Date of Defense

12-12-2024

Date of Graduation

4-2025

Department

Social Work

First Advisor

Melinda McCormick

Second Advisor

Pamela Poley

Third Advisor

Melanie Crow

Abstract

A growing body of research shows that art therapy yields positive outcomes for those experiencing stress and mood disorders. Creative arts therapies have been shown to lower cortisol, improve personal and universal outlook, decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression, increase self-esteem and confidence, alleviate burnout, help individuals to cope with trauma, and support brain function through activity-dependent plasticity. However, little research has been done on collective and collaborative arts, and the enhanced benefits communal practice might bring. Additionally, art therapy is inaccessible to many, due to a dearth of practitioners and cultural and socioeconomic barriers to participation. Peri-, menopausal, and postmenopausal women/people AFAB are particularly susceptible to these cultural and socioeconomic barriers, especially in the time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Limitations created by historical gender constructs culminate in ways that disconnect women/people AFAB from their bodies, their agency, and their communities, a circumstance compounded by the menopause transition. This constructivist grounded theory study hypothesized that communal creative practice could improve the quality of peri- and postmenopausal women/people AFAB’s lives, relationships, and communities. An analysis of the literature shows continual, accessible, communal creative practice could promote improved quality of life for peri-, menopausal, and postmenopausal women/people AFAB through embodiment, co-presence, post-traumatic growth, and interdependence. The results indicate a need in social work practice for expanded access to communal creative practice. Further research is needed to determine the scope of the barriers to gathering, as well as the relative efficacy of communal creative practice in a virtual setting.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

Download

Included in

Social Work Commons

Share

COinS