performance Studies at the University of Leeds, Bretton Hall. In Part I, “Mapping the Territory,” readers view the scope of academic and clinical instruction provided in the text. The author succinctly defines DMT and adequately addresses the evolutionary routes of DMT training and registry in the UK. She supplies a double page comparative table differentiating several features of DMT and Therapeutic Dance, providing necessary groundwork for accurate understanding of DMT. Most theoretical models describing DMT rely on traditional psychotherapy theories or the approaches of early dance therapy pioneers. Dr. Meekums’ unparalleled contribution to DMT literature is her theoretical approach based solely on movement metaphor. She theoretically unifies metaphor with creativity, the body–mind relationship, nonverbal communication, interpersonal relationships and personal change. She profoundly asserts the relationship between movement metaphor and body memory,
Book Reviews Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies: A Practical Guide Gary Ansdell and Mercédès Pavlicevic (London, Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2001, 255 pages, $23.95 paperback) It is no secret that arts therapists shy away from research. It is also apparent that many arts therapists feel inadequate when it comes to the art of scholarly writing. Written by arts therapists (in this case, music therapists) for arts therapists of every stripe, this book is one that works hard to address these concerns. In essence, it takes the reader by the hand and attempts to lead her (or him) gently through the intricacies of preparing a research proposal, carrying out the proposed research, and writing up the finished project— with much encouragement along the way. This is a big task, and as might be expected, it is more fully realized in some areas than in others. Nonetheless, this research text is the best and most comprehensive one for arts therapists that I have come across so far. I’ll start with the book’s plusses—which are significant. The authors employ the innovative device of creating two fictional arts therapists, a female music therapist and a male art therapist, who are about to begin research projects. The male therapist must do a quantitative study for his employer to demonstrate that his work has value, and the female therapist undertakes a qualitative study in order to satisfy the final requirements of her degree program. Neither has done any research before. The narrative then follows these two as they work through the stages of designing, executing, and finishing their projects—as well as their anxieties and concerns. Offering a smidgen of titillation, the characters’ story also involves a budding personal relationship that seems meant to keep the reader guessing as to the outcome, but that carries its own relevant message. (I won’t say more about this lest I spoil the fun for the reader.) Although such a device could come across as forced or a bit too cute, the authors are, on the whole, successful in using it to enliven what might otherwise be considered a tedious subject. And by focusing on two main examples, rather than presenting an array of
examples in bits and pieces, the book conveys a more solid sense of what research entails than it would otherwise. In particular, the comparison of an ongoing qualitative study with a quantitative one provides the clearest exposition of the differences between the two methodologies that I have found in a single text. Moreover, the authors strive to present these methodologies in an objective manner that does not place one above the other but underscores the need for both approaches in developing a comprehensive body of research. Additional merits of this volume include the lucid writing that is enhanced not only by the use of clear diagrams and engaging cartoons, but also by the authors’ ability (most of the time) to resist temptations to overload the content with excessive detail. Clearly, they realized the undesirability of attempting to cover every nuance of research in a single book—particularly one that has the goal of allaying arts therapists’ apprehensions about research. Further, considering that many good generic texts on research already exist, the authors wisely advise the reader to learn more about specific concepts by delving into some of these. A final plus is that a chapter on using questionnaire and survey methods has been included. These often-overlooked methods lend themselves well to investigation of therapeutic processes and opinions. They make it possible to gather and process large amounts of data with relatively little stress—and with minimal knowledge of arcane procedures for analyzing results. These are attributes that should endear these methods to arts therapists who lack research sophistication yet who may wish to make a research contribution. Now, some might argue—given the unevenness of arts therapists’ scientific knowledge—that it is not possible to produce a “perfect” research text for those in our profession. Still, I feel it necessary to point out a few shortcomings in this one so that the prospective reader does not approach it with unrealistic expectations. A significant defect is that the two categories of research (qualitative and quantitative) are not treated equally—although, as I have indicated, the authors apparently intended to do so. The device of follow-
