Psychology RSS News Feeds

I try and keep up on the latest news in the world of psychology using RSS feeds on the homepage of my web browser. Lots of articles and tidbits which on occasion lead me to more research on subjects that I care about. All of the feeds listed here can be either read at the site or subscribed to as an RSS feed.

Psycport is an on-line news clipping service from the American Psychological Association (APA) that scans news headlines from around the globe for stories that have a psychological connection. You can either go to the web site: Psycport and read it there or read it as an RSS feed.

Psychology Today has more general interest psychology related stories.

New Scientist: Being Human has interesting stories that range from neuroscience to anthropology that relate to ….. well … being human.

Scientific American Mind and Brain very similar to New Scientist but more neuroscience articles. 

As a student at Antioch I have access to hundreds of journals on-line for free. I  go to the library web site and look up the journal I want ( or key words that describe what I am looking for). From there I can go to the Ohio-Link web site and either find articles I want or subscribe to the journal as an RSS feed. All of the APA journals and many others are available as an RSS feed. I subscribe to:

American Journal of Dance Therapy
Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice
Health Psychology
Journal Of Educational Psychology
International Journal of Play Therapy
Developmental Psychology
Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training

Community Forums

Antioch supports a place for local and gobal concerns to be voiced in many ways and one is through community forums and workshops. Between classes, papers, and working, some of the forums I have managed to attend are:
The Mountain Top Removal Road Show about the impact of mountaintop removal coal mining on residents, communities, and the environment in the southern Appalachians, The Psychology of Caring of the Planet about how we connect to nature, how we communicate about our relationships with nature, and what inspires us to conservation action, Reverential Ecology: A Journey Toward Wholeness about the relationship between earth and ourselves, King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.

There have been many other events and activities that happen at Antioch University New England for the students and community at large and there will be many more to come.

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

Last weekend I joined with over 200 others on a spring day to participate in the Keene Walk a Mile in Her Shoes March. We as a community showed our solidarity for those affected by Rape, Sexual Assault, & Gender Violence. This event works to raise community awareness of sexual assault and provides support for the Monadnock Center for Violence Prevention.

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes;  sponsored by the Monadnock Center for Violence Prevention, Monadnock Men’s Resource Center, and Keene State College.

 

The international Men’s March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault, & Gender Violence. 

Fundamentals of Therapeutic Interactions

As a counselor and dance/movement therapist in training I am in the process of honing many skills. One of the skills is the art of guidance/helping/counseling. In my Fundamentals of Therapeutic Interactions class last fall we explored various ways of being and being with a client. We shared our experiences, and studied various theories and techniques.

Finding a safe, compassionate, and experiential way to practice what is learned is essential for me in my learning style. I need to be hands on and apply the theory before I fully understand what it is all about. Below is an example of some writing I did for this class exploring observational techniques.

I use observation as a data analysis device. I take in the stimulus (data) and create a dialogue with it. Using past experiences as a baseline the data is than recreated, involving into the emergence of an idea into conscious thought and the manifestation of that idea/thought into communicable form.

For instance, one could observe a person sitting; who leans forward looking down at their shoes with a soft unblinking gaze and using an even vocal tone makes a statement. I make note of the multiple sources of data; posture, tonal-reflective qualities of the voice, gestures, eye direction and object looked at, musculature of the body (contraction/expansion of the muscles) and any other data sources. I take all of this and observe my own body (physical), mind (mental), and heart (emotional) responses.

The inner dialogue would begin with my experience of observation. What qualities in me form and come to the surface when I see and hear this person? Is there a personal experience in my life that this situation is similar too? What is the connection between the vocal quality, sentence structure, and words used to what is being said?

I than take my inner dialogue and began a recreation and communication of my experience of what I am observing. My first response might be physical, to lean forward in my chair so I could match the change in physical proximity. An increase in proximity might feel more intimate to me. I than might choose to join in the gaze and look down at the persons shoes. The focus of the gaze might bring up feelings of introspection. From a metal/thinking perspective I would examine the words to see if there was incongruence between what was being said with the voice and what was being said with the body. Finally I might choose to vocalize with words using the same tonal qualities, pauses and word structure.

Human Development and Diversity

Holistic vs Systems

 At Antioch, students are encouraged to lend their voices to discussions that impact the world, the community, themselves and their loved ones. It was in the context of community that I spent one Human Development and Diversity class exploring, thinking, sharing and finally writing about health care.  Below are some excerpts.

 

Illness that is of a chronic nature has a huge impact on individuals, as well as their family and/or friends. Often, with the onset of a serious/chronic illness comes the experience of being a widget in the health care industry. As an industry, health care has an inability to care for patients on an individual basis. Cost structures take the illness and systemize it to the point where methodology and practice maybe compromised.

