Making Sense of Self: An Autoethnographic Study of Identity Formation for Adolescents in Music Therapy

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-150
Author(s):  
Allison Echard

Abstract Told through my experiences of working with three teenagers who had mild and moderate developmental disabilities, this autoethnographic study considers identity formation as a core concept in music therapy clinical practice. In doing so, I explored theories of identity formation, including those described by Erikson (1950, Childhood and society, Norton), Marcia and colleagues (1993, Ego identity: A handbook for psychosocial research, Springer), and Crocetti, Rubini, and Meeus (2008, Journal of Adolescence, 31(2), 207–222), relating these concepts to each of the teenagers I worked with. This article, therefore, chronicles the ways in which my clinical thinking shifted from a skills-based approach to one that considers the client’s identity as a whole, leading to suggestions of ways to integrate identity formation theory into clinical practice.

Author(s):  
Danielle Treiber ◽  
Lize A. E. Booysen

Identity formation is a developmental milestone for adolescents, and their identities are constructed and re-constructed through their interactions with others and contextual factors in their environment. When considering adolescents with substance use disorders (SUD), often this developmental milestone is misappropriated, misunderstood, and misrepresented. The purpose of this article was to explore how adolescents with substance use disorders form identity and construct a sense of self. Firstly, we explored the identity formation and reconstruction of 20 female adolescents with SUDs based on an in-depth grounded theory methodology (GTM) which included a situational analysis (SA). Secondly, we offered a theoretical model to explain identity construction and reconstruction of adolescents with SUDs that emerged from this research. We conclude this article with practical implications for treatment, and care of adolescents with SUDs.


2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-154
Author(s):  
HENRY SPILLER

AbstractThe powerful concept of orientalism has undergone considerable refinement since Edward Said popularized the term with his eponymous book in 1978. Orientalism typically is presented as a totalizing process that creates polar oppositions between a dominating West and a subordinate East. U.S. orientalisms, however, reflect uniquely North American approaches to identity formation that include assimilating characteristics usually associated with the Other. This article explores the complex relationship among three individuals—U.S. composer Charles T. Griffes, Canadian singer Eva Gauthier, and German-trained Dutch East Indies composer Paul J. Seelig—and how they exploited the same Javanese songs to lend legitimacy to their individual artistic projects. A comparison of Griffes's and Seelig's settings of a West Javanese tune (“Kinanti”) provides an especially clear example of how contrasting approaches manifest different orientalisms. Whereas Griffes accompanied the melody with stock orientalist gestures to express his own fascination with the exotic, Seelig used chromatic harmonies and a chorale-like texture to ground the melody in the familiar, translating rather than representing its Otherness. The tunes that bind Griffes, Gauthier, and Seelig are only the raw materials from which they created their own unique orientalisms, each with its own sense of self and its own Javanese others.


2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul H. Lysaker ◽  
Aieyat B. Zalzala ◽  
Nicolai Ladegaard ◽  
Benjamin Buck ◽  
Bethany L. Leonhardt ◽  
...  

Humanistic psychology has made us aware that any understanding of schizophrenia must see persons diagnosed with this condition as whole persons who are making sense of what wellness and recovery mean to them. This has raised questions about what the diagnosis of schizophrenia means and whether the diagnostic label of schizophrenia is helpful when we try to conceptualize the actions and aims of treatment. To examine this issue we propose it is essential to consider what is systematically occuring psychologicaly in recovery when persons experience, interpret and agentically respond to emerging challenges. We then review how the integrated model of metacognition provides a systematic, person-centered, evidence-based approach to understanding psychological processes which impact recovery, and discuss how this guides a form of psychotherapy, metacognitive reflection and insight therapy, which promotes metacognitive abilities and support recovery. We suggest this work indicates that metacognitive capacity is something that can be diagnosed without stigmatizing persons. It can be used to meaningfully inform clinical practice across various theoretical models and offers concrete implications for rehabilitation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 833-851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murad Ismayilov

