Music Therapy Commons^™

Warning: Music Therapy Comes With Risks, James Hiller, Susan Gardstrom

Department of Music Faculty Publications

Bob Marley sings, “One good thing about music—when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Although this may be the case for some people and in some circumstances, we dispute this statement as a global truth. After all, couldn’t any phenomenon commanding enough to alleviate human pain (ostensibly instantaneously) also harbor the potential to catalyze undesirable, even injurious, effects? And couldn’t this influence then logically extend to music employed within the context of a therapeutic process? As music therapist and Concordia University Associate Professor Dr. Laurel Young writes, “the ‘miraculous’ effects of music as featured in popular media along with …

Community Music Therapy And Participatory Performance: Case Study Of A Coffee House, Elizabeth Mitchell

Music Faculty Publications

This case study research explores the impact of a musical performance event—the Coffee House—held bi-annually at an adolescent mental health treatment facility in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Any client or staff member is welcomed to perform at this event, which is organized by the facility’s music therapist and framed here as an example of community music therapy. Drawing upon Turino’s (2008) ethnomusicological perspective on performance, I will argue that the Coffee House’s success within this context is due to its participatory ethos, wherein success is primarily defined by the act of participation. Here, performance takes place within an inclusive and supportive …

Language Of Music And Its Psychophysical Foundations, Marina Korsakova-Kreyn

Lander College for Women - The Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School Publications and Research

Application of music in rehabilitation medicine requires an understanding of the mechanisms of music perception. This article discusses differences in character of the basic melodic elements and addresses some of the specifics of tonal space. Colloquially, music is called the language of emotion. Bearing in mind that high-level cognitive functioning in humans is inseparable from affective consciousness, investigating the mechanisms of emotional processing belongs to an important area of cognitive sciences. Studying music perception can help to advance methods of music therapy and to elucidate major aspects of human consciousness.

Using Music Therapy As An Adjunct To Pharmacologic Therapies For Chronic Pain, Andrea L. Rosenberg

Theses and Graduate Projects

Chronic pain affects more than 1 in 4 individuals in the United States. Many patients are being prescribed opioids to manage this pain, leading to an immense problem involving addiction, overdoses, and preventable deaths. Music therapy has been shown to provide “music analgesia,” improving anxiety, depression, and mobility problems associated with chronic pain conditions. The most benefit was seen when the music was known to the patient, the patient had a role in choosing the music, and when the music had a beat of less than 120 beats per minute. These promising results include a wide variety of chronic pain …

The Experience Of Music Therapy During The Weaning Process Of Patients Receiving Invasive Mechanical Ventilation, Stephanie M. Morris

Theses and Graduate Projects

Mechanical ventilation (MV) is a medical intervention used to assist the respiratory function of someone who is medically compromised. Patients need to wean from the ventilator in order to resume breathing on their own. A spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) is used to determine one’s readiness to be liberated from the ventilator. Music therapy is the use of music interventions, facilitated by a board-certified music therapist, to address patient-specific goals within a therapeutic relationship. Music therapists working in an intensive care unit (ICU) may focus their clinical work to address the stressors, fears, and medical complications associated with vent weaning. The …

Evidence-Based Music Therapy Treatment To Elevate Mood During Acute Stroke Care, Jessica L. Rushing

Theses and Dissertations--Rehabilitation Sciences

Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. with approximately 795,000 Americans experiencing a stroke each year. In addition to common difficulties with communication and physical impairments following stroke, psychosocial impacts warrant assessment and treatment. Experiencing a stroke can lead to depression, mood disorders, and difficulties with emotion regulation. It is well documented that post-stroke depression (PSD) affects a third of stroke survivors. Higher levels of depression and depressive symptoms are associated with a less efficient use of rehabilitation services, poor functional outcomes, greater odds of hospital readmission, negative impacts on social participation, and increased mortality. The …

A Study Of Unemployment And Underemployment In Clinical Music Therapy, Christopher A. Kelley

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Music therapy has been an established health profession for over 60 years serving a diverse population in different settings. Researchers studied the effects of burnout, career longevity, job satisfaction, and workforce analysis of clinical music therapy; however, no studies exist on the prevalence of unemployment and underemployment in clinical music therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of unemployment and underemployment in clinical music therapy.

Participants who completed an anonymous online survey (n = 1,240) were board-certified music therapists who provided information on their current employment status. Results showed that the prevalence of unemployment among …

Relaxing Music Effects On Implicit Racial Bias And Neural Activity, Viktoriya Robertovna Broyan

All Master's Theses

Music therapy has been used to treat a number of behavioral and emotional problems, including reducing the undesirable effects of having negative and traumatic associations with something/someone (e.g., PTSD). However, there have been no studies that have shown music therapy being used to treat prejudiced beliefs and biases. It was theorized that if music therapy has been used to help treat PTSD symptoms with great success, it is possible that those therapeutic effects could positively extend out to racial bias as well. The purpose of this ERP study was to investigate whether relaxing music could reduce implicit racial bias, specifically …

A Kentucky Pioneer In Music Therapy: An Oral History On The Life And Career Of Lorinda Jones, Emma Powers

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Lorinda Jones, MT-BC, is the longest practicing music therapist in Kentucky. She began her work as a music therapist in 1995 and built a private practice, which expanded over the course of the next 20 years to include services in 16 counties. Ms. Jones’ perspective on the growth of music therapy, both within the state and nationwide, as well as her extensive knowledge of Appalachian folk music, makes her an invaluable resource to Kentucky music therapists. The purpose of this study was to present a historical account of the life and career of Lorinda Jones, to gain her perspective on …

