Proposal Research Project
Reclaiming Your Virginity: Intuitive Inquiry.
Rev. Dinah Rachel Pemberton
Cycle 1
Introduction
The word feminine has very little to do with the term gender, nor is the woman keeper of femininity. Both men and women are searching for their pregnant virgin, she is the part of us who is outcast, the part who comes to consciousness through going into darkness, unearthing and tending to our darkness until we bring her silver out (Woodman, 1985).
“Reclaiming Your Virginity” is a creative feminine source. That empowers and creates a softening from hard structures to a gentler soft approach that have been intuitively ignored. It acknowledges that creativity is the healer and gives a voice to the unknown and the seen by using creative tools such as dance, art, poetry, meditation, movement etc.
Creative tools such as dance, and art are birthed from ancient rites and rituals going back to the origin of humanity. More recently dance was re-discovered as a healing tool within therapeutic contexts. Movement and art as a therapeutic intervention have the power to support deeper meaning and promote well-being (Dayton, 2010).
Halprin (2003) refers to creativity as a life force that lies between creation, death, harmony, and conflict. Which can be linked through a creative process that welcomes opposing opposites and enters us into something sacred, deep, and reverent, to celebrate sufferings, trauma, and differences, for healing and transformation (Halprin, 2014).
It was during a presence retreat I attended that the idea for the research project emerged “Reclaiming Your Virginity” and the method “Intuitive Inquiry”. Intuitive Inquiry (Anderson & Braud, 2011) for me is like a spiritual guide, it facilitates and assists the researcher to face ultimate fears, within a hermeneutic structure composed of five cycles. That allows the unfolding of a dynamic process, which invites a ritual for transformation, experiencing compassion and honouring. Using variety of creative tools as healing agents and sources of inspiration for self and others.
Creativity complements the intuition as they are both sources of unconditional knowing. It teaches us to become a channel for transformative learning, honouring and reflection (Netzer, 2014). In where we experience being the outsider of the creative experience, weaving or dancing ourselves into becoming the whole person.
Research Question
Here in the UK, the recommendation for treatment is via helplines, talk therapies and medication. Non-Verbal approaches such as dance, a ritual for honouring, and art are not high on the list, for recommendations. Research from neuroscientists shows that unresolved stress or depression may lead to illness and cause negativity to the body and brain (Levine & Frederick, 1997). Koch, et al. (2019) found that using creativity complements traditional treatment as a form of healing, to help relieve stress, providing us with a healthy outlet to release pent up emotions, self-discovery, improve self-esteem and confidence.
The proposed research project is centred on the research question:
How can creativity honour the healing journeys of people’s lives?
The aim is to add more attention to non-verbal modalities such as creativity, movement, art, as a tool for healing, mindfulness and spiritual transformation.
Through the literature review I have found this to be an under-researched topic that deserves more recognition. And with that, I would like to raise consciousness, to help improve an in depth understanding and look for ways in which we can honour spiritual transformation and healing. Which will hopefully encourage a shift in perception and alter the researcher’s, participants’ and reader’s way of seeing and being in the world.
Many traditional therapy approaches rely on verbal communication. The psychological foundation and security of therapeutic relationships are dependent on vulnerability and trust to release pent up emotions, to gain deeper acceptance, compassion, and move forward in a more positive way (Unthank, 2007).
Integrating dance, music, art, ritual, and myths enter you into an initiation for transformation and healing. Dance and the process of creativity focus is on the power of nonverbal communication (Stromsted, 2009). Halprin (2003) believes that we have the remedy and medicine within us to translate our past lived experiences into dance. This is carried out through the language of the body and movement, not by a language that has been shaped by our minds (Halprin, 2014). Further, she states that dance is not about dance moves, it is about intention. The simple act of setting a table, lighting a candle is equally valuable as a dance move (Halprin, 2019).
According to research, dance and art have proven to offer primary ways for individuals to access their inner and collective power as a non-verbal modality to release stored emotions associated with unresolved issues. Art expression anchors the individual's experience and can be used to release, heal fears, and motivate for social change (Halprin, 2019). Movement is reverent and transpersonal; it expresses individual mythology while connecting us to larger human myths (Haye, 2013). Dance is an immediate direct and powerful source that bypasses discussion, argument, and difference (Halprin, 2019).
