| Abstract [eng] |
This master thesis addresses the issue of prolonged, unacknowledged mourning after the loss of a father, which in the context of dance-movement therapy, helps to embody, transform and process experiences not only verbally, but also to integrate repressed experiences bodily. The aim of the study is to use theoretical and auto-ethnographic methods to reveal how the loss of a father is experienced and transformed in the body through the process of dance-movement therapy. The theoretical part of the study provides an overview of the processes of prolonged and unacknowledged mourning, their manifestation, and presents the methods and application of dance-movement therapy in bereaved persons. The empirical part explores the researcher's personal story of the process of studying dance-movement therapy, during which the deep emotional, body-conscious and prolonged layers of mourning are revealed. The aim of the study is accompanied by the research question: how does the process of dance-movement therapy help to recognise, embody and transform the loss of a father through the telling of an auto-ethnographic story of bereavement? Objectives: 1. To review the theoretical context of prolonged and unacknowledged mourning and its impact on corporeality. 2. To highlight the application of dance-movement therapy in the context of bereavement. 3. To describe the characteristics of the autoethnographic method and the appropriateness of its choice in the context of dance-movement therapy. 4. To reconstruct the researcher's personal history of the loss of her father and prolonged mourning through the process of dance-movement therapy. The empirical part reveals that embodied mourning, breathing and symbolic action and movement help to recognise, express and process deep emotional experiences. Strengthening the connection with the "speaking" body becomes a key source of healing and transformation. The work contributes to the development of research in the field of art therapy for protracted mourning in Lithuania. Keywords: autoethnography, absent father, grief, disenfranchised grief, prolonged grief, dance movement therapy. |
