QBRDM #8

Reading and Understanding Qualitative Research

Robyn Flaum Cruz1 • Jennifer Frank Tantia2

Published online: 29 August 2016

� American Dance Therapy Association 2016

Abstract For the dance/movement therapy clinician, reading research to keep up with current knowledge and trends is an important professional development

activity that can sometimes seem daunting. Reading research can require a shift of

focus, and include technical concepts and language that are different from those of

clinical practice. However, professional reading can be enjoyable and rewarding

when one feels confident in interpreting research findings. This article aims to offer

skills to clinicians with a specific focus on how to read and interpret research that

uses qualitative methods. To that end, parallels between research and practice are

suggested to help align the reader with the values of qualitative research and how it

can be used to enrich clinical practice. We present an overview of the types of

qualitative research and necessary components to expect in a clearly written qual-

itative study. Detailed criteria for use in discerning integrity and validation strate-

gies to use to examine credibility in a qualitative research study are presented and

discussed. Brief examples are used to illustrate criteria presented, and a special

section on how to appropriately apply qualitative research findings to clinical

dance/movement therapy practice is included.

Keywords Dance/movement therapy � Qualitative research � Qualitative methods

& Robyn Flaum Cruz [email protected]

1 Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, USA

2 New York, NY, USA

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DOI 10.1007/s10465-016-9219-z

Introduction

Continuing education in dance/movement therapy (DMT) is integral to the ongoing

development of clinical knowledge. Clinicians who stay appraised of current trends

informed by a broad range of research demonstrate ethical and caring dedication to their

professional growth and to their clients (Cruz & Berrol, 2012). While conferences,

workshops, and webinars provide an engaging form of continuing education, reading

research is also a valued form of continuing education professional activity. In the

UnitedStates, the Dance/MovementTherapy Certification Board requires and evaluates

continuingeducation units for board certified and registered dance/movement therapists

that include reading research as a continuing education activity.

Addressing how clinicians can read and understand research using both

quantitative and qualitative methods would require an excessively lengthy article.

Other resources targeted to clinicians already exist that explain how to read and

interpret quantitative research (Cruz & Koch, 2015), so we have chosen to focus

here on how to understand studies that use qualitative methods. Research studies

using quantitative methods examine outcomes, effects of interventions, and

comparisons that can be generalized to a large population, while research studies

that use qualitative methods seek to explore a human condition, process, or

phenomenon in depth in order to develop theory that explains or describes it. With

respect to therapeutic interventions, a quantitative study seeks to find out whether or

not an intervention works, while a qualitative study might explore how an

intervention is experienced by participants. While published research can consist of

mixed method studies (a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods within

one study), the majority of research in DMT still emphasizes one or the other.

Cruz and Berrol (2012) wrote about the ambivalent relationship between clinicians

and research across different disciplines including DMT. Meekums (2014) recently

echoed a similar concern when she wrote about a ‘‘defensive rejection of science by

practitioners,’’ (p. 124). Other authors have thought to address the similarities

between clinical thinking and research thinking to help ameliorate that ambivalence.

‘‘Research thinking and practice thinking are identical,’’ wrote Chaiklin and Chaiklin

(2012, p. 76) as they described the value of the case study. With specific respect to

qualitative research, Caldwell and Johnson (2015) presented several connecting

practices between clinicians and researchers. They suggested three main components

that connect the qualitative researcher and the clinician: (a) both have interest in the

lived experience of the client; (b) both have a penchant toward open mindedness,

without attachment to a particular outcome; (c) both bracket their own bias in order to

allow the client or study to evolve naturally.

In our experience, clinicians often report enjoying reading qualitative research

more than quantitative research, but tend to discount it and think that it is not ‘‘real’’

research. The fact is, both paradigms (quantitative and qualitative) produce

necessary and useful information. However, different criteria are needed to judge

the ‘‘goodness’’ or ‘‘usefulness’’ of research using qualitative methods than those

used for quantitative methods. To get the benefits of research reading, it is important

to feel comfortable reading and interpreting all research, including research that

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uses qualitative methods. Evaluating the value of qualitative research studies and

understanding how to apply qualitative findings to one’s own practice requires

understanding some basic intentions and characteristics of this type of research, as

well as how it differs from quantitative research. All research is more accessible

when one understands how to evaluate it. We recommend Cruz and Koch (2015) for

those wanting a refresher on quantitative research, but the aim of this paper is to

explain some of the factors that contribute to creating good quality in qualitative

methods, and how this type of research can be used to inform clinical practice as

well as inform further research.