According to Mintarsih & Aziziah (2020), dance movement therapists help to provide a safe contained space by offering ways for the body to slow down and not feel the need to protect itself. This helps to recall forgotten memories and construct a healing narrative for them to embody (Haye, 2014). This can be achieved by relearning and turning healing stories into a myth, then into a dance or art for a ritual (Halprin, 2014).
Creative expression acts as a facilitator to experience being present in the moment. Dance and creativity for personal expression can be a mindfulness practice (Netzer, 2014), which leads us into a meditative state for observing our feelings. It facilitates an opening of becoming aware of the inner and outer duality process that is happening (Netzer, 2014). Halprin (2019) also states that the creative expression, is the bridge to the unconscious to the conscious awareness connecting the individual inner experience to the outer expression, where living mythology binds the individual to past experiences and provides information for transformation (Halprin, 2003).
Apparently, having a friendly relationship with the body enhances the healing process. When we begin to trust our healing process feeling the depth and allowing vulnerability (Unthank, 2019); we have created a ritual for something special, inviting, and playful. We have entered into a mysterious journey through bodies. Halprin (2019) states the spiritual body is our constant, fluctuating relationship to the life force. Finding what we have been searching for all along, the presence of being, and the infinite flow of divine unconditional love (Halprin, 2019).
Dance and creativity are widely practiced around the world. Most recently clinical studies by Karkou & Mekeems (2017), Koch et.al (2019), Bong et al (2017) and Centre for Policy on Ageing (Bupa) (2011) have been able to show the usefulness and the impact that dance has on the lives of people who have dementia, the elderly, stress, depression, disability, and cancer. However, in some of their results there is still not enough concreate evidence clinically that dance is an effective tool for treatment or healing.
Due to this information, I would like this research project to contribute and fill in any gaps about dance and creativity that researchers in this field maybe missing. There is a growing need for more services beyond the medical treatment that provides an integrated holistic approach that treats the whole person. Insights from participants healing journeys who have used dance and creativity for healing will be valuable to the study.
Method
The chosen qualitative method that will be used is Intuitive Inquiry (Anderson, 2004).
Intuitive inquiry assists like a spiritual guide yearning to understand Eros or love leading the researcher to their beloved topic. Intuitive inquiry starts off like a light in the dark of winter because the impulse to explore a topic claims the researcher’s imagination in an unconscious way (Anderson & Braud, 2011).
Rosemarie Anderson the founder of intuitive inquiry says that “the basic ground the origin of Intuitive Inquiry makes it a method of feminine energies because “the root is the mother of all things” (Unthank, 2007, p. 63). The Intuitive Inquiry is also viewed as a hermeneutical research method, an epistemology of the heart that joins intuition to intellectual precision and is specifically intended for the study of human experiences (Anderson & Braud, 2011).
Intuitive Inquiry challenges conventional notions of a static worldview that is separate and different from the knower (Anderson, 2019). The intention is to allow the dynamic process, to bring forth new visions, which invites a ritual for experiencing compassion and honouring through dance and creativity as healing agents for transformation and sources of inspiration and wisdom for others to enhance a personal and meaningful process to bring forth rich data to transform deeper meaning and understanding (Anderson, 2004).
In order to do this, the researcher will work closely with the nine challenges and characteristics of Intuitive Inquiry, which are (1) being rigorously subjective (2) telling the truth no matter what (3) avoiding circularity (4) trickstering and auspicious bewilderment (5) maintaining a process-oriented and inclusive perspective (6) writing in your own voice (7) favouring the particular and the personal (8) imagining the possible (9) risking personal change and transformation.
The hermeneutic structure is composed of five iterative cycles of interpretation giving intuitive inquiry a structure to soften and pursue the heart, which invites freedom of expression and creativity to challenge the researcher’s initial understanding (Anderson & Braud, 2011).
Unthank (2007) states that the five cycles are a ritual of transformation which are (1) clarifying the research topic via a creative process, (2) the researcher reflects on his or her understanding of the topic developing preliminary lenses based on reflections and reviewing the literature (3) gathering and identifying the best source of data, (4) refining and transforming the initial lenses to expand the understanding of the research (5) detachment from and reflections on the research process, taking into consideration all aspects of the study (Anderson, 2019).
I am attracted to intuitive inquiry because it enables me to honour my personal experiences and include my intuition to lead me into an honest interpretation of what the inquiry is truly about. It is my own healing journey that has led me to explore how dance and creativity can be used as tools for mindfulness, rituals, honouring and transformation. Creatively dancing and drawing towards the heart for compassion, transformation, and listening deeply to my intuition to unfold new ways, to encourage creative flow and honest emotional communication (Anderson, 2004).
