Decolonialising a grounded theory of presence

Blunden, Nicola

Abstract

In this seminar, Nicola presents her inter-disciplinary constructivist grounded theory of therapeutic improvisation. She proposes a model of therapy-as-art-making, bringing to light the central aesthetic practice employed by therapists: conversational improvisation.
Like artists in other fields, therapists conceive of improvisation as an embodied practice, in which something new or previously un-symbolised is realised. Therapists and artists provided rich accounts of how this happens, enabling Nicola to articulate three dialectical aspects of improvisation in therapy and in art-making across disciplines. Because therapeutic improvisation is not concerned with the production of a final object (such as a painting or a poem), its aesthetic dimension is often overlooked. But (as articulated by aesthetic philosopher George Lewis), this narrow conception in art is founded on a Eurological lens that only legitimises concrete forms as art such as a musical score. By contrast, the Afrological diasporic sense of music (from which, for example, jazz and blues emerge) is not located in composed objects, but in the experimental, radical, and social practice of music-making.
This reading of improvisation can afford therapists a language to understand and deepen their own artistic and emancipatory therapeutic practice.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: Embracing the art and science of psychotherapy
• Start Date: Dec 15, 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2023
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11444178