What is Qualitative Research?

The intent of qualitative research methods is to describe a process or experience,

and to this end, the goal is to make meaning of experiences or phenomena by

following data as they emerge. With the overall purpose of understanding a situation

or how something is experienced in a deep and meaningful way, qualitative research

methods are not a variation of an experiment, but are based on a very different

philosophical perspective that gives credence to different ways of knowing.

Participants are chosen because they are considered to have key information

relevant to the question that guides the research. Thus, who the participants are is

more important than how many there are, and the results are bound by this specific

context and not generalized to populations as in research using quantitative

methods. The example that follows about the DMT technique of mirroring

distinguishes qualitative research from quantitative and may be useful in under-

standing the differences between these two methodological approaches.

One might wonder if the technique of mirroring used in DMT is an effective

intervention in clinical treatment. This question would need to be answered with a

quantitative study. The researcher might recruit a large sample of patients and divide

themintotwo groups: half the patientsmight get the mirroring interventionand the other

half receive treatment as usual. In order to determine whether the mirroring intervention

was effective or not (i.e., if there was a difference between the two groups), the

researcher would need to employ a suitable measurement prior to the intervention and

after the intervention. Based on the statistical results of the study and protocol used with

quantitative research, the results could then be generalized to the population of patients.

The study might report that ‘‘mirroring was an effective intervention for hospitalized

adult patients,’’ which would support its use with other hospitalized adult patients.

Sounds easy, right? Not quite. First, the researcher must find specific nuances of

mirroring that seem to be of value to its use as an intervention. The researcher must

first define what mirroring means, and create a protocol that includes the actions of

the dance/movement therapist. In order to do this, the researcher would need to

know from the patients how they experience mirroring interventions in order to

uncover the nuanced details of what might be helpful and what might be

unnecessary or avoided. The results of the qualitative study would then provide the

further understanding necessary to design a mirroring intervention. Once developed,

that intervention can be studied for its effectiveness through a quantitative study.

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Research Questions and Types of Qualitative Inquiry

Research questions drive what methods can be used, and generally, the types of

questions that can be answered with qualitative methods involve asking how or

what; for example, ‘‘how do individuals with clinical depression experience

mirroring interventions in DMT,’’ or ‘‘what do dance/movement therapists do for

self-care?’’ The way that these questions are asked invites a deeper understanding of

a situation or phenomenon for further use in clinical practice, or to organize a

phenomenon, or to test or compare it in a quantitative study. There are several

approaches to qualitative inquiry. Phenomenological, grounded theory, case study,

naturalistic, ethnographic, heuristic, narrative, arts-based studies, and embodied

approaches all seek to unpack the details of a phenomenon in qualitative inquiry.

The type of qualitative research approach used to address a specific research

question depends upon what is being studied.

Two popular forms of qualitative methods are phenomenological and case study

approaches (Patton, 2002). A phenomenological approach (Moustakas, 1994) involves

the study of lived experience as a whole. This approach can be used to explore a

phenomenon in depth, for example to answer the question, ‘‘How do dance/movement

therapists experience intuition while working with patients?’’ Another alternative is

when a researcher seeks to describe an existing phenomenon with the express purpose

of creating a new theory. In this situation, the researcher would use a grounded theory

process (Charmaz, 2006; Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Glasser & Strauss, 1967), involving

working in an iterative and very systematic process of collecting and analyzing data

until consensus is reached. The intent is to generate a theory that explains or describes

the phenomenon or event under study. The case study, is a research format used by

Freud and common in medicine that can be used to explore an extraordinary situation

(Reiner, 2004). For example, it can be used when there is an exceptional phenomenon

regarding one person, such as the socioeconomic difficulties of a disabled,

transgendered parent. It can also be used to study multiple cases at once, such as

the experiences of women who were pregnant on September 11, 2001.

There are other forms of qualitative research that are also worth mentioning.

