PORTRAITS OF VOCAL PSYCHOTHERAPISTS: SINGING AS A HEALING INFLUENCE FOR CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION SUSAN SUMMERS A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 2014 This is to certify that the Dissertation entitled: PORTRAITS OF VOCAL PSYCHOTHERAPISTS: SINGING AS A HEALING INFLUENCE FOR CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION prepared by Susan Summers Is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership and Change. Approved by: ______________________________________________________________ Carolyn Kenny, Ph.D., Chair date ______________________________________________________________ Jon Wergin, Ph.D., Committee Member date ______________________________________________________________ Sanne Storm, Ph.D., Committee Member date ______________________________________________________________ Randi Rolvsjord, Ph.D., External Reader date Copyright 2014 Susan Summers All rights reserved Acknowledgements My heartfelt and eternal gratitude to Carolyn, my committee chair, faculty advisor, mentor, music therapy colleague, fellow Canadian in every way that counts, and long-time friend. Thanks for your supportive and nurturing encouragement, clarification, support, wisdom, dedication, guidance, and friendship over the past five years of this doctoral journey. You have inspired me to be my best self, to believe and have faith that I could do this, to give voice to what I know, and to value my intuitive knowing. Your generosity, love and giving spirit has made this journey a healing one for me. I honour and thank you for shining your light and showing us the way, having the courage to lead change by being who you are and staying true to self. To my committee members: Jon, I thank you for your wonderful teaching during the program, for your dedication and guidance in my proposal and dissertation, and for having ongoing curiosity and offering gentle support throughout my time at Antioch. Sanne, thank you for your dedication and support for my ILA and my dissertation. I have appreciated having you as a fellow music therapist traveler and someone who is committed to learning and sharing more about the use of voice in music therapy and music psychotherapy. To my external reader, Randi, thank you for your dedication and support in reading my proposal and final dissertation, offering me your wisdom, guidance and feedback. I have learned much from each one of you. To my five participants, thank you for saying yes to sharing your story, your vocal journey and your insights and awarenesses. You truly are the heroes in this research, and I applaud and appreciate your courage, your receptivity, and your willingness to share this journey with me, and now with others who read this dissertation. To my cohort 9 peer support group, Ruby and Susan, who faithfully offered your support, and shared your laughter, your ideas, your struggles, your wisdom, and your friendship i throughout this past five years. Our weekly teleconference calls have been the mainstay of this journey and I could not have completed this dissertation without your constant friendship and support. It is my privilege and honour to share this with you. To the members of cohort 9, with whom I have shared this journey, including many laughs and barbecues, and the ups and downs of being a doctoral student, I am grateful for each one of you in my life and am inspired by your passion, your dedication to learning, and your unique way of leading change in our world. Thanks to my many friends and communities of support in Vancouver and British Columbia, Calgary, and Alberta, across Canada, and around the world. Each one of you has contributed to my success and I am grateful for you all. Special thanks goes to friend, doctoral buddy, and writing partner Gloria, whose friendship, expertise, and ongoing support has inspired me, been a grounding presence in my life, and has provided a constant reminder of the privilege we have as doctoral students to do the research we do. Appreciation to Nadine who offered me the suggestion of having my participants do a vocal portrait, and who has offered her support and encouragement throughout this journey as she too completed her own PhD. To my friend and cat nanny Deb, thank you for caring about my kitty family as much as I do, and for always being available to support them and me while I was away at residencies. Your friendship and support has made this road so much easier. To the Antioch faculty and staff who have provided a learning vessel for me over this past five years, thank you for holding the space, for creating such a wonderful program and for being there for me when I needed you. I am most appreciative of all my teachers throughout my life who offered their support, wisdom, and expertise. ii Appreciation and gratitude go to my wellness team: Tammey, Kristy, Ted, Eric, Marta, Marianne, and Randy, whose expertise in health and healing support has enabled me to work and write while still maintaining a healthful life. I extend my gratitude for financial support to the Health Sciences Association of BC, the Canadian Music Therapy Trust Fund’s Michael Cohl Scholarship, and Antioch University’s Guskin Scholarships. My gratitude to my Mom for believing in learning and for seeing my musical gifts and supporting (and ensuring that I continued) piano and singing lessons. My gratitude to my Dad for instilling in me a love of learning and a belief that I could do whatever I set my mind to, including a PhD. Although neither of you are here to see me graduate, your support and strong work ethic has given me needed skills to complete this PhD. Last but definitely not least, my love and gratitude to my kitty children, Kacey and Desi, who have accompanied me on this journey every day, have been there to give meows of support, unwavering and enthusiastic energy, and cuddles when needed. Special dedication to my kitty angel Jazmin, who is with me in spirit and is always in my heart. You are the best part of my days. Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to anyone who loves to sing. I offer a special dedication to those whose voice longs for freedom, and for you who need to be encouraged to know that you are a singer. iii Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the personal singing and vocal journey of music therapists who are also trained as vocal psychotherapists with the Austin model of vocal psychotherapy. I was interested in learning how singing has been a healing influence for change and transformation in their lives. It is my hope that this research will offer music therapists new perspectives and information about how singing is important in healing for their own change and transformation, and for that of their clients. This research also may have implications for leaders of change as well as those who engage in vocal and singing groups, choirs and projects. Foundational literature relates to topics such as vocal improvisation, vocal psychotherapy, therapeutic singing lessons, sound healing, and singing for health and wellness, but no research exists that specifically explores the healing influence of singing as experienced by music/vocal psychotherapists nor the full spectrum of healing domains (energetic, emotional, physiological, etc.). I gathered data by recorded in-person or Skype interviews with five Canadian music/vocal psychotherapists, and analyzed the data from the interviews using portraiture. This dissertation is accompanied by six MP3 audio files. Five of the MP3 files are embedded in the dissertation PDF and all are accessible as supplemental files. A video recorded author’s introduction is included. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/ and OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................. i Abstract.............................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents................................................................................................................ v List of Supplemental Files ................................................................................................. xi List of Figures................................................................................................................... xii Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 Situating the Researcher ......................................................................................... 2 My Scholarly Practitioner Voice. ............................................................... 7 The Purpose of the Study........................................................................................ 8 A Gap in the Literature ........................................................................................... 8 Research Questions............................................................................................... 10 Scope and Limitations of the Study...................................................................... 10 Organization of the Dissertation ........................................................................... 12 Literature Review.............................................................................................................