“Everybody is an Artist”: Arts‐based Education and Formerly Incarcerated Young Black Men's Academic and Social–Emotional Development in an Alternative School

Although arts‐based programming is shown to positively influence the development of youth exposed to adversity, little is known about the influence these programs have on formerly incarcerated emerging adult Black men enrolled in an alternative school. With educational resilience as a guiding framework, this qualitative case study explored the ways in which an arts‐based program in the context of an alternative school designed for formerly incarcerated young people facilitates emerging adult Black men's academic and social–emotional development. Data collection consisted of observations and interviews with school personnel and formerly incarcerated Black male students. Analysis and interpretation included a range of inductive techniques (coding, constant comparisons, and memoing). Results indicate that offering arts‐based activities fostered an environment where students could build caring and supportive relationships with peers and school personnel. Instructional practices that integrated music and poetry provided meaningful opportunities for the young men to participate, which appeared to enhance their motivation and attitudes (self, others, learning, and school) and academic self‐efficacy, and lessen their psychological and emotional distress. Study findings provide insights into how an arts‐based program in an alternative school can improve healthy development and academic achievement among formerly incarcerated young Black men transitioning into adulthood.     

Housing First and Photovoice: Transforming Lives,Communities, and Systems

This article presents findings from a community‐based participatory evaluation of a Housing First program on the Island of O'ahu. In this study, clients in a Housing First program used Photovoice to evaluate the program and to advocate for progressive housing policies. Written together by members of the Housing First Photovoice group, this collaborative article describes the outcomes from both the Housing First program and the Photovoice project and demonstrates the ways in which participatory program evaluations can interact with client‐driven programs like Housing First to produce a cumulative, transformative impact. Findings suggest that community psychologists hoping to re‐engage with community mental health systems through enacting transformative change should consider taking a community‐based participatory approach to program evaluation because increased client voice in community mental health programs and their evaluations can have far‐reaching, transformative impacts for research, practice, and policy.     

Sharing My Music with You: The Musical Presentation as a Tool for Exploring,Examining and Enhancing Self‐Awareness in a Group Setting

Musical presentation (MP) is a diagnostic and therapeutic music therapy tool which focuses on the participant's emotional exploration and awareness‐insight development. Using this tool people present themselves through music of their choice and subsequently receive feedback from their peers. This study investigates MP as a tool for enhancing self‐awareness in the context of a voluntary activity that was integrated in courses for undergraduate students in order to demonstrate its possible uses. Open‐ended in‐depth interviews with 15 MP presenters and focus‐group interviews with 41 MP peers who listened to the presentations were conducted. The Johari Window, which is a cognitive psychological model used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships, served as a conceptual framework for this study. Qualitative analysis of the data showed that presenters' self‐awareness was enhanced through the use of both music and words. As an accessible and creative tool, the MP can be used as a way for people in both therapeutic and non‐therapeutic settings to present themselves via their music to a group and increase their self‐awareness.     

Place of Strength: Indigenous Artists and Indigenous Knowledge is Prevention Science

The Place of Strength (PoS) project represents an effort to Indigenize program evaluation with Indigenous communities by melding art with prevention science. We propose that Native artists as evaluators: (a) opens avenues of communication for Indigenous perspectives; (b) provides opportunities to capture spiritual, relational, and emotional impacts of prevention programming; and (c) maintains Indigenous processes, language, and values at the center of knowledge production. The New Mexico Tribal Prevention Project (NMTPP) funded seven Southwestern tribes to develop substance abuse prevention programs. In response to their expressed negative experiences with evaluation of prevention strategies, NMTPP piloted PoS. PoS shifted systematic knowledge paradigms to Tribal thought, values, and perspectives embodied in art. Art exists in Native communities as a way of documenting lifeways and historical experiences through various cultural forms. We share the process of collaborating with Native artists to document the impact of substance abuse prevention initiatives through their art within a community context. We offer concepts derived from this project as a community psychology model for re‐conceptualizing evaluation utilizing Indigenous knowledge.     