To honour the voices and experience of myself as the researcher, participants, and readers, I would like to integrate multiple ways of creativity to validate the research, using dance, meditation, movement, art, poetry and intuition (Netzer, 2015).
Now that I have identified my research topic based on my interest and passion. To enter into cycle 1 more fully I will use my practice of meditation and yoga to arrive into an intuitive and calm state to establish a text, image or both to clarify, deepen, and refine the identification of the research study further (Anderson & Braud, 2011). Entering into Cycle 2 will involve three stages, one the researcher will familiarise with the empirical findings and historical texts about the topic. Second, identify from the topic a unique set of texts for an imaginal dialogue. Third based on the imaginal dialogue prepare a list of preliminary interpretative lenses that will express a further understanding prior to data collection (Anderson & Braud, 2011). I will also use my practice of meditation and yoga to enter in this cycle.
Cycle 3, 4 and 5 Collecting and Analysing Data
Participants
Participants will be asked to complete a selection questionnaire (see appendix A). The participants who meet the criteria are people who have experienced dance/art as a tool for healing, transformation or recovery. The age range is from 18 years and over. I welcome various ethnicities, religions, genders, spiritual backgrounds, and participants who are not religious or do not have a spiritual practice.
Inclusion Criteria
18 years and over
All genders (including male, female, transgender, gender-neutral, gender fluid, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none or a combination of these
All religions and none
Attend a live 1 day online recorded creative workshop
Attend a live online recorded 2-hour interview and a follow up call
People who have used dance and art as a tool for recovery, healing and spiritual guidance and transformation
People who are willing to share their healing experiences
Participants who are self – identifying as healthy and well
People who embrace a spiritual outlook
Exclusion Criteria
Children under the age of 18
Participants who are not interested in dance and creativity
People who do not have an interest in healing and transformation
People who do not have a spiritual outlook
Participants with mental health diagnoses
The number of participants I anticipate working with is from six to twelve (see appendix B) for more information on participants. To advertise and recruit I will circulate an online flyer (see appendix C) as an invitation with a description of the study for the appropriate participants with a link to fill out a questionnaire. I am drawn to charities and organisations such as School of Movement Medicine, Tamalpa UK, OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation, LGBT. For further information on participants (see appendix B).
The data will be collected by a one-day workshop (see appendix D) and an interview using a semi-structured interview protocol (see appendix E) with open-ended questions to allow flexibility (Creswell & Poth, 2019). The data will be analysed using Anderson’s (2007) thematic content analysis and Netzer’s (2014) five-step imaginal resonance procedure. The workshop will be focused on honouring our creative expression using tools such, art, dance, poetry, journaling, meditation and a group dialogue for a creative reflective process (Netzer, 2014).
As Intuitive Inquiry welcomes creativity, the one-day creative workshop will come first followed by a 2–3-hour interview. Which will start with a meditation, and then gently emerge into the interview questions. During the interview I will be mindful of the questions that I ask participants, so they feel comfortable and at ease. I will keep the questions to a minimum so that we can focus more on the intuition and the creative part of the interview. See appendix E for further information on the interview process.
Both the workshop and interviews invitations will lead’s us into an intuitive process to trust immediate knowing. Whereby leading participants into an opportunity for learning, experiencing balance, healing, mindfulness, and transformation for the areas where the mind maybe critical (Netzer, 2014).
Ethics
Deontologists believe that the goal of moral philosophy should be figured out by rules for living a moral life (Van Staveren, 2007). "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is a prime example of deontology. This will be pivotal for the research process.
It will be made clear to participants from the beginning of the process of the research what this research project entails. Anonymity will be protected; informed consent will be obtained and knowing they have the right to withdraw from the study at any time. Confidentiality, personal data will be maintained according to the data protection act 2018. Data will also be password protected. In case participants would like to continue receiving support using creative tools, I have a list of online services who offer dance, art, therapeutic, and spiritual counselling online if that maybe of interest to them. Please (see appendix F) for more information.
For my self-care and best practice, I have in place a supervisor. I have a preceptor; I have monthly spiritual counselling sessions. I attend a weekly sharing circle held by the Open Monastery. I meditate three times a day, journaling, art, jewellery making, dance, and yoga.
References and Bibliography List
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