Majority Of Therapists Research Articles

Multiplicity as a tradition: Theories for interdisciplinary arts therapies—An overview

The majority of therapists who actively incorporate the arts into the practice of psychotherapy find themselves divided into schools and associations based on their choice of artistic discipline. Some of the more popular and organized disciplines include music therapy, art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy and poetry therapy.’ When therapists “cross over” and draw on multiple disciplines, as they do in the field of expressive therapy,* they can meet with opposition from their differently focused peers. The controversy on one side appears to be rooted in a concern about the competency of practitioners who spread themselves too thin. Mastery of each artistic discipline requires a lifetime of study and practice, so the argument goes; how could a therapist hope to master several? Art therapist Gladys Age11 (1982) put it this way: “A flirtation with materials is not enough. Only a love affair with materials can lead to a wedding of felt experience and formed expression. ” In this ongoing debate the arguments that favor specialization by artistic discipline are certainly reasonable-in view of the context from which they emerge. I want to present a different context, a different way of looking at the arts in psychotherapyone that finds its foundation in the age-old tradition of multiplicity in the practice of the arts. Intermodal expressive therapy neither requires nor promotes the mastery of several distinct schools of therapy, each of which finds focus in a single artistic discipline. Rather, it finds its primary focus in the artistic tradition that all the arts have in common. In other words, intermodal expressive therapy is a discipline unto itself, with its own theoretical framework and focus that evolved from different schools. Until now, unfortunately, they have not been addressed or articulated sufficiently in the literature. I intend to give an overview here of these theoretical frameworks. The artistic tradition that provides a basic foundation for the discipline of intermodal expressive therapy is rooted in human imagination and is characterized by an interrelatedness among the arts. It is the same tradition in which opera directors, choreographers, film-makers, theatre and performance artists need to train and gain eloquence. The most recent ones are the performance artists who strive for the expressive act that melts their own texts, sounds, images and movements in one cast. They challenge cliches and codes of the traditional arts establishment and promote the deconstruction of mechanisms of alienation. Therefore performance artists became an essential part of the postmodem move-

When clients don't progress: Influences on and explanations for lack of therapeutic progress

Three hundred and fifteen psychotherapists responded to a survey and provided information about clients who had failed to make progress in individual treatment. It was found that criteria for defining failure to progress varied with therapy orientation, and that social—cognitive factors, over the severity of patient symptoms, often guided therapists evaluations of client functioning. Preliminary estimates were that an average of 11% of each therapist's caseload were not making progress, and that the majority of therapists who were continuing to treat these clients had not developed alternative treatment plans. Both pragmatic and ethical concerns suggest the need for developing guidelines and criteria for use in determining when clients are failing to make sufficient progress and in providing recommendations for how such cases should be managed.

A Survey of Canadian Occupational Therapists' Use of Hand Splints for Children with Neuromuscular Dysfunction

This survey was designed to identify the current practice of Canadian occupational therapists who have identified themselves as working in paediatrics to determine: (1) what hand splints they use with children who have neuromuscular dysfunction; (2) what influences the therapists' selection of splints; (3) what therapy goals the therapists associate with the splints they use; and (4) what relationships exist between therapists' years of clinical practice and post-graduate training and the splints used. Questionnaires were mailed to 399 occupational therapists across the ten provinces and the Northwest Territories and the Yukon with a 60% return rate. Only three splints are used regularly by over 50% of the therapists. These were the resting palmar hand splint, the thumb splint, and the hard cone splint. For the remaining nine splints, over 65% of the therapists reported they had never used any of them. The major reason reported for not using these splints was a lack of familiarity. Another reason for not using hand splints was a lack of available resources (time and materials). Therapists who worked less than five years demonstrated a greater tendency to use hand splints as compared to those therapists with more years of clinical experience. The majority of therapists were employed in rehabilitation facilities with a trend toward community facilities. This pattern may in part explain the low frequency of hand splint use among therapists. Other suggestions are made for the interpretation of these results, along with questions for future research.

Survey of Treatment Modalities for the Prevention of Hypertrophic Facial Scars

The application of pressure to facial burns as a means of preventing or treating hypertrophic scar formation constitutes a major clinical challenge. Success depends on the experience of the therapist, choice of the pressure treatment, proper measurement technique, and adequate duration of therapy. A mail survey of therapists involved in the use of the various pressure modalities reveals a common trend with respect to the type of device used and the duration of therapy. The majority of therapists report that no one treatment produces uniformly excellent results.

The Therapeutic Use of Computers in Occupational Therapy With Patients With Closed Head Injuries

Occupational therapists in various settings were surveyed to obtain information on their use of computers with closed head injured patients. The majority of therapists use micro-computers for cognitive rehabilitation followed by vocational rehabilitation. Respondents indicated that an efficient means of distributing information does not yet exist resulting in a high incidence of trial and error learning on the part of the therapist.

Therapists' views on the clinical usefulness of four aphasia tests.

AbstractAlthough tests of aphasia have been critically discussed (e.g. Darley, 1979; Müller, Munro & Code, 1981) little data exist from practising speech therapists as to their clinical usefulness in the assessment and management of aphasic patients. This study was carried out to meet this need. The subjects were speech therapists who were representative of different areas of the U.K. The four most frequently used tests were found to be An Aphasia Screening Test, the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, the Minnesota Test for the Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia and the shortened Minnesota Test for the Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia (Thompson & Enderby, 1979). The majority of therapists were not entirely satisfied with the clinical usefulness of these tests and some amendments were suggested. Implications relating to the assessment and clinical management of aphasic patients are discussed and the need for a screening test linked more closely to a full battery of tests is noted.

Role of the Physical Therapist at Pain Treatment Centers

A nationwide survey of pain treatment centers was conducted for the purpose of investigating the role of the physical therapist at the centers. The majority of centers employing a physical therapist treated both inpatients and outpatients. Cervical and low back pain were the most common types of pain. The treatments most commonly used were an individualized exercise program, relaxation training, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and instruction in body mechanics. The majority of therapists attended staff meetings once a week, were responsible for teaching classes related to physical therapy, and were involved in some type of patient follow-up. Almost half of the therapists were engaged in pain research and clinical education.

Back-scatter from salt tissue and bone.

In The Course of depth measurements in a Presdwood phantom of the head and neck, a discussion arose as to the accuracy of the measurements because of the absence of bone. It was recognized that the dose distribution would be materially affected by the higher absorption in such bony structures as the mandible and maxilla. Not only is the attenuation of the beam after it has traversed bone to be considered, but also its intensity in the soft tissues on the side of the bone nearest to the x-ray tube, that is to say, the back-scatter from bone. Since then, questioning has revealed that the majority of therapists are under the impression that back-scatter from bone is greater than that from soft tissue. It was decided to investigate this experimentally. Procedure The procedure in its simplest form was to make readings with a thimble chamber half embedded in bone and to compare these with readings similarly taken in a comparable mass of soft tissue or its equivalent. Since the irregular configuration of human o...