The Unbiased Mind: A Possible Resource for Medical Problems

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the problem solving abilities of school‐aged children. The study took place at the summer day camp program at Howard Public School, in Etobicoke, Ontario. There were 15 children (6 boys, 9 girls) with a mean age at the time of testing of 5.1 years. A medical problem with a known solution (concept of a flow‐directed device to determine pulmonary wedge pressure) was presented to 15 children in the form of a children's story. The children were then asked to solve the problem by completing the story. A successful answer was taken to be any that suggested a flow‐directed device. The results showed that of the 15 children who read the story, four suggested flow‐directed methodologies. Other non‐practical, but creative, solutions were suggested. The findings suggest that by translating a previously solved medical problem into a simplistic children's story, preschoolers may provide a conceptual solution.     

Training family therapy students in conceptual and observation skills relating to the therapeutic alliance: an evaluation

This paper describes a training intervention to develop students' conceptual and observation skills relating to the therapeutic alliance (TA) in family therapy. An evaluation methodology was developed and piloted. The knowledge and observation skills of family therapy students pre‐ and post‐training were assessed in comparison to a non‐intervention group of experienced clinicians. Students' mean scores on the knowledge measure improved significantly from 43 per cent to 74 per cent (p<0.001) and on the observation test from 43 per cent to 65 per cent, although this failed to reach statistical significance (p=0.08). There were no significant changes in the clinicians' scores over the same period. The clinicians' knowledge was higher initially, but the students had caught up after six months. In conclusion, training students in conceptual and observational skills relating to the therapeutic alliance may have a measurable effect. A ‘stepwise’ methodology for demonstrating the relationship between training in TA and outcomes for families is proposed.     

The importance of stories in the act of caring

This article focuses on the essential role and function of story in the care of young children with emotional and behavioral disorders in an institutional setting. Highlighted in this article is the importance of story in the therapeutic relationship, its educational implications, and in theological reflection. A narrative approach of care becomes a way of healing both heart and mind, and is ultimately an act of love.     

Aboriginal perceptions of social and emotional wellbeing programs: A systematic review of literature assessing social and emotional wellbeing programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians perspectives

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been targets of social and emotional wellbeing programs for many years. However, the few health-care programs and services that are evaluated rarely provide insight into the participants' perspectives of program success or failure. This systematic review assessed 33 social and emotional wellbeing programs across Australia to better understand what Aboriginal community members think about the programs and how they could be improved. Results highlighted the interesting and valuable insights provided by Aboriginal participants, including what kinds of program activities and approaches are most suitable, what program characteristics are successful or desired, and their experiences of wellbeing change before and after program participation. They likewise voiced opinions about poorly received programs, culturally inappropriate services and negative experiences. This review highlighted how health and wellbeing programs must better engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients to ensure that services are culturally safe, holistic, integrate appropriate staffing, include culturally relevant activities and value patient/participant experiences. These findings have significant implications for the health and wellbeing sector; specifically, research, policy, program design and implementation, evaluation methods, and self-determination.     

The Magic Background of Modern Anti-Semitism by Adolf Leschnitzer

A range of joyful emotions may be woven into the therapeutic group process for older persons. Experiencing joy is a powerful healing factor because it helps reduce the pain of losses inherent in the aging process, restores self-confidence and hope, and renews an investment in living. This paper identifies ten facets of joy which can help develop a therapeutic group climate. Examples from the authors' practice illustrate conceptual approaches.     

A lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution in young children: Relationships with linguistic ability and mothers' mental‐state language

This study examines the contribution of children's linguistic ability and mothers' use of mental‐state language to young children's understanding of false belief and their subsequent ability to make belief‐based emotion attributions. In Experiment 1, children (N = 51) were given three belief‐based emotion‐attribution tasks. A standard task in which the protagonist was a story character and the emotional outcomes were imagined, and two videos in which the story protagonist was a real infant and the emotional outcomes were observable (high and low expressed emotion conditions). Children's verbal ability (semantic competence) was also measured. In Experiment 2, children (N = 75) were given two belief‐based emotion tasks: the standard story task and the high expressed emotion video. In addition, children's verbal ability (syntactic competence) and mothers' use of mental‐state attributes when describing their children were also measured. The results showed that: (1) the lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution was a stable feature of children's reasoning across the three tests; and (2) children who were more linguistically advanced and whose mothers' described them in more mentalistic terms were more likely to understand the association between false belief and emotion. The findings underline the continuing importance of verbal ability and linguistic input for children's developing theory‐of‐mind understanding, even after they display an understanding of false belief.     