Ethnographic studies are of a culture and depend on how the researcher defines

culture (Hanna, 2012). Naturalistic studies that are done in situ, note existing

settings and arrangements. Arts-based studies involve using one or several of the

arts as a primary part of the research method. First-person or heuristic research has

a focus in which the researcher gathers data on himself or herself, while narrative

research is a more general term and pertains to using such narrative materials as life

histories or field notes as the primary part of the method. In addition to more

traditional methods, artistic inquiry (Cruz & Feder, 2013; Hervey, 2000, 2012;

Leavy, 2009) and embodied methods (Tantia, 2013; Todres, 2007; Todres & Gavin,

2008) have begun to emerge in clinical research over the past 15 years.

Many types of qualitative research overlap; for example, a single project might

be described as narrative, phenomenological, and case study. Indeed, almost all

qualitative research is considered to be naturalistic, since it is conducted in a natural

setting, rather than in a laboratory, and studies an existing situation. In addition to

different methodological approaches, qualitative researchers also provide different

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ontological perspectives to a study that influence what questions are asked.

Ontology is a worldview or a belief of how the world functions. For example, a

researcher might bring a feminist theory perspective or ontology to his or her

research, another might bring constructivism, the perspective that reality is

constructed by those experiencing it. Still another researcher might use critical

theory, which is the idea that research questions emanate from a social context of

power and that research is determined by power (Forinash, 2012). By offering an

ontological perspective, the clinician reading the research can understand how the

background of the researcher can affect what is being studied.

Methods

A method in qualitative research is the means used to conduct the study, and

describes how the data were collected and analyzed. Data collection in qualitative

research aims to explore and describe experiences. To return to our mirroring

example, one might gather information from a group of patients who are familiar

with mirroring by interviewing them individually following a DMT session to find

out what their experience is like when they are mirrored; what do they experience in

their bodies, their emotions, their feelings toward the therapist when they are

mirrored? In-depth questions during an interview can reveal deeper qualities of each

participant’s mirroring experience. Across the traditional and emerging types of

qualitative research, other techniques to collect data that provide rich information

about an experience can also be used, such as focus groups and field observations,

reflexive journaling, and document examination or videotaping. Focus groups are

groups of informants gathered to participate in guided discussion on specific topics,

while field observations are typically a record the researcher’s observations of actual

settings and situations in the setting of the research. Reflexive journaling, on the

other hand, are the private reflections of the researcher about the any part of the

research process including insights that occur during data analysis.

Similarly, there are many techniques for data analysis (Saldaña, 2013), including

thematic (Creswell, 2009), interpretive (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009), and

descriptive analysis (Giorgi, 2009). There is a thread that ties these many types of

approaches, techniques, and analysis schemes together. Essentially, qualitative

researchers are concerned with analyzing the process and meaning that is made by

participants, as well as the meaning that the researcher makes from the collected data.

Findings, or results of data analysis include themes that emerge across participants, as

well as unique features only experienced by one participant. All of this together is

intended to present deep, novel information about human experience or systems.

The findings, while specific to the sample of participants, may stand on their own

as valuable information for the clinician. To return to our mirroring example,

findings might include an in-depth, thematic description of patients’ experiences of

‘‘mirroring’’ and/or, ‘‘being mirrored,’’ that can offer suggestions regarding when

and how to mirror, or even contraindications to mirroring. The findings might also

be used to develop a theory around the use of mirroring, or as the first part of a

mixed methods study (Creswell, 2009), where the information is used to create a

way to measure the parameters of a mirroring intervention.

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What Makes Qualitative Research High Quality Research?

As one might imagine from the rich array of possibilities that qualitative methods

present to the reader, determining what is good quality takes informed thinking. It

might be surprising, but the determination of what makes for a good quality (also

referred to as trustworthy or credible) qualitative research study is how well it connects

its intentions, biases, and output for the reader. While some of the responsibility for

clarity falls on the author (Edwards, 2016), an informed reader makes the final

determination about quality and usefulness. Thankfully, issues about how to determine

quality for qualitative research have been expertly conceived and developed by

methodologists, and there are many useful criteria for readers to use to process and

create their opinions of qualitative research. Understanding some of the basic standards

for research reports should assist readers to then focus on specific indicators of quality

in qualitative research. Accordingly, we first present our formulation of four basic

standards to look for in reports: (a) the statement of need; (b) the guiding research

question; (c) description of methods and participants; (d) presentation of analysis and

findings. Next we address qualitative credibility criteria that include forms of integrity

and validation strategies. Whenever possible, we include examples taken from authors

that demonstrate clarity of the element described.

