The Relationship Between Music Therapists' Spiritual Beliefs and Clinical Practice
Genre
Thesis/DissertationDate
2010Author
Kagin, Roberta StewartAdvisor
Dileo, CherylCommittee member
Bruscia, Kenneth E.Brooks, Darlene M.
Anderson, Christine L.
Flanagan, Edward
Department
Music TherapySubject
Health Sciences, Rehabilitation and TherapySpirituality
Music
Clinical Practice and Spirituality
Ethics of Spirituality in Clinical Work
Music Therapists and Spirituality
Relationship/music Therapists and Spirituality
Spirituality in Music Therapy
Spirituality in the Music Therapy Clinic
Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/1561
Metadata
Show full item recordDOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/1543Abstract
This study examined the relationship between music therapists' spiritual beliefs and their clinical practices. A survey was sent to 4243 members of the Certification Board for Music Therapy, using an electronic program, SurveyMonkey. There was a return rate of 32%. The survey contained two parts; Part I was the Music Therapy Questionnaire, and Part II was the Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale (SIBS). Data were analyzed using a combination of Kruskal-Wallis Anova, Mann-Whitney U, and Spearman Rho correlation tests to analyze both the relationships as well as significant variations in responses between the survey questions and the SIBS scores. Research questions focused on the relationships between the music therapists' spirituality scores (SIBS) and their demographics, their reported spiritual beliefs and practices, and their clinical practices. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences in the relationship between SIBS scores and gender, age, and years of professional experience; however, there were no significant differences between SIBS scores and education level, regions of AMTA, or client populations served. Significant correlations were found between SIBS scores and music therapists' personal appraisal of their own spirituality, their use of music as a spiritual experience, the use of music in their own personal practice, and their belief in the importance of some type of contemplative experience in their own personal lives. Further statistical analyses also revealed significant correlations between music therapists' SIBS scores and the following clinical practices: 1) the role of spirituality as a sustaining force in their music therapy career, 2) their spiritual ideals as exemplified in their work, 3) attention to their own spirituality in their role as a music therapist, 4) their spiritual growth as a music therapist, 5) the classifying of their work as a spiritual endeavor, 6) their choice of music therapy as a profession. Additional positive correlations were found between music therapists' SIBS scores and the reported influence of spirituality on their choice of population, their comfort in addressing clients' spiritual needs when they are similar to their own, and their comfort in addressing clients' spiritual needs when they are different from their own.ADA compliance
For Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.eduCollections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Body, Mind, Spirit: In Pursuit of an Integral Philosophy of Music Teaching and LearningBolton, Beth M.; Klein, Michael Leslie; Dilworth, Rollo A.; Swidler, Leonard J.; Wright, Maurice, 1949- (Temple University. Libraries, 2010)This dissertation investigates extant literature on the contributions of spirituality within music education from perspectives of philosophical writers in the field. It introduces Integral Theory, which features a five element heuristic: a) four quadrants of human experience, specifically, subjective, objective, individual, and collective perspectives; b) levels (or stages) of human development; c) lines of human development; d) states of consciousness; and e) types or styles of being and acting in the world. Finally, this dissertation applies Integral Theory's multi-perspective approach to the dynamic elements that engage body, mind, and spirit as teacher and learner perform, listen to, compose, and improvise music. I use Integral Theory's four quadrants of human experience to summarize, categorize, analyze, and map aspects of presenters' papers and the final round table discussion at the Spirituality Symposium, Spirituality: More than just a concept?, during the International Society of Music Education Conference (ISME), July, 2008, in Bologna, Italy. I use Integral Theory's levels of human development to map Edward Sarath's Levels of Creative Awareness, as he applies it to trans-stylistic jazz improvisation pedagogy. Sarath's melding of jazz music practices, and music theory and analysis with personal and collective non-music influences, transpersonal elements, and meditation mirrors Integral Theory's second element. Results from this philosophical inquiry show that discussions and pedagogy focusing on spirituality in music education include (a) teacher and student levels of proficiency and excellence in music, (b) personal and collective transformation, (c) diverse descriptions and interpretations of transcendence as they pertain to music's effect on persons, (d) understanding self and other especially meaning, value, belief, and moral systems, (e) receiving and dealing with emotions and feelings in professional settings, (f) brain, biological, and physical aspects, (g) personal and collective imagination, creativity, mystery, wonder, intention, attention, awareness, mindfulness, playfulness, authenticity, flow, (h) identified stake-holding cultural collectives, (i) environmental, institutional, educational, religious, and ideological factors, and (j) curriculum and experiential practices and guidelines. A close reading of flow pedagogy in early childhood music teaching shows some similar methodologies.
-
Black Music, Racial Identity, and Black Consciousness in the Spirituals and the BluesAsante, Molefi Kete, 1942-; Turner, Diane D. (Temple University. Libraries, 2013)African American Music has always served to document the history of enslaved Africans in America. It takes its roots in African Spirituality and originally pervades all aspects of African life. That Music has been transformed as soon as it got on this side of the Atlantic Ocean in a context of slavery and oppression. As historical documents, African American Music has served African Americans to deal with their experience in America from slavery to freedom. This work studies how Black Spirituals and the Blues have played a tremendous role in building an African American identity and in raising race consciousness in an oppressed people in a perpetual quest for freedom and equal rights in America.
-
An Inquiry Into Relationships Between Spirituality and Language PedagogyCasanave, Christine Pearson, 1944-; Schaefer, Kenneth G.; Beglar, David J.; Sawyer, Mark; O'Mochain, Robert (Temple University. Libraries, 2011)Some psychologists (e.g., Bergin, 1997) have contended that if individuals neglect the world of the spirit, they ignore a foundational aspect of themselves. This must especially be true for language educators, who come from all corners of the globe and thus bring into their classrooms many spiritual views. I define spirituality, following Palmer (2003) as “the eternal human yearning to be connected with something larger than our own egos” (p. 377). Spirituality need not, then, entail belief in a supernatural being or force. The main thrust of Palmer’s definition was that educators should seek to forge meaningful and lasting connections with their learners. Although such thinking is common in general education, it has been little addressed in Second Language Education (SLE). Hence, I felt that this inquiry was timely. I undertook this qualitative case study by analyzing narratives about the turning points in the spiritual journeys of nine language teachers of varying creeds (or who professed no overt spirituality), as well as their stories of how they felt that they applied their spiritual beliefs to classroom teaching. To this end, I interviewed each participant at least twice. After analyzing their interview transcript data, I triangulated the common themes emerging from these data with, where appropriate, the informants’ classroom syllabuses, lesson plans, and academic publications. I also attempted to validate the results of this study through member checking. Three participants felt that their journeys into religious pluralism had strongly influenced their efforts to teach social responsibility and challenging moral dilemmas in their classrooms. Another three held that their tribulations, as well as the resulting comfort they found in spiritual practices, helped them to be nurturing teachers who could understand clearly the pain faced by some of their young charges. Still another three, despite their divergent spiritual paths, all insisted that they sought to teach in an ethical, caring manner. Finally, most of the informants, regardless of their spiritual backgrounds or views, spoke of the importance of transformation, ethics, and connection (nurturing) to their pedagogy. I conclude the study by positing implications of the aforementioned findings for research and practice.