Perspective taking in children's narratives about jealousy

This study explored relationships between perspective‐taking, emotion understanding, and children's narrative abilities. Younger (23 5‐/6‐year‐olds) and older (24 7‐/8‐year‐olds) children generated fictional narratives, using a wordless picture book, about a frog experiencing jealousy. Children's emotion understanding was assessed through a standardized test of emotion comprehension and their ability to convey the jealousy theme of the story. Perspective‐taking ability was assessed with respect to children's use of narrative evaluation (i.e., narrative coherence, mental state language, supplementary evaluative speech, use of subjective language, and placement of emotion expression). Older children scored higher than younger children on emotion comprehension and on understanding the story's complex emotional theme, including the ability to identify a rival. They were more advanced in perspective‐taking abilities, and selectively used emotion expressions to highlight story episodes. Subjective perspective taking and narrative coherence were predictive of children's elaboration of the jealousy theme. Use of supplementary evaluative speech, in turn, was predictive of both subjective perspective taking and narrative coherence.     

A Community’s Response to Suicide Through Public Art: Stakeholder Perspectives from the Finding the Light Within Project

Suicide is a preventable public health problem and a leading cause of death in the United States. Despite recognized need for community-based strategies for suicide prevention, most suicide prevention programs focus on individual-level change. This article presents seven first person accounts of Finding the Light Within, a community mobilization initiative to reduce the stigma associated with suicide through public arts participation that took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 2011 through 2012. The stigma associated with suicide is a major challenge to suicide prevention, erecting social barriers to effective prevention and treatment and enhancing risk factors for people struggling with suicidal ideation and recovery after losing a loved one to suicide. This project engaged a large and diverse audience and built a new community around suicide prevention through participatory public art, including community design and production of a large public mural about suicide, storytelling and art workshops, and a storytelling website. We present this project as a model for how arts participation can address suicide on multiple fronts—from raising awareness and reducing stigma, to promoting community recovery, to providing healing for people and communities in need.     

Living stories: Modern storytelling as a call for connection

Abstract

This article presents an intuitive inquiry into storytelling using creative arts and media within the context of modern culture. Taken from a relational and transpersonal perspective, the Living Stories style of personal storytelling is explored and developed in response to the need for connection expressed in the culture‐at‐large and to create opportunities for transformation. The research question asks, What makes storytelling elicit compassionate connection? The researcher engages in a creative and collaborative storytelling process with 1 storyteller who shares her breast cancer experience over the course of several years. The resulting story is presented to 95 participants via an interactive mixed media gallery exhibition featuring photography, poetry, and music, and stations where feedback is invited. Data includes questionnaire and creative expression responses from participants and researcher observation. Key findings include (a) participant reports of participatory knowing and transpersonal phenomena, including the experience of interconnection; (b) emotional narrative as an essential storytelling feature; (c) photography as a visual anchor; and (d) the story as inseparable from the act of storytelling. Study findings expand the storytelling definition to include modern forms whereby the storyteller is not present and suggest applications in television, film, digital storytelling, and community.     

Focusing and Expressive Arts Therapy as a Complementary Treatment for Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

This pilot study (N = 18) explored the effectiveness of focusing and expressive arts therapies intervention on the quality of life of women with breast cancer. The format was a 2-day (7 hours per day) retreat/support group in which complementary treatments (focusing, writing, art, and movement) were provided in an intensive format. Our hypothesis was that an integrated approach of multimodal expressive arts therapy would result in improvements in several measures of the participants' qualities of life. There was a 6-week post-group follow-up telephone interview, during which several participants reported positive results. This suggests that the intervention was beneficial.     