Statement of Need

The statement of need, usually presented in the introduction section of a paper,

describes the reason for the study in the context of the larger field. In the following

example, the author explains that the need for her study is based on a lack of empirical

data on sensory sensitivities and relationship in a DMT session for adults with autism.

The difficulties experienced by health professionals differentiating between

autism and attachment problems in children led to the development of the

Coventry Grid, (Moran, 2010) which describes the subtle differences observed

by clinicians. Although there are studies relating to children with autism, there

is less empirical knowledge in relation to adults. (Edwards, 2015, p. 8)

A good problem statement of need contextualizes a study within a greater

framework. In this specific example the greater framework of why a study on DMT

for adults with autism is important is established by comparing it with the current

knowledge derived from studies on children with autism.

Statement of the Research Question

The guiding research question is the cornerstone of the qualitative research study

and states the intention of the study, structures the literature review, and gives clues

about who the participants are. For example, ‘‘What are the sensory experiences of

adults with autism during group DMP [dance and movement psychotherapy]? How

do they influence relationships, including … inside and outside of the therapy sessions?’’ (Edwards, 2015, p. 9). This pair of questions allows the reader to identify

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the initial focus of the research. Although a research question such as this one might

not always produce a good study, and may even be subject to change as the study

progresses, a poor guiding question that fails to articulate the focus and intent of the

study will almost always fail to produce a good study.

Description of Methods Including Participants

The method for collecting the data is important for the researcher to describe in

detail. The researcher should clearly state which method was chosen and why (in

lieu of other methods considered), as it shows that the researcher took the time to

think deeply about what type of data should be collected. The basis for decisions

related to type of data collected should also be described. All details including times

and frequencies of observations, documentation of the researcher’s experiences in a

reflexive journal, and the researcher’s actions to identify and contain bias, should

also be described.

In qualitative research, natural settings provide the source for the data, and

participants are chosen because of specific knowledge they may have through a

process called purposive sampling, rather than being chosen to represent a population

as in quantitative methods. This is key because as stated previously, it is not the

number of participants that is important in qualitative research, but the quality of their

selection; who they are takes precedence over how many there are. So, in addition to

other details of what the researchers did and how they did it, researchers should

clearly state how participants were selected and the conditions of participation.

Together with the researcher, the participants function as data-gathering tools, and the

information that they give to the researcher can deepen the original topic or even

change the direction of the research design by indicating other useful informants or

processes that the researcher should pursue (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The relevancy of

participant characteristics is described in the example below.

The … participants practiced a variety of psychotherapy perspectives that included; clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work, creative arts therapy,

marriage and family therapy, and psychoanalysis. Each participant also

practiced a somatic form of psychotherapy that included Hakomi, Focusing,

Somatic Experiencing, dance/movement therapy, and Gestalt therapy. (Tantia,

2014, p. 218)

Presentation of Analysis and Findings

The researcher functions not only as a primary tool for data collection, but also as

the primary tool for data analysis. Data analysis is always an inductive process of

discerning a pattern, rather than a deductive process, and important features and

themes are expected to ‘‘emerge’’ from the data (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). For this

reason, a clear accounting of how the researcher analyzed the data is necessary in

any report of qualitative research. Stages of data analysis, including how data were

reduced and the roles of any assistants in the data analysis process, should be

identified. In the example below the researcher describes how the data (a list of

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conflicts) were reduced as a result of the process of peer-review. Clear accounting of

the process is as important as the actual list of conflicts, which are not reproduced

here but are part of the author’s results.

Each … was given a packet that included the definition of the conflicts, a list of conflict indicators and 20 % of the researcher’s session summaries

following each art therapy meeting… the result of this stage of analysis was a modification to the list of conflicts. Two conflicts were found to overlap with

the other conflicts and therefore the list of conflicts was reduced to six core

conflicts. (Rehavia-Hanauer 2003, p. 140)

A final element of a well-written study is a clear presentation of the research

results or findings with necessary interpretations. Conclusions need to be

appropriate to the methods. Results from qualitative research are context bound.