The Effectiveness Of Music Therapy Interventions With Persons Of Concern: An Integrative Review, Grace Lauzon

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and stateless persons, collectively known as “persons of concern,” often have unmet mental health and wellness needs as a result of trauma. With a diverse variety of interventions and approaches, the use of music therapy has the potential to meet the needs of persons of concern. In the present study, the researcher conducted an integrative review to examine the use of music therapy with persons of concern. After conducting a hand-search of music therapy journals and an advanced keyword search through internet databases, the researcher found 17 studies that met inclusion criteria. There …

Factors Influencing Music Therapy Career Choice In The United States: A Study Of Student Values And Expectancies, Margaret R. Scheppmann

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The understanding of why students decide to become music therapists is valuable information for music therapy educators and policy makers and published information is lacking. The use of expectancy-value theory provides a framework to understand student choices. Researchers can better understand why students purse a career in music therapy by examining students’ abilities, beliefs, expectancies, and values related to the choice. The purpose of this study was to examine why current undergraduate and equivalency students want to be music therapists. Music therapy students (N = 129) throughout the United States provided insight into their decision to become music therapists …

The Effects Of Mindfulness Practice With Music Listening On Working Memory, Emily Irene Messick

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate mindfulness strategies and their influence on working memory. The potential role of music in facilitating mindfulness practice is explored. Various listening exercises were investigated along with their influence on working memory (i.e. attention control). Thirty-four individuals were randomly assigned to participate in one of four listening groups: 1) mindfulness with music, 2) mindfulness without music, 3) music only, and 4) silence. Thirty-four participants engaged in a computerized digit-span task before and after the listening exercise to assess pre- and post-test working memory performance. Thirty participants were included in data-analysis due to …

Music Therapy Effects On Social-Communicative Response Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Raymond Payton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are challenged with communicative skills, which can negatively influence their emotional development. As children with ASD in the local school were not demonstrating functional communication skills as measured by the Assessment of Social Skills for Children with Autism (ASSCM), music therapy was introduced as remediation. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which music therapy increased the ASSCM scores. This single subject design study was guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory, which holds that individuals are impacted by various environmental systems around them. The research question addressed the extent to …

The Roles Of Absorption In Music Therapy, Michael John Russo

Theses & Dissertations

Absorption refers to the phenomenon of total attentional engagement. The purpose of the current study was to gain a preliminary understanding of the roles that absorption may have in different music therapy approaches. The research questions were: a) How might music therapists know when their clients are in states of absorption?, b) How might absorption influence the ability of music therapy clients to progress towards therapeutic goals?, and c) What is the potential relationship between absorption and music? Three music therapists with self-identified expertise and experience in conceptualizing absorption in music therapy were interviewed about their observations and opinions of …

Exploring The Use Of Marimba In Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy With Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Lucas Mccarren

Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the use of the marimba in Nordoff Robbins music therapy with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Three clients each received two individual 30 to 45-minute music therapy sessions over the course of three weeks. After reviewing the sessions an inductive thematic analysis was competed in order to determine themes that occurred throughout the study. Five themes were discussed using clinical examples and musical transcriptions. These themes included: (a) sharing the marimba to strengthen the therapeutic relationship, (b) the use of marimba as an accompanying instrument, (c) rhythmic structuring, (d) the use of Nordoff Robbins repertoire on marimba, …

Understanding Group Dynamics In Dir-Based Improvisational Music Therapy With Autistic Children, Anne Therese Crean

Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the group dynamics of Autistic children in a developmental, individual difference, relationship-based improvisational music therapy group, understand how those dynamics manifested, and to observe changes over time. The primary data source was archived clinical videos from the first, middle, and last sessions of one clinical year. A qualitative content analysis using the Music Therapy Group Improvisation Analysis Model involved a cyclical process of listening, writing descriptive narratives, and analyzing those narratives to develop meaning categories describing the group dynamics. The group dynamics of each session were described individually, and after a process …

The Experience Of Songwriting In Music Therapy For Adults With Intellectual Disability, Jasper Lewis

Theses & Dissertations

This research study investigated the lived experience of adults with Intellectual Disability (ID) in a music therapy songwriting session. Three study participants, referred to here as Emma, Anne, and Abdoul, took part in individual songwriting music therapy sessions. The participants each completed an original song in collaboration with a board certified music therapist. The songs were recorded and the lyrics of the song were transcribed. After the songwriting experience was complete a 10-20 minute semi-structured interview was conducted to gather data about the participants’ subjective experiences. This data was analyzed according to the interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) framework. Themes were …

The Effects Of Listening To Motivational Music On Performance Of Knee Extension And Flexion In Healthy Adults, Alexander Lesser

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether listening to motivational music prior to performing leg extensions and flexions effected peak torque performance. Participants included 23 adults between the ages 18 and 48 years. Participants engaged in three sets of leg extensions and flexions utilizing a Cybex Humac NORM system following a warm-up period consisting of listening to either researcher-selected music, self-selected music, and in silence. Two one-way ANOVAs comparing participants’ data showed significant results in leg flexions performed following warm-up while listening to self-selected music. Significant results were not achieved for leg extensions yet a similar trend was …