Albeit often — and fairly — degraded in the world of high culture as a populist and politicized representation of music, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) — by sheer virtue of the populist and politicized nature of its essence — stands among the most consequential cultural encounters to which post-independence Azerbaijan has been exposed, in that the extent to which Baku's victory in the ESC-2011 — and the further developments this victory has generated — can potentially impact on, and contribute to, the very process of nation-building and national identity formation, with which this post-Soviet Muslim-majority country is currently struggling, is unparalleled by any of the state's earlier encounters of the kind. This paper focuses on, and examines, four intimately related ways in which the ESC and Azerbaijan's successful involvement with the latter worked to interfere with the country's nation-building: as a dubious factor in the evolution of the Western sense of self among Azerbaijanis; as a unifying force within the structure of the country's rapidly maturing civil society; as a medium working to open up a channel through which Western popular cultural elements could interfere with the evolving dynamics of, and work to globalize, indeed de-endogenize, indigenous Azerbaijani culture, on one hand, and unify the discursive realm within which the country's cultural domain is to further evolve, on the other; and, finally, as an important element serving to decouple the evolving processes within the country's cultural domain from the unfolding dynamics of conflict settlement and hence conducive to the diversification of public discourse in Azerbaijan.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (sup1) ◽  
pp. 153-153
Author(s):  
Kumiko Toshimori ◽  
Angelo Colletti ◽  
Riccardo Rijoff ◽  
Marina Rodocanachi

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas D. Hughes ◽  
Louise Locock ◽  
Sue Simkin ◽  
Anne Stewart ◽  
Anne E. Ferrey ◽  
...  

Self-harm is common in young people, and can have profound effects on parents and other family members. We conducted narrative interviews with 41 parents and other family members of 38 young people, aged up to 25, who had self-harmed. Most of the participants were parents but included one sibling and one spouse. This article reports experiences of the parent participants. A cross-case thematic analysis showed that most participants were bewildered by self-harm. The disruption to their worldview brought about by self-harm prompted many to undergo a process of “sense-making”—by ruminative introspection, looking for information, and building a new way of seeing—to understand and come to terms with self-harm. Most participants appeared to have been successful in making sense of self-harm, though not without considerable effort and emotional struggle. Our findings provide grounds for a deeper socio-cultural understanding of the impact of self-harm on parents.


Author(s):  
Alaine E Reschke-Hernández

Abstract Currently, no drug can cure or effectively mitigate symptoms for the growing number of individuals who live with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. As they experience declines in memory, communication, and thinking—symptoms that undermine social initiative, autonomy, and well-being—these individuals become increasingly dependent on others. Evidence regarding the benefits of music therapy for persons with dementia is growing. Nonetheless, limitations in existing research have hindered knowledge regarding the use and appropriate application of music as a form of treatment with this population. This article describes the development of The Clinical Practice Model for Persons with Dementia, which provides a theoretical framework to inform evidence-based practice, illustrated here in application to music therapy. Specifically, the model is intended to prompt purposeful application of strategies documented within a broad literature base within 6 thematic areas (Cognition, Attention, Familiarity, Audibility, Structure, and Autonomy); facilitate clinical decision-making and intervention development, including music interventions; and encourage discourse regarding relationships between characteristics of the intervention, the therapist, the person with dementia, and their response to intervention. The model comprises a set of testable assumptions to provide direction for future research and to facilitate the description and investigation of mechanisms underlying behavioral interventions with this population. Although the model is likely to evolve as knowledge is gained, it offers a foundation for holistically considering an individual’s needs and strengths, guidance for applying music and nonmusic strategies in evidence-based practice, and direction for future research.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110613
Author(s):  
Kristi Urry ◽  
Anna Chur-Hansen ◽  
Carole Khaw

Research seeking to understand and improve sexuality-related practice in mental health settings has paid little attention to the institutional context in which clinicians’ practice is embedded. Through a social constructionist lens, we used thematic analysis to examine how 22 Australian mental health clinicians implicated the wider institutional context when discussing and making sense of sexuality-related silence within their work. Interviews were part of a study exploring participants’ perceptions of sexuality and sexual health in their work more generally. Broader silences that shaped and reinforced participants’ perceptions and practice choices were situated in professional education; workplace cultures; and the tools, procedures and policies that directed clinical practice. We argue that sexuality-related silence in mental health settings is located in the institutional context in which clinicians learn and work, and discuss how orienting to this broader context will benefit research and interventions to improve sexuality-related practice across health settings.


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