They cannot be generalized to other people or populations and thus have been

described as having a narrow application. In the example below the author

demonstrates clarity that the results (a set of defined conflicts) represent just an

initial finding that may assist in developing theory.

The results describe the disorder through a series of six conflicts. These

conflicts embody a wide range of theoretical orientations and suggest that the

description of anorexia nervosa needs a wide-based eclectic approach. Future

research is needed to transform these conflicts into a diagnostic and

therapeutic tool. The current paper is an initial stage that offers … the building blocks of a theory of anorexia nervosa that is directly situated within

the art therapy process. (Rehavia-Hanauer, 2003, p. 148)

Integrity and Validation Strategies

In addition to what should be described clearly in specific sections of a qualitative

research report, some considerations or best practices for qualitative research bear

mentioning. Brucia (1998) described four types of integrity—methodological,

personal, interpersonal, and aesthetic—in the context of qualitative music therapy

research. They can easily be applied to all arts therapies research. Demonstrations of

methodological integrity include responsiveness and flexibility, following-up on

information that was uncovered as part of the research. In the reporting,

completeness is needed: The author needs to report how data reveal both variation

and consistency, and show how understanding has been enlarged. Personal integrity

is demonstrated when researchers share their biases with the reader and commu-

nicate authentically. Interpersonal integrity involves reporting about participants

respectfully and attempting to understand and represent the world of the

participants, and the world of the study. Finally, aesthetic integrity is shown by

attempting to reveal the creativity, enlightenment, and beauty that were part of the

human interactions in the study. The example just below demonstrates method-

ological responsiveness and fidelity, elements of methodological integrity. The

author quoted below explained how and why it was important to her to be sensitive

to the frail elders who were the focus of her study. This type of sensitivity

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demonstrates how she brought her personal, interpersonal, and aesthetic senses of

integrity to the study.

I sought to understand or shed light on dance/movement therapy with frail

elders. Given the elders’ impairments, they were not able to self-report or

provide information about what they experienced … Yet studying these experiences is critical, especially because therapists make decisions on the

behalf of their clients. These decisions include determining which clients to

treat, setting the goals and objectives, and deciding whether clients should be

seen in individual or group therapy. Obviously, these decisions are made with

as much information as possible. (Forinash, 2012, pp. 154–155)

Credibility Criteria

So how does one judge research that celebrates subjectivity in data collection and

analysis? Creswell (2013) provided some very helpful guidelines built around eight

practices or features that can be included in qualitative research studies. He

recommended a minimum of two of these features or ‘‘validation strategies’’ (p.

250) should be present for sound validation of a study to be established.

The first features are prolonged engagement and persistent observation, or

evidence that the researcher devoted sufficient time to collecting and interacting

with the data. While there are no specific time requirements, it is easy to imagine

that a researcher who visited a setting once or twice for brief periods might not have

gathered the same quality of data as one who visited six or seven times for an entire

day. Similarly, reading through interview transcripts once prior to coding would not

be expected to produce the same depth of understanding as reading transcripts

multiple times across multiple weeks.

Triangulation is a feature that refers to using either multiple sources of data or

multiple informants, or both. Documents, interviews, and observations can be used

for triangulation, as can interviews with numerous participants who have different

roles with respect to the phenomenon under study. Careful selection of participants

or informants can enhance triangulation, as can including observations, reflexive

journals, and other features in data collection.

Because meaning is so essential, the researcher frequently negotiates interpre-

tation and meaning generation with participants. Often this is done via a feature

called member checking, that consists of taking transcripts and thematic results back

to participants for their input (Creswell, 2013). Forinash (2012) described her

member checking process:

The researcher integrated the therapists’ comments and feedback to create a

comprehensive description of the therapists’ experiences of dance/movement

therapy with frail elders. This comprehensive description was submitted to the

therapists. Their responses and additional comments were included in the

conclusion section. (Forinash, 2012, p. 156)

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A related feature also engages the researcher’s peers. Data analysis can be so

intensive and depends so much on the researcher that peer review or debriefing can

be very useful in grounding the researcher in the data analysis process. In peer

debriefing the researcher may enlist the help of one or more colleagues to examine

the coding system that has been devised for the data and key examples of the data.

The researcher can then use this input to revise coding and feel more confident of

results (Creswell, 2013).