0197-4556/02/$ – see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
54
Book reviews / The Arts in Psychotherapy 30 (2003) 53–57
ing two hypothetical inquiries breaks down as we pursue the quantitative example. Instead of providing a description of how this study’s data might have been analyzed, the authors present a potpourri of statistical nomenclature and methods that tends to blur the focus and leave the reader hanging. In addition, there are several errors in this particular section (e.g., the “range” is not, as stated, a measure of central tendency but is a measure of dispersion (p. 170)). Taken together, these flaws suggest that the authors were less attentive to the task of presenting a coherent picture of quantitative methods, possibly due to a covert preference for qualitative research. Using the adjective “artificial” to modify “experiment” at one point (p. 133) lends support to this conjecture. (To be fair, the authors’ barely perceptible bias is to be preferred to the more obvious partiality for qualitative methodology of arts therapists in general. Such one-sidedness would not belong in what purports to be an inclusive research text.) An additional criticism has to do with a notable omission in content. The authors missed an opportunity to do their target readership an important service: A review of the standardized arts-based instruments that have been developed by arts therapists would have been welcome. Textbook writers outside our field have largely neglected these instruments. Also, learning about our own data-gathering tools has the potential to generate more enthusiasm among arts therapists for undertaking the rigors of quantitative inquiry. Finally, although not exactly a defect, the book’s stylistic recommendations are only partially useful to arts therapists in the US. Because its authors and publisher are British, it does not conform to the style guidelines of the American Psychological Association, and this could prove disconcerting to some American readers. But I am starting to run the risk of being excessively picky. Overall, this text’s plusses outweigh its minuses. I have no hesitation about recommending it to novice researchers in the arts therapies and those who instruct them. It is a volume that, if used in combination with a well-written generic text on research, supplies much of what arts therapists of any nationality need to know about scholarly inquiry—and does it in a most palatable manner.
Frances F. Kaplan, MPS, DA, ATR-BC Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, OR, USA Present address: 19436 Wilderness Drive West Linn, OR 97068 USA PII: S 0 1 9 7 - 4 5 5 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 2 4 0 - X
Dance Movement Therapy: A Creative Psychotherapeutic Approach Bonnie Meekums (London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002, 130 pages, $29.95 paperback) Creative acts connect unconsciousness with consciousness, imagination with concretization, and lead to more integrated life experiences. In creative therapies, symbolism and metaphor are the core of expression, eliciting many healing processes and clinical insights. In Dance Movement Therapy: A Creative Psychotherapeutic Approach, Dr. Meekums demonstrates how movement metaphor is a catalyst for assessment, treatment, evaluation, and integrative healing. Her concise text is a practical affirmation “that DMT is a form of psychotherapy in its own right, mediated via the creative process and making unique use of the ‘movement metaphor’ in order to facilitate this process” (p. 12). Dance Movement Therapy is an evidence-based source of grounding information describing a body– mind psychotherapy that blends art with science, and moves clients toward healing through movement and dance. Dr. Meekums presents a metaphoric journey into the practice of DMT, complete with a “map” introducing the reader to the evolution and principles of the profession, and a “navigation” through her approach to DMT practice. She draws from her extensive experience with patients from a variety of backgrounds and currently works as a clinical specialist in DMT at Pennine Care (NHS) Trust in the United Kingdom. Dr. Meekums is also a lecturer for the DMT pathway of the MA Performance Studies at the University of Leeds, Bretton Hall. In Part I, “Mapping the Territory,” readers view the scope of academic and clinical instruction provided in the text. The author succinctly defines DMT and adequately addresses the evolutionary routes of DMT training and registry in the UK. She supplies a double page comparative table differentiating several features of DMT and Therapeutic Dance, providing necessary groundwork for accurate understanding of DMT. Most theoretical models describing DMT rely on traditional psychotherapy theories or the approaches of early dance therapy pioneers. Dr. Meekums’ unparalleled contribution to DMT literature is her theoretical approach based solely on movement metaphor. She theoretically unifies metaphor with creativity, the body–mind relationship, nonverbal communication, interpersonal relationships and personal change. She profoundly asserts the relationship between movement metaphor and body memory,