Browsing by Author "Thomas, Natasha"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Break it then build again: An arts based duoethnographic pilot reconstructing music therapy and dance/movement therapy histories
    (Elsevier, 2021-04) Thomas, Natasha; Blanc, Valerie; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    This arts-based duoethnographic project explores the phenomenon of a collaborative arts-based experience between a Dance/Movement Therapist and a Music Therapist. From a simultaneously personal and collaborative framework (duo ethnography), the researchers will explore the question of, “What emerges when a BC-DMT & MT-BC utilize their respective modalities in active creative collaboration to deconstruct the histories they have been taught?” Utilizing a critical lens rooted in healing justice and influenced by decolonial theory, the researchers name and begin to deconstruct the complicated histories of both clinical fields, attempting to embody and amplify the healing practices of movement and music that came long before the “founders” of dance/movement or music therapy as clinical fields. The researchers then engaged in an active arts-based collaboration, including individual reflective writing and collaborative dialogic reflection on insights gleaned from the literature gathering and integrative arts-based process. The researchers each speak from their own positionality. Possible implications of this project could be to encourage arts therapists to think critically about how they cross utilize artforms, and ways to more ethically and effectively engage with their own communities in culturally sustaining and co-creative ways.
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    Community-Based Referential Music Making with Limited-Resource Adolescents: A Pilot Study
    (Oxford, 2020) Thomas, Natasha; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Black/African American adolescents from limited-resource communities face challenges and circumstances that are unique to their racialization and socioeconomic status; this merits community-engaged resources, such as community music therapy, that are equally unique in creating culturally responsive opportunities for limited-resource adolescents to engage socially with peers and experience meaningful success in a safe, supportive environment. The purpose of this study was to pilot and explore the feasibility of and behavioral processes in a community-based referential music-making intervention for limited-resource adolescents labeled as “at-risk.” The methods consisted of a concurrent nested (embedded) mixed methods design based on the principles of participatory actions research (PAR), during which qualitative data were collected during 8 focus group style music-making sessions. Quantitative data assessing self-efficacy were collected prior to first and following the 8th music-making session. The validity of quantitative results was challenged by the lowered reading level of participants and a high amount of mis-labeled (and thus unusable) data. Qualitative data suggest 3 themes, including creating community, artistic prioritization, and pride. All results were impacted by issues, such as inconsistent attendance and malfunctioning recording equipment. Nevertheless, participants expressed a collective desire to share their work with their community group. Discussion points are raised including how participants in this community music therapy-based approach were able to create and direct their own stories. The implementation of community music therapy approaches seems a valuable way to bring authentic representations of limited-resource adolescent participants into clinical practice.
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    Critical Humanism in Music Therapy: Imagining the Possibilities
    (Oxford, 2018) Hadley, Susan; Thomas, Natasha; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    In this article, we take the reader on a journey with us as we imagine the terrain and possibilities of critical humanism as an approach to engaging in music therapy practice. We begin by providing descriptions of critical theory and humanism, followed by critiques of traditional humanism from a critical theory perspective. From this, we describe our understanding of critical humanism as a therapeutic approach. Drawing from existing critical approaches to music therapy, we imagine possibilities for critical humanistic practice in music therapy. We draw from critical theories of race, feminism, feminist theories, and disability studies as foundations for exploring how critical humanism would be engaged in music therapy practice. Thus, we explore what we have termed critical race humanism, feminist humanism, queer humanism, and critical disability humanism. The commonalities each share are the emphases on exploring how historical and contemporary marginalization of various categories of human are experienced by therapy participants; honoring sociocultural political issues as legitimate topics in therapy; navigating difficult dialogues around sociocultural political issues; engaging in advocacy for individuals and groups; and working toward systemic social change. Each of the outlined perspectives brings nuance to how we understand each other within the therapeutic relationship.
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    How Do You Play When You’re Prey?
    (Bergen Open Access Publishing, 2021-04-20) Thomas, Natasha; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Creativity is woven into the culture of Black America. Our histories and struggles as members of the minoritized African Diaspora are recorded and passed on in song and story, in movement and design. We are – and have been – the creators of an evolving culture that is simultaneously underestimated and desired by dominant culture. This othering poses real and pressing threats to our lives and livelihoods, as we are consumed and exploited to the point of erasure; and yet we keep creating. But why? What is creativity to the Black American living in such a predatory society? And how do I, as a Black creative minoritized in a Healing profession, engage with it? How do you play when you’re prey? These questions form the basis for an heuristic exploration into a video blog project entitled “Black Creative Healing,” where Black creatives are recorded engaging in conversation and collaboration over concepts relating to Blackness, Creativity, and the Healing process. Through arts-based analysis of past collaborations, available publicly on Youtube, I will investigate my own motivations, inspirations and roadblocks to the creative process as a Black healer. I will interrogate the directions and intentions laid bare by my creative endeavors and seek to define a central ethos by which other Black creatives may find themselves seen and encouraged, in the interest of finding balance between the “me” that is – and has been – prey, and the “me” that has only ever known – and been known by – play.