Negative case analysis, or identifying disconfirming cases, provides especially

important data that need to be reflected in the researcher’s clear reporting. These

cases or a statement that none could be found, indicate that the researcher has been

open regarding the data, and not biased to seeing and interpreting in only one way.

For example, in the study quoted below, the authors clearly present that they

searched for disconfirming data and report on those findings.

The researchers also used disconfirming evidence as a verification strategy

(Creswell & Miller, 2009), examining the data for exceptions to the emerging

themes. For example, with regard to safety, one account was different from the

others. Child 21 (age 15) described wanting to protect his sister from future

abuse, but he did not discuss concern for his own safety. (Foster & Hagedorn,

2014, p. 251)

The researcher should also specifically clarify bias and give evidence of

reflexivity while conducting the research. Reflexivity is the researcher’s process of

reflective thinking throughout the project, frequently using journal entries or even

art making to stay focused on the data. Researchers should be very forthcoming

about how they addressed bias. Activities used to assist researchers in identifying

their biases are important to describe, and some authors refer to this process of

identifying biases and attempting to set them aside as bracketing, a term described

by Moustakas (1994). Of course, truly setting one’s biases to the side is quite

difficult, but if readers are informed of what biases were uncovered, it is possible to

search the report for any emergences of those biases in the author’s

conceptualizations.

When researchers give readers thick description, or very detailed or dense

description of the phenomenon under study and its context, it enhances

understanding. Determining how much thick description is enough can be difficult,

but if the reader feels informed about the phenomenon in a holistic way, it’s likely

that the researcher has included enough.

The final feature recommended by Creswell (2013) is using an external auditor.

This is similar to using a peer reviewer except that the external auditor is a

researcher who has not been involved in the research process, and this person checks

both the process and the product of the study. The purpose is to evaluate the

accuracy and evaluate whether or not the findings, interpretations and conclusions

are supported by the data. External auditing can be difficult to apply effectively,

however, particularly if the auditor assumes the existence of a single truth to be

revealed. Nevertheless, using an external auditor can enhance dependability or

consistency and confirmability by examining the paper trail that shows how

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decisions were made, and that they were supported by data. The example just below

explains how an external audit was conducted.

Along with the use of reflexivity and disconfirming evidence, an external audit

and peer review were conducted (Creswell & Miller, 2009). The researchers

provided an audit trail and access to all research notes and the codebook to a

panel of experts, who reviewed the process in which the narratives were

broken apart, coded, and combined into subthemes, themes, and metatheme.

(Foster & Hagedorn, 2014, p. 252)

Applying Qualitative Research Findings

After reading the report of a qualitative research study and determining that it was

written with clarity and care that demonstrated the researcher’s careful and credible

approach, how can the findings be usefully applied? Some readers (and some

researchers) overstep the limits of qualitative research by generalizing the findings.

For example, they attempt to apply the findings across a population; as we said

above, this type of generalizing may take the form of such a statement as, ‘‘DMT is

an effective intervention for hospitalized adult patients.’’ It is easy to understand the

allure of this type of generalizing since humans have a natural inclination to want to

explain and predict. But this tendency likely also contributes to the confusion

related to the value of qualitative research. Readers typically sense, after all, that

there is something unsupportable about applying a finding based on a handful of

participants in a broad way. So, inasmuch as findings or results of qualitative

research must be presented as true for the specific people who participated in the

research, what can be done with such limitations? Findings from qualitative

research are actually quite useful in building and informing theory. In fact, as we

have shown above, qualitative findings can be very useful in creating a theory about

phenomena, or they can be applied to inform a theory or to inform a measure chosen

for a quantitative study, such as in our mirroring intervention example.

Transferability is a term that refers to the applicability of findings to other

contexts, but not in the sense of making broad claims. It is something that readers

may do when they connect the elements of a study to their own experiences, and it

has been the subject of much discussion among qualitative methodologists for some

time (Shenton, 2004). Helping the reader decide if transferability is possible is the

motivation for using thick description. The detail about the context of and

informants on the phenomena explored provided by thick description enhances

transferability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). For example, Forinash (2012, p. 157),

described uncovering a theme of ‘‘disconnectedness-connectedness’’ in the narra-

tives of the dance/movement therapists who worked with frail elders in a nursing

home. This theme described how the therapists reported experiencing the

participation of their clients in the DMT group and had facets of both the

interpersonal and intrapersonal. Forinash provided example descriptions directly

from the therapists’ narratives.