The experience of ‘healing stories’ in the life narrative: A grounded theory

‘healing stories' are part of an emergent narrative literature in psychology and counselling. This research explored the subjective experience of ‘healing stories’ within the context of individual's life narratives. A grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) method of analysis was used to generate and analyse six participant's life narratives. Analysis of these accounts revealed three categories. The first is the context of struggle that preceded the healing process. participants told of struggle in their relationships with others as well as turmoil in their experience of themselves. The second category, the healing process reflected the participants' growing awareness of life's existential givens (Yalom, 1980). This represented a personal exploration that opened lparticipants to a ‘healing story’ that offered them an insight into choices and possibilities for liberation. The third category illustrated that in the ongoing struggle the ‘healing story’ has continued to provide inspiration in the participants' lived experience as an ‘evoked companion’ (Stern, 1985). This research posited a core dynamic whereby participants' experience of their ‘healing story’ provided not only an initial inspiration that was healing but also, in their ongoing struggle, the ‘healing story’ continued to inspire their lived experience.     

The Youth Public Arts Program: Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Outcomes for At-Risk Youth

This article provides the findings of a program evaluation of the Youth Public Arts Program, a long-standing community-based art program that serves at-risk youth in eastern North Carolina. The program evaluation was undertaken to examine the art skills, social and interpersonal skills, and community involvement of the participants. The study included four focus groups and telephone surveys with a total of 38 stakeholders (program participants, parents of participants, program staff, and referral sources). Results indicated that the at-risk youth had gains in both interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, including family relationships, peer relationships, community interaction, increased art skills, confidence, and self-regulation. This article adds to the very limited literature on community-based art programs for youth.     

Staff and Resident Involvement in a Therapeutic Community: For Better or Worse?

Therapeutic communities are a commonly used context for counseling persons with drug problems or emotional problems and for other populations of clients. The group dynamics of therapeutic communities are very complex. When the staff members of a therapeutic community develop communication problems with one another or when these staff members become overly involved with residents, staff problems almost always have a negative impact on the program of the therapeutic community. This article describes how staff problems can negatively affect the program of a therapeutic community and also relates the kinds of problems encountered in a therapeutic community to the problems encountered in rehabilitation programs in other settings.     

Promoting Honesty: The Influence of Stories on Children's Lie‐Telling Behaviours and Moral Understanding

Moral stories are a means of communicating the consequences of our actions and emphasizing virtuous behaviour, such as honesty. However, the effect of these stories on children's lie‐telling has yet to be thoroughly explored. The current study investigated the influence of moral stories on children's willingness to lie for another individual. Children were read one of three stories prior to being questioned about an accidental wrongdoing: (1) a positive story, which emphasized the benefits of being honest; (2) a negative story, which outlined the potential costs of lying; and (3) a neutral story, which was unrelated to truth‐telling or lie‐telling. Initially, most children withheld information about the event. Older children were better able to maintain their lies throughout the interview. However, when asked direct questions, children in the positive story condition were more likely to tell the truth than those in the negative and neutral conditions. No significant differences were found between the negative and neutral story conditions. The present study also investigated the relationship between children's conceptual understanding and behaviour. The findings revealed that children's knowledge of truths and lies increased with age. Children who lied had significantly higher conceptual scores than those who did not lie. Furthermore, the type of story children were read had a significant impact on their evaluations of true and false statements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of storytelling in advertising: Consumer emotion,narrative engagement level,and word‐of‐mouth intention

This experimental study with a national online sample (n = 300) tested the effects of storytelling in radio advertisements on participants' positive emotional responses and intentions to share information about the product, depending on audiences' narrative engagement level. Treatments included a commercial for a fictitious brand of luggage using a story told by the founder of the company, another version of the same commercial manipulated so the speaker was a customer of the company, and a control stimulus consisting only of information about the product. Results showed that narrative transportation and narrative preference are positively associated with favorable responses toward ad. Stories elicited more favorable emotional responses and had some effect on participants' intention to share information about the product by word‐of‐mouth. This was especially true among participants hearing the founder's story. Results support previous assumptions about the power of storytelling in advertising, including distinctions regarding the identity of the speaker (founder vs. customer).