This research begins as an inquiry into how four co-researchers working collaboratively using the arts explore their experience of feeling stuck in patterns that no longer serve them well. The clear aspiration at the outset is to undertake research that supports healthy and integrated ways of being and doing that will inform therapists who work relationally, creatively and with a focus on the present moment. Viewing integration as “the linkage of differentiated parts” (Siegel, 2012b; Siegel, 2023), the research reveals how engaging in processes and procedures of experiential, multimodal co-inquiry can be integrative and support a recalibration from patterned rigidity or chaos towards harmony- within and without. As the coresearchers honour differences and cultivate linkages across various domains of experiencing, they foster a deep appreciation for each other, the ability to remain in empathic dialogue, and a knowing of the other as simultaneously differentiated and connected.
The research takes the form of an exegesis (Parts 1 and 2) and three artefacts in the order of a collaged book, a magazine, and an animated video.
The first of the three artefacts, a collaged book titled Re-drawing the Hand we were Dealt: the art of attending to process, is intentionally the rawest and is created by the author to reflect the experience of the messy, layered, non-linear nature of making sense of living experience. It illustrates the immediate, nuanced, and detailed unfolding of the co-inquiry process with one co-researcher. On Becoming Super- the back story, is the second artefact and is, by design, more integrated in its presentation. This artefact illustrates the ethico-onto-epistemological orientation of the research and the refinement of methods. The third and final artefact is the most integrated and succinct in form. It is a stop-motion animated video titled, From Overdoing to Undoing: the art of letting go, demonstrating how data can be reduced to a creative and meaningful essence for the co-inquirer and researcher.
The exegesis initially discusses what became known about the nature of entrenched patterns of experiencing, how we get stuck and what keeps us in ruts of outmoded, unhelpful ways of being and doing. The research documents a meaningful exploration through the identification, clarification, differentiation and linkage (integration) of the core elements held within dissonant patterns of experiencing. Building upon Lett’s (2011) work, the primary researcher develops and refines the methods of inquiry, including a process of mapping that articulates the complexity of a pattern.
The exegesis then considers how integration is significantly fostered and supported by enacting and cultivating an atmosphere of Loving Presence (that includes resonance and empathic attunement, awareness, attention, curiosity, openness, acceptance and flexibility) in the relational field of co-inquiry.
The research reflects and highlights an orientation of int[e]ra-becoming- (including the human, more-than-human and non-material worlds). It articulates the significance of focusing attention on both content and process, attuning to the present moment, having a descriptive attitude, being reflexive, responding to others from a place of embodied resonance, and finally taking into account and inquiring into how and when the body moves as the arts-based inquiry unfolds.
Keywords: stuck; dissonant patterns; rigidity; chaos; therapeutic arts practice; loving presence; integration; becoming; intra-connected; MIECAT; multimodal co-inquiry; harmony; inter-being; embodiment; process