Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemMusical intimacy and the negotiation of boundary challenges in contemporary music therapy practice( 2016)This thesis details a grounded theory study that examined the new concept of musical intimacy. This research began with an initial interest in therapeutic boundaries, exploring how they interact with music in music therapy practice. Through a critical interpretive synthesis, examining the prevalence and presentation of traditional boundary ideas, musical intimacy emerged as a new boundary theme. Musical intimacy was an interesting concept that seemed to capture the complexities of musical experiences, and their unique interaction with therapeutic boundaries. It was the discovery of this concept that led me to explore it in more detail. A grounded theory study was conducted, interviewing 20 music therapists from locations in Australia, the USA, Canada, the UK, Denmark and Norway. I used intensive interviewing to explore the music therapists’ experiences and understandings of what musical intimacy could be. Through this, I was also keen to examine how the music therapists were managing musical intimacy, and if they had experienced any boundary challenges within that context. The interviews were conducted in person across a three month period. A grounded theory analysis, influenced by both Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory (2014) and analytic strategies from Corbin and Strauss (2008), was applied to the interview transcriptions. The analysis process included: 1) data collection and initial analysis, 2) initial coding, 3) focussed coding, and 4) synthesizing to form the theoretical framework. Throughout the analysis process, the grounded theory technique of ‘memoing’ was used, as well as many reflexive strategies to reveal my influence on the emerging findings. This analysis allowed me to move back and forth between data and analysis, involving many streams of analysis, where I returned to the data to expand, confirm or challenge my initial ideas and themes. Through this process, a theoretical framework of musical intimacy and boundaries has emerged. The grounded essence of the musically intimate experience emerged as the core defining feature of musical intimacy. The grounded essence is: the therapist experiences a powerful moment of connection in and around the music that triggers an acute sense of vulnerability and reveals the need for boundaries to keep things safe. There were two main themes that emerged, which contributed to the musically intimate experience for these participants. These were: the ‘interpersonal experiences’ and the ‘intrinsic components of music’. The music therapists described a spectrum of