The Gathering Place: Musical Expressions of Self and Community within a Non-Profit, Community Mental Health Drop-In Center
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: The Gathering Place opened its doors in 1976 to ex-patients of the Athens Mental Health Center largely through the dedicated efforts of community mental health activist Rita Gillick.Operating according to the clubhouse model of psychosocial rehabilitation,The GP provides a home/family-like environment for its members while providing them with opportunities to develop vocational and social skills necessary for independent and meaningful in the community living.This dissertation is an ethnographic rendering of my three years of involvement with The Gathering Place as a volunteer, musician, advocate, and eventually friend.I share particularly my experiences making music with the members during the collaborative jam session known as GP Jams and the music therapy programs sponsored by the organization.Further, I share the story of community mental health activist and musician Pete Wuscher and the community event to raise awareness of issues facing people with mental illness referred to as "Walk the Walk."I interrogate my experiences drawing upon dialogic sensibilities informed by phenomenological and pragmatist philosophies emphasizing the significance of lived experience and the possibilities aesthetic expression creates for imagining socially just ways of living with others.Ultimately, I arrive at three dialogic promises that music makes as an act and a metaphor to those who enter into musical relations with others: music as embodied acknowledgement, music as invitation to dwelling, and music as xiii
Author: Steven P. Phalen
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Topic: Music Therapy and Health
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2261269889