Date of Award
Spring 5-16-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Expressive Therapies
Major
Expressive Therapies
First Advisor
Dr Wendy Allen
Abstract
This thesis documents the development of the Multimodal Expressive Arts Lunch Bunch, a small group intervention for elementary students delivered during the school lunch period at a public elementary school in Boston, Massachusetts. Grounded in multimodal expressive arts therapy, intermodal transfer theory, polyvagal-informed co-regulation, and principles of externalization, the intervention was designed as a low-barrier creative support group accessible regardless of diagnosis, referral status, or family pursuit of clinical services. Two cohorts of teacher-nominated students, one group of fourth-grade girls and one mixed-gender third-grade group, participated in a sequenced arc moving from worry externalization through collaborative invention, prototype construction, and narrative commercial creation. The intervention required adaptation from its designed 25-minute, 8-week format to approximately 15-minute sessions over 10 weeks due to institutional constraints including a room relocation and addition of new students without notice. The Grade 3 arc was redesigned mid-implementation after facilitator observations revealed that the worry-to-invention framework was not accessible to this group's regulatory profile or the material they brought. At the time of writing, five of ten sessions were complete. Facilitator observations documented emerging group cohesion, co-regulation manifesting differently across cohorts, and the relational container persisting even when structural conditions were compromised. Results suggest that meaningful expressive arts group experiences can be delivered within a school lunch period when session structure is consistent, the facilitative stance is attuned, and activities offer multiple entry points. This thesis represents the initial development of a method intended as a seed for continued refinement and adaptation across diverse school settings.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Mimran-Ugbabe, Pascale Lauren, "From Worry to Invention: Developing the Lunch Bunch as a Multimodal Expressive Arts Model for Regulation, Collaboration, and Peer Connection in Elementary Schools" (2026). Expressive Therapies Theses. 161.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_therapies_theses/161
Included in
Child Psychology Commons, Dance Movement Therapy Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Music Therapy Commons, Other Psychology Commons, School Psychology Commons, Social Psychology Commons
