ARBN 633105736

Lisa O’Beirne

Lisa O’Beirne – Bio


Edition:

Lisa, MCAT, RMIT; BBSc, LTU; AMusA (piano); Cert IV Training & Assessment, is currently completing her PhD in the School of Education, RMIT University. Previous tertiary education has been a Bachelor of psychology, a Masters of Creative Arts Therapy and teacher training at the Melbourne Steiner School. Modes of creative arts therapy work and experiences include developing arts for mental health programs, music and creative dance with primary school aged children, founding ‘Artists @ Play’ (multi-modal improvisation sessions) with a peer group of artists/friends, working with asylum seekers in detention, adolescents in TAFE (VCAL level), and early intervention music-movement therapy for pre-school aged children and their families. She lives at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges with her family of five, recently developing a keen interest in gardening as she has spent much of the last seven years home-based.

Weaving Family Threads: Notes on Early Intervention Music-Movement Program Supporting Parent-Child Relations


Edition: 2014 Vol. 12 Nos. 1-2

Keywords
parent-child relationship, socio-emotional awareness, physical movement, aural receptivity, self-regulation, early intervention

This is an excerpt from the content:

Weaving Family Threads was a program designed and facilitated for pre-school aged children and their parents/carers, within an early intervention program in 2011. Children with additional needs such as Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy, auditory comprehension and communication developmental delay participated through movement, imaginative play, singing and art- making. The sessions aimed to support the development of the children‟s socio-emotional awareness, physical movement, aural receptivity and comprehension, self-regulating and soothing strategies and positive parent-child interaction. The stages within the sessions are described in this paper, along with how the approach dovetailed with the existing specialist perspectives of the intervention program. Challenges of behavioural dynamics and pre- program/post-program rating scales and comments made by parents are presented and discussed. (pp 11-19)

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Artistic Intersubjective Technologies: Developments for Group-Work


Edition: 2012 Vol. 10 Nos. 3-4

Keywords
arts-based-research, intersubjectivity, reflexive-analysis, poststructuralist-theory

The study explored the merits of employing a multidisciplinary approach to group work in a Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support (PDRS) day-program. The main question guiding the study was: What are the practical and research implications of combining arts-based and narrative therapy approaches for group work in a Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support day-program? The methodology drew on poststructural theories of the knowledge-power relation, subjectivity, intersubjectivity and reflexivity. Analysis indicated changes in the group members‟ subjectivity noted as changes in how they perceived themselves and their positions within their community. Emergent issues discussed with the group and explored through the artistic processes were isolation, anxiety, self-consciousness, paranoia, companionship, confidence, motivation, emotions and change. The pantomime project enabled members to gain a sense of acceptance, understanding and belonging from other members of the day-program community. The reflexive analysis highlighted the suitability and significance of the artistic approaches to group work for people living with psychiatric illnesses and the various dimensions of the project assisted in addressing some of the group members‟ issues. Some aspects of the methodology and the process of involving audience members in the study could be applied to dance therapy research. (pp 2-8)

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The Benefits of Combining Creative Arts and Narrative Therapy approaches: a preliminary introduction to a PhD research study


Edition: 2006 Vol. 5 No. 1

Keywords
research, heuristic process, hermeneutic phenomenology, sacred, improvisation, experienced-based education

Lisa describes aspects of the process and the journey she experienced to explore blended creative approaches to therapy: “discovering unique outcomes, and how this related to talents, strengths and attitudes that could be celebrated and embodied through the artistic process.” The research project focussed on collaborating with people experiencing mental illness her project “intentions are to make art together, to give a platform to make otherwise isolated pieces of art and creativity visible, make creative experiences where the negative experiences can be counteracted or counterbalanced, bring forth alternative experiences to the isolating forces in their lives, make group experiences more accessible, and provide a ‘practice space’ for these alternative ways of seeing themselves so that they may strengthen and develop into real options of perceiving themselves in life.” This community health based project included supporting participants to publicly share their stories in the form of a film documentary. (pp 18-19)

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Using Music and Movement in Reflection of Clinical Experience


Edition: 2003 Vol. 2 No. 3

Keywords
Music improvisation, Authentic movement, Initiatic art, Heuristic, Artistic expression

This is an excerpt from the content:

…“This paper presents a project of discovering the use of music improvisation, ‘authentic movement’ and ‘initiatic art’ drawing to reflect on clinical experience. Within the ‘heuristic’ process of emersion, expression, incubation, illumination and documentation, the use of artistic expression with a written journal allows experience that is not easily articulated, to be acknowledged and gradually understood. The use of self-axis references in the reviewing stage of the process accentuates the therapist’s narrative being revealed through the project.” (pp 7-12)

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Dancing in the Desert


Edition: 2002 Vol. 1 No. 4

Keywords
Detention centre, Immigration, Social work

This article is a reflection of offering creative arts therapy approaches to the Woomera Detention Centre’s residents, with a focus on dance.  Observations reveal the detainees utilised dance as a form of cultural expression and to try to keep their lives joyful amidst coping with intense emotional states and prolonged uncertainty.

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