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A DMT supervisor of supervisees providing DMT in a nursing home with frail

elders similar to those described by Forinash might appropriately transfer this study

by listening for this theme of ‘‘disconnectedness-connectedness’’ (Forinash, 2012,

p. 157) in supervision, or even ‘‘assigning’’ this study for the supervisees to read as a

way both to broaden and focus thinking on the range of their experiences of clients

in group and individual therapy. Reflecting on potential similarities or differences in

the supervisees’ experiences and those of the study participants might greatly enrich

the professional expertise of the supervisees; this example illustrates the key feature

of transferability or of applying qualitative findings in clinical practice.

Conclusion

This somewhat brief review and overview of qualitative methods and research has

been intended to assist readers in understanding how to get ‘‘value’’ out of reading

qualitative research. Multiple criteria can be used to establish the value of and assist

in understanding the applications and usefulness of this type of research. We stress

here that similar to keeping clinical skills sharp, getting one’s research reading skills

up to par and keeping them fresh takes attention, yet can be an invaluable way of

increasing ethical practice and quality in DMT interventions. Most readers may

need practice to develop a firm sense of when these criteria have been addressed

sufficiently in research. With practice, however, reading qualitative research truly

improves both cognitive tasks of comprehension and understanding, while

deepening the reader’s personal clinical repertoire through updated information.

Increasingly, DMT research—a necessity for developing the field—is populating

the literature more than ever before, and deepening understanding of clinical

interventions. We encourage DMT clinicians to keep up with research reading by

joining with colleagues for the dual purpose of expanding the field’s resources for

thinking through research while enjoying relationships and social interaction. We

hope readers of this journal will try reading an article with colleagues and using the

questions included in ‘‘Appendix’’ to practice research-reading skills.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest The authors declare that we have no conflict of interest.

Appendix: Questions to Use When Reading Qualitative Research

A. What was the guiding question?

B. What was the qualitative method used and was it appropriate for the question

asked? Did the method provide for flexibility?

C. How were the data generated? Did the researcher gather sufficient data to

provide a holistic perspective of the phenomenon? How do you know?

D. How were the data analyzed? Has an understanding of the phenomenon been

expanded?

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E. Did the researcher evaluate his or her impact on the study? Was transparency

adequately addressed?

F. Were mechanisms of credibility such as prolonged engagement, persistent

observation, triangulation, peer debriefing and/or member checking used?

G. Is there a ‘‘thick description’’ of the phenomenon being studied which allows

the reader to transfer applicability to his or her own work?

H. What is the relevance of the findings for those involved in the study as well as

for those reading the study?

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Chaiklin, H., & Chaiklin, S. (2012). The case study. In R. F. Cruz & C. F. Berrol (Eds.), Dance/movement

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Robyn Flaum Cruz Ph.D., BC-DMT, LPC is Professor, Lesley University Expressive Therapies Ph.D. Program; Past

President, ADTA; Former Co-Editor, American Journal of Dance Therapy, and Editor-in-Chief Emerita,

The Arts in Psychotherapy. She is contributor and Co-Editor of Dance/Movement Therapists in Action: A

Working Guide to Research Options (2nd ed., 2012, Charles C. Thomas); and Co-author of Feders’ Art

and Science of Evaluation in the Arts Therapies, (2nd ed., 2013, Charles C. Thomas). A research

methodologist, she has authored numerous papers published in a range of professional journals such as

Brain, Neuropsychologia, and Psychiatric Services.

Jennifer Frank Tantia Ph.D., BC-DMT, LCAT is a somatic psychologist and dance/movement therapist in NYC, and research

faculty at Pratt Institute, Creative Arts Therapy department. Associate Editor for Body, Movement and

Dance in Psychotherapy, guest editor for International Body Psychotherapy Journal, former research

chair of USABP. Master’s degree: dance/movement therapy; PhD in Clinical Psychology/specialization

in somatic psychology. Research interests: embodied research methodologies, nonverbal communication

in clinical practice, effects of embodied learning, and body-based trauma healing. Publication topics

include: dance/movement therapy for treating trauma, embodied research methodologies, clinical

intuition, and the effects of body/mind integrative psychotherapy practices. www.soma-psyche.com.

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