The Tree of Life as a Metaphor for Grief in AIDS-Orphaned Adolescents

This article reports on research into using the Tree of Life metaphor as creative expressive arts in therapy to convey the grief stories of adolescent AIDS orphans. The study applied a qualitative arts-based research method for data collection. Employing a critical ethnographic design afforded attention to the study ’s 16 adolescent participants’ cultural context and how this context influenced participants’ sharing of their grief experiences. Discourse analysis was used as a data analysis method. Sharing images from the process along with research findings, the authors discuss how the group of adolescent s utilized the Tree of Life metaphor through creative expressive arts to embody and express their experiences of grief. The authors further describe what they learned about the embodiment and expression of grief in light of adolescents’ neurobiological functioning and psychological well-being.
Source: American Journal of Dance Therapy - Category: Complementary Medicine Source Type: research