While this impersonal method of heath care is promoted as cost effective, in reality it increases costs in the long run by not treating the patient holistically. Impersonal health care adds to the disassociation patients often experience; for the ill body, the new family/friend dynamic, the medical profession, and the possibilities of wellness. 

Psychomotor Assessment of Children

I started my journey at Antioch last fall (2007) with a full load of classes. One of the things I like about this school is that the D/MT classes are focused over a two day period. This allows for people to continue working while they are in the educational process. One of my first classes was Psychomotor Assessment of Children, with Susan Loman. In this class we began the year long process of learning the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP).

KMP is a way to describe, assess, and interpret non-verbal behavior using standardized methodology. This method, while complex, offers insight to movement preferences from a developmental perspective. It can be applied to children, adults, and/or their interactions.

I loved this class and it was very challenging at times. Learning how to describe the complexities of non-verbal behavior is not something that I do easily. However, with persistence, patience, and some extra help I managed to grasp the overall idea and make some progress towards proficiency.

At Antioch, education happens within the context of personal experience. That experience is the process of learning which would include reading, dancing/moving, drawing, writing, and sharing/talking; as well as how it relates to your past, present, and future. One of my personal experiences of KMP is becoming more fully aware of one of my movement preferences.

I prefer to sway. I sway when I do Tai Chi. I sway when I do African dance. Swaying for me is a way to find balance in myself, and where I am. I sway when I do drumming and when I sing. Swaying from an emotional perspective is nurturing and comforting. Below is an image I created after a movement exploration of my hips swaying.

About me

I grew up in the Philadelphia, PA area on a farm, the youngest of six children. My first dance experience was as a child in a church sponsored workshop with the Arthur Hall Afro-American Dance Ensemble, an experience that still resonates in my muscles and bones.   Over the years I have studied a variety of dance and movement styles as well as healing modalities such as massage and aromatherapy. I have learned that the body can be a profound vehicle for personal expression and change.

What motivated you to attend graduate school?

I am attending graduate school for two fundamental reasons; enrich/empower myself so I can more fully enrich/empower others. I have felt a calling to be a dance/movement therapist for many years and have studied on my own and through workshops. I came to realize that to more fully help others and to practice in the field I needed the type of training that can only happen in a ADTA approved program.  I felt that graduate school was the best way for me to create and to follow my own bliss.

Why Antioch?

From the moment I called admissions I have felt respected, supported, and valued as a person looking to further myself and my place in the world. Antioch is a unique multi-generational community that brings a global perspective to education while maintaining the personal experience of learning.  It is here in this New England setting that I can cultivate my love of dance/movement and my desire to help others.

Moving to Keene

Let me start this blog from the beginning of my Keene/Antioch experience. I moved to Keene from Philadelphia, PA, August of 2007, into a room of a big old New England clapboard house with four other Antioch students. My room is what used to be the parlor, doubtless the scene of many a visitor in times past. With a big old desk painted a new purple, and lively green and white curtains I’ve managed to create an eclectic mix of  old and new.  

The sun seems so much brighter, the sky bluer, and the wind crisper, here in Keene. The town sits on an ancient lake bed and we are surrounded by hills and mountains in the distance. Keene is a smallish town of about 25,000 people, it’s the county seat, and has a thriving downtown area. I live about a ten minute walk to the town square and another ten or so minutes gets me to Antioch.

Most mornings I walk to Prime Roast, one of the local coffeehouses, and have an eye opening cup of coffee. This is sometimes followed by a walk about town looking at stores, galleries and other attractions. I have visited the two local grocery stores here in Keene as well as the local health food store. I even managed to visit Brattleboro, VT and shopped at the very large food co-op.

Being used to public transportation I take the wee community bus to get around Keene when I don’t feel like walking. The big difference in bus transportation between Philly and Keene is that everybody seems to know one another’s name here. It’s sort of like a mobile ‘Cheers’ without Cliff and Norm.

I have managed to visit some historic sites in Keene as well as the home parish of Jonathan Daniel, an Episcopal priest who died in the struggle for civil rights some forty years ago. Keene is home to a wide variety of faith communities, including Quakers and Mindfulness Meditation, both of which I frequent.

In the seven months of living here in Keene I have discovered a community that prides itself as a traditional small town and also as a place of innovative and progressive thinking. I have connected with this town and what it has to offer and I am discovering new aspects and offerings on a weekly basis. When I moved here I emailed my friends back in Philly and pronounced:

“Good bye cruel world, I’ve moved to the Shire”.