Living to tell the tale

Embarking on my research as a PhD student, I have decided that I would like to study an issue that applies to me personally, and that is Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). I have had the privilege of going through the difficult experience of being affected with this disorder and living to tell the tale, largely by studying the phenomenon and learning to deal with it as a professional. As personal narratives can create an opportunity for us to construct ourselves and our research in ways that may be of methodological and political interest to those who feel marginalized by their disabilities (Kimpson in Brown & Strega, 2005), I am inviting others to join me on an experiential journey and see what it is we will discover together. I feel that by bringing a group of adults with whom I share symptoms into the research process, I am helping to increase the impact of their voices on the effectiveness of the endeavor (Nagata, Kohn-Wood, & Suzuki, 2012).

I am a 33 year old female who grew up in a “good” home, with food on my plate and plenty of support in the area of schooling and tuition. I did however lack the help I needed as a child to deal with my ADHD, not because my parents did not want to support me, but because of their lack of knowledge about the phenomenon. Using art-based inquiry, I am looking to investigate if and how creating a personal narrative through art helps adults deal with their ADHD, and whether, using these methods, they are then empowered to change the roles that have been "assigned" to them since childhood. Participants in my research do not have to come from a specific social setting; in fact a variety of life stories from different backgrounds is welcome. The ability to "tell one's story" is more than a presentation of fixed social discourse; it communicates a personal point of view consisting of elements that represent truth to the teller (Pavlicevic, 2005).

I believe that knowledge can be created from experience. I hope that the shared experiences I will gather into data for my research will further enhance knowledge in this field. Not just for adults who have ADHD but for all people who grew up with a disability or with any sense of being disabled. I will request of participants to use storyArt to express the different roles they were given as children, with the hope that such methods can lead to change.

In my research I hope to define, together with the participants, what specific problems have arisen as a result of their ADHD and to use storytelling and visual art as a new way of portraying these difficulties. Eventually I would like to explore the strengths that participants develop as a result of the storytelling and use them as a gateway to on-stage performances in which all kinds of audiences will allow the stories to be heard. As soon as a story has been told, an opportunity is created to begin a new one (Koch & Weidinger-von der Recke, 2009).

Derald Wing Sue, (2008), who confronted his personal journey of being a member of a minority in a predominantly white society, said that:

It was that period in life that I came to a realization that being different was not a problem. It was society’s perception of being different that lay the basis of the problems encountered by many racial/ethnic minorities. (p. 22)

Sue talks about multiculturalism as social justice: for me, authentic communication and respect between people of varying abilities and disabilities is also a form of social justice. I am hoping that the art we use in the research will be a helpful way of protecting participants as they tell their stories. (Visual representation of a disability experience can be as abstract as a series of dots or triangles.) And just as a final art piece is hung in a gallery according to the specifications of the artist, so the participants in my research will be able to select the final versions of the pieces they wish to present to a wider audience.

Since I myself have had plenty of experience in the subject of ADHD, I plan to make use art-based methods in my research, utilizing the learning process of how I connect to my ADHD as a starting point as part of the artistic inquiry. Furthermore I am interested in the feminist approach, as it sheds some light on the roles we take in society and is related to the question of which roles we were given by others as opposed to the roles that portray who we really are. The feminist approach views culture or identity as a living organism that is constantly in motion and that changes with every encounter (Sajnani, 2012).

Lastly I will relate to the holistic approach, since there are so many factors to take into account (for example the medical, social, and educational backgrounds of the participants) other than just the therapy when working with the phenomenon of ADHD. I see the participants in my research not as individuals working on a separate goals but as a group working together to create a broader and fuller image of ADHD that can be presented to others. I am hoping that my approach will lead to an exciting, innovating and creative research experience.

References

Brown, L., & Strega, S. (2005). Research as resistance: Critical, indigenous, and anti- oppressive approaches. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press/Women’s Press.

Nagata, D. K., Kohn-Wood, L., & Suzuki, L. A. (2012). Qualitative strategies for ethnocultural research. Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association.

Pavlicevic, M. (2005). Towards straight talking: Multiple narratives in multicultural and multidisciplinary work (or, first I shot the dog, then I shot my mother). Arts in Psychotherapy, 32 (5), 346-357.

Sajnani, N., (2011). Response/ability: Imagining a critical race feminist paradigm for the creative arts therapies. Arts in Psychotherapy, 11-11. doi: 10.1016/j.aip.2011.12.009.

Koch, S. C., & Weidinger-von der Recke, B. (2009). Traumatized refugees: An integrated dance and verbal therapy approach. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 36(5), 298-296.

Sue, D., & Sue, D. (2013). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

#difference #socialjustice #multiculturalism #respect #stories #voice #arttherapy #choice #projectconceptualization