The Art and Science of Embodied Research Design

This edited volume brings together experienced scholars who conduct and teach embodied research to and establish effective strategies for exploring experience through nonverbal communication, subjective sensory and proprioceptive states, and body-centered imagery.

The Art and Science of Embodied Research Design: Concepts, Methods, and Cases offers some of the nascent perspectives that situate embodiment as a necessary element in human research. This edited volume brings together philosophical foundations of embodiment research with application of embodied methods from several disciplines.

The book is divided into two sections. Part I, Concepts in Embodied Research Design, suggests ways that embodied epistemology may bring deeper understanding to current research theory, and describes the ways in which embodiment is an integral part of the research process. In Part II, Methods and Cases, chapters propose novel ways to operationalize embodied data in the research process. The section is divided into four sub-sections: Somatic Systems of Analysis, Movement Systems of Analysis, Embodied Interviews and Observations, and Creative and Mixed Methods. Each chapter proposes a method case; an example of a previously used research method that exemplifies the way in which embodiment is used in a study.

As such, it can be used as scaffold for designing embodied methods that suits the researcher's needs. It is suited for many fields of study such as psychology, sociology, behavioral science, anthropology, education, and arts-based research. It will be useful for graduate coursework in somatic studies or as a supplemental text for courses in traditional research design.

"With this volume, Jennifer Tantia continues her extended efforts to weave together what began half a century ago as a widespread and often competitive collection of brilliant healers, craftspeople, therapists, and visionaries into a community focusing on shared models of public education, professional trainings, and research-grounded theories. Dr Tantia has played a difficult and crucial role, facing a number of practitioners who often resist what they see as the intrusions of critical thinking into their personal views of their works. She has worked skilfully over a number of years to show that without collaborative and critical research, our works are confined to a small population of people who have the money and leisure to profit from them. Her support of reflective thinking about these works, and her gathering of the thoughtful people in this and other volumes, to these new modes of healing and transformation opens the doors to the public access now accorded to biomedicine and certain approaches to psychotherapy." Don Hanlon Johnson, Professor ofSomatics, California Institute of Integral Studies, USA "The concept of embodiment has been sadly underrepresented in research methodologies to date, possibly due to the challenges it might bring to traditional researchers. These chapters serve to explore rationales for addressing embodiment in both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms helping to provide a platform for future researchers to build their proposal. I congratulate the editor Dr. Jennifer Tantia and all the authors, for this much-needed contribution to research methodology" Professor Helen Payne, PhD, UKCP Reg. Psychotherapist and ADMP UK Reg. Dance Movement Psychotherapist "This volume restores much needed embodied intimacy to ways of knowing that are full of texture and meaning." Les Todres, Emeritus Professor, Bournemouth University, UK "This latest volume continues to successfully unpack 'embodiment' as a conceptual frame for research. The carefully curated chapters powerfully add to a growing literature that places experiencing at the very heart of understanding the body's own logic without negating other forms of data. This practical and rigorous volume is a must-read for students, somatic practitioners and researchers." Kevin Krycka, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Psychology, Seattle University, USA. Chair, Gendlin Center for Research "Applications of embodied research are still novel and require discernment, even for those who know something about knowing through and with the body. The book brings together the many conceptualizations of embodiment and presents an array of approaches. The thought provoking collection of cases invites the reader to explore their nuances and learn to communicate nonverbal discoveries." Tomoyo Kawano, Director, Dance/Movement Therapy Program at Antioch University, USA

Auteur

Jennifer Frank Tantia, PhD, is a somatic psychologist and dance/movement therapist in New York City, USA. She has taught embodied research at several universities in the United States, and guest lectures internationally.

Contenu

Part I: Concepts in Embodied Research Chapter 1: Embodied Research Design: A Transformational Paradigm in Scientific Discovery Chapter 2: Open and Reflective Research: Methodological Reflections on the Importance of Body Awareness in Qualitative Research Chapter 3: The Concept Of "Felt Sense" In Embodied Knowing and Action Chapter 4: Embodied Data: Toward a Vocabulary for Somatic and Movement Experience Chapter 5: Ethical Considerations in Embodied Research; Part II: Methods and Cases; Somatic Systems of Analysis Chapter 6: Methods for Measuring Embodiment, An Instrument: The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) Chapter 7: Empirical Evidence of the Embodiment Awareness Changes in Somatic Focused Gestalt Psychotherapy Chapter 8: Somatic Phenomenology: Maps of Body-Felt Experience; Movement Systems of Analysis Chapter 9: The Three Pillars of Movement Observation and Analysis A Brief Introduction to the LMA, KMP and MPI Chapter 10: Embodied and Nonverbal Indices of Stress in Intergenerational Transmission Chapter 11: The Skillful Analyst: Investigating, Analyzing, And Reflecting on Movement Behavior Through Embodied Knowledge; Embodied Interviews and Observations Chapter 12: Ethnomethdologically Informed Ethnography: Recognising the Potential and Limitations of The Researcher's Body as Tool for Exploring Embodied Practice Chapter 13: Beyond Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Using Body Awareness and Mindfulness Meditation Practices to Research Body Psychotherapy Chapter 14: The Body-Focused Interview: Explicating the Implicit in Embodied Research Chapter 15: Embodied Writing Research Applications: Giving the Body "Voice" Through the Vehicle of Words; Creative and Mixed Methods Chapter 16: Body Stories: Researching and Performing the Embodied Experience of Oppression Chapter 17: The Somatic Impact of War and Flight on the Agent Bodies of Refugee Women in Germany: A Mixed-Method Approach Including Movement and Body Image Sculptures Chapter 18: Aesthetic Answering: A Method of Embodied Analysis and Arts-Based Research in Creative Arts Therapies Chapter 19: Mixed Methods for Evaluating Embodied Processes in Higher Education