Introduction: Depression can be a serious problem in young adult students. There is a need to implement and monitor prevention interventions for these students. Emotion-regulating improvisational music therapy (EIMT) was developed to prevent depression. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of EIMT for use in practice for young adult students with depressive symptoms in a university context. Method: A process evaluation was conducted embedded in a larger research project. Eleven students, three music therapists and five referrers were interviewed. The music therapists also completed evaluation forms. Data were collected concerning client attendance, treatment integrity, musical components used to synchronise, and experiences with EIMT and referral. Results: Client attendance (90%) and treatment integrity were evaluated to be sufficient (therapist adherence 83%; competence 84%). The music therapists used mostly rhythm to synchronise (38 of 99 times). The students and music therapists reported that EIMT and its elements evoked changes in all emotion regulation components. The students reported that synchronisation elicited meaningful experiences of expressing joy, feeling heard, feeling joy and bodily responses of relaxation. The music therapists found the manual useful for applying EIMT. The student counsellors experienced EIMT as an appropriate way to support students due to its preventive character. Discussion: EIMT appears to be a feasible means of evoking changes in emotion regulation components in young adult students with depressive symptoms in a university context. More studies are needed to create a more nuanced and evidence-based understanding of the feasibility of EIMT, processes of change and treatment integrity.
During recent years the world has seen rapid changes such as globalization, the Internet, and the rise of new economies. To survive these changes organizations need to be in control of their processes, and be able to continuously improve the process performance. Therefore many organizations are increasingly adopting Business Process Management (BPM). However, it is not clear if the implementation of BPM(S) is really adding value to an organization. Consequently, in this paper, we try to answer the following research question: 'Does adoption of Business Process Management lead to a higher process performance?' Based on quantitative research we show that there is dependence between the performance of processes within an organization and the BPM maturity of that organization. As a result we conclude that improvement in process performance can be attained by increasing the BPM maturity of an organization.
The divide between us and the rest of nature has been attributed to various rootcauses: the growing disenchantment of the world, the loss of direct experience andlately the replacement of the real with simulations of it. Modernity's move away fromthe natural world has also generated countervailing movements, beginning with theRomantics and leading up to the manifold forms of environmental education in ourtimes. When we seek to reconnect to the natural world through an open-ended artistic process, what happens? In this thesis, Jan van Boeckel explores the kind of learning that takes place through arts-based environmental education.
