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Research Plan OverviewMikaela Blayney

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Chosen Topic: Dance Movement Therapy as a psychotherapeutic

treatment for eating disorders

Research Question: How does Dance Movement Therapy improve self-esteem

and body image perception in eating disorder clients within a New Zealand context?

+Why I chose DMT and research question I chose the topic of DMT as dance is one of my main passions, I

want to incorporate this love of dance into a career in which I am able to help people.

The issue of eating disorders is of interest to me as I have been around those experiencing these disorders, especially in the dancing world.

My research question aims to find out how exactly DMT can be used to treat contributing factors of eating disorders, specifically self-esteem and body image perception issues.

I feel this research is of importance as it will provide a form of psychotherapy in which clients are free to express themselves without verbal communication. Following this research health professionals will have a greater understanding of DMT benefits in treating eating disorders.

+Why I chose specific research design and method Qualitative Approach

Qualitative approach was chosen for this research study as I wanted to find out how DMT can be incorporated into treating clients experiencing an eating disorder, specifically treating the contributing factors of self-esteem and body image perception. Qualitative research is an appropriate approach as it focuses on gathering subjects perspective through in-depth interviews and content analysis rather than statistics or numbers as with quantitative research (Babbie, 2008; Forinash, 2004). This approach is appropriate as by gaining participants personal experiences with DMT a sound conclusion is able to be interpreted as to how successful DMT is in treating contributing factors of eating disorders (self esteem and body image perception).

Phenomenological Approach Within the qualitative approach I chose to use the Phenomenology methodology. This

methodology allows the essence of subjects experience with DMT to be extracted from in-depth interviews, journals and stories (Forinash, 2004). To collect data using this methodology I propose the use of semi-structured interviews conducted by psychologists, subject journal writing, session filming and dance movement therapists to record notes of sessions. A multiple case study approach is also proposed to enable investigation of the phenomenon of DMT across a variety of cases (DePoy & Gitlin, 2005).

+Data Analysis

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) would be used to

analyse the data. IPA allows the analyst to examine in detail the subjects journey

and experience of DMT, gaining an ‘insider’s perspective’ (Smith & Osborn, 2009).

In this study the analyst will begin by reading through transcripts of interviews, therapist’s reports and narrative journals noting points of significance in the left-margin which may produce common themes once all subjects data has been analyzed.

The aim IPA is to interpret subjects individual narratives deciphering how DMT impacted their self-esteem and body image perceptions and overall effectiveness of DMT in helping people overcome their eating disorder.

+Professional/Discipline implications

If this research is carried out it will provide in-depth knowledge on the effectiveness of DMT as a useful psychotherapeutic treatment option for eating disorders. This knowledge will be beneficial for health professionals and clients alike as DMT will be seen as an acceptable form of treatment, proving the need for its implementation in eating disorder clinics.

+References

Babbie, E. (2008). The basics of social research (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

DePoy, E., & Gitlin, L. N. (2005). Introduction to research: Understanding and applying multiple strategies (3rd ed.). St Louis, MO: Mosby Inc

Forinash, M. (2004). Qualitative data collection and analysis: Interviews, observations, and content analysis. In R, F. Cruz & C, F. Berrol (Eds.), Dance/movement therapists in action: A working guide to research options (pp. 125-143). Springfield, Illinois: Charles C Thomas Publisher Ltd.

Smith, J. A. & Osborn, M. (2009). Interpretive phenomenological analysis. In J. A, Smith., P, Flowers., & M, Larkin (Eds.), Interpretive phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research (pp. 53-80). London, England: SAGE Publications Ltd.