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Dancing is care: a movement-based support group for Chinese/Chinese immigrant mothers
Thesis   Open access

Dancing is care: a movement-based support group for Chinese/Chinese immigrant mothers

Jiao Shen
Master of Arts (M.A.), Drexel University
Mar 2018
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-7819
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Shen_Jiao_20182.26 MBDownloadView
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Abstract

Dance therapy Mothers Chinese Women immigrants Immigrants
This capstone project was a community engagement program that introduced movement-based activity to the community and established a support group for Chinese/Chinese immigrant mothers in the West Philadelphia area. This population had limited access to mental health care and postnatal care, have language barriers and culture differences, lack of family and social support, and experienced high stress due to the role adjustment of becoming a new immigrant, homemakers, and mother. The author used dance movement as a medium to create a nonclinical but therapeutic support group in the community. This program focused on using movements to provide self-care and social interactions to release stress, explore self-strength/self-worth, and self-expression. In the long term, the project aimed to empower the mothers to use their own resources and autonomously initiate support for each other in the community. This program includes a pre-program which had twenty weekly meetings, a main program which had four weekly closed-group meetings, and post-main program which had weekly meetings. After the four-weekly closed-group meetings, the author reflected on the experience of the program developing and group meetings and summarized some suggestions for those who would like to work with a Chinese community. Moreover, she highlighted important themes and connections that the community project was conducted.

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