Dissertation Title:

The In-between of Creative Processes: Songwriting and Psychotherapy

Candidate:

Christina Martinez

Date, Time & Place:

August 18, 2016 at 5:15 pm
Studio, Lambert Road campus


Abstract

This qualitative case study explored songwriters and therapists’ engagement with their creative capacity as part of their respective professional experiences. The results showed that the creative process may allow for elements important to their work to rise, fall and integrate in a natural way while rejecting linear and rigid pathways toward creative outcomes. This research also compared the creative processes of songwriting and psychotherapy and revealed parallels between the two groups including connection to the Other, personal transformation, working with fragments towards completeness, embracing a transitory space, having a physical space designated to the processes, and the creation of what is new. This study’s findings may aid clinicians in understanding the process related to exercising their creative capacity and maintaining awareness that the craft of therapy at its core includes an enactment of the therapist’s own creative process.

Note

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Details
  • Program/Track/Year: Clinical Psychology, Track A, 2008
  • Chair: Dr. Oksana Yakushko
  • Reader: Dr. Wendy Phillips
  • External Reader: Dr. Anita Bavarsky
  • Keywords: Creative Process, Songwriting, Psychotherapy, Therapist, Music, In-between, Creativity