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  • Science proves that you love your dog like a baby

    Interesting article about pets and how humans react/respond to them. From the abstract:

    Neural substrates underlying the human-pet relationship are largely unknown. We examined fMRI brain activation patterns as mothers viewed images of their own child and dog and an unfamiliar child and dog. There was a common network of brain regions involved in emotion, reward, affiliation, visual processing and social cognition when mothers viewed images of both their child and dog. Viewing images of their child resulted in brain

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    activity in the midbrain (ventral tegmental area/substantia nigra involved in reward/affiliation), while a more posterior cortical brain activation pattern involving fusiform gyrus (visual processing of faces and social cognition) characterized a mother’s response to her dog. Mothers also rated images of their child and dog as eliciting similar levels of excitement (arousal) and pleasantness (valence), although the difference in the own vs. unfamiliar child comparison was larger than the own vs. unfamiliar dog comparison for arousal. Valence ratings of their dog were also positively correlated with ratings of the attachment to their dog. Although there are similarities in the perceived emotional experience and brain function associated with the mother-child and mother-dog bond, there are also key differences that may reflect variance in the evolutionary course and function of these relationships.

    Stoeckel LE, Palley LS, Gollub RL, Niemi SM, Evins AE (2014) Patterns of Brain Activation when Mothers View Their Own Child and Dog: An fMRI Study. PLoS ONE 9(10): e107205. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0107205

    http://www.plosone.org/article/info%253Adoi%252F10.1371%252Fjournal.pone.0107205

  • California poppy Coloring Page

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  • Seguy Art Deco Designs 95

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  • American Poverty

    During the Great Depression, photographers created riveting images chronicling the desperation of those times. Pictures helped mold the nation’s collective memory and conscience. Seventy years later, the plight and potential of the least fortunate members of our communities is mostly unseen and ignored, and photographers are once again poised to jump-start a national conversation about the issue of poverty.130.jpg

    AmericanPoverty.org is a non-profit alliance of photojournalists using visual storytelling to raise awareness about “how the other half lives.” Joining us are renowned American writers, filmmakers and educators, all of whom seek to alleviate poverty and make it a national priority. Together we are working to dispel stereotypes and encourage actions that can create lasting impact in the lives of disadvantaged people.

    The photo “Migrant Mother” was one of thousands of pictures Dorothea Lange took on assignment for the federal government, documenting the poverty of the Dust Bowl. Before it had that iconic title, the 1936 photo was captioned “Destitute peapickers in California.” For more about Dorothea Lange and this image check out Studio 360.

  • Dance Movement Therapy at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA

    Great video about what Dance Movement Therapy is and how its done in a Medical setting with children.

  • Suiseki: Get your Rocks on

    Over the years as I have moved and changed I have gotten rid of many things and I have kept only 4 things from my younger days; a book of translations of ancient Chinese and Japanese poetry, my bamboo flute, an image of a Bodhisattva, and my collection of rocks. I started collecting rocks with their simplicity, austerity, dignified beauty, and spirit when I was a teen, perhaps influenced by the book of poems I read as a child. The rocks have been gathered from New England, Mid Atlantic states as well as Texas, California, New Mexico and the Dakotas. When I travel for work/training’s I try and take some time to find a rock that expresses something of the place.

    See NHK post about:  Suiseki Wikipedia Some of my rocks below.

  • Assessment and evaluation

    In therapy at some point the counselor will engage in an assessment/evaluation  process that generally involves examining how the therapy sessions are going and hopefully includes feed back from the client/patient. If the counselor is trained as a
    dance movement therapist the evaluation/assessment may include many areas such
    as verbal sharing, drawings and movement. Movement assessment can include
    observing ( which can be considered seeing someone move objectively) and
    witnessing (which can be considered seeing someone move subjectively) a person
    move. I look at:

    • Space, how does the person
      move in the environment, up/down, do they use space or stay small.
    • Time, do they move fast/slow.
    • Force, what is their muscle
      tension like, are they contracting/expanding, hard/soft, light/heavy.
    • Flow, is the movement
      continuous, unrestrained, restricted.
    • Sound, do they talk, use
      vocal sound, create sound with their body.
    • Congruent, how are the
      movements related to the intention.
    • What do I feel while
      witnessing, what and how do I feel like moving when witnessing .
    • How does this compare to
      other people I have observed, the same/different.

    I first learned and applied these techniques while studying the movement based
    group creative arts modalities know as the Halprin Method and Motional Process
    in the 80’s and early 90’s. If you would like more info I recommend 4 books I found useful:

    Dance/Movement Therapists in Action: A Working Guide to Research Options

    Artistic Inquiry in Dance/Movement Therapy: Creative Research Alternatives

    Meaning of Movement

    Dance Therapy and Depth Psychology: The Moving Imagination.

    These books helped me to strengthen my assessment techniques and to discover new
    methods.

  • Frozen Ripples

  • From the Play List Top songs I have listened to in 2010: World Order

  • DNA shows dogs are mans oldest friend

    A study of dog DNA has shown that our “best friend” in the animal world may also be our oldest one.

    The analysis reveals that dog domestication can be traced back 11,000 years, to the end of the last Ice Age. Read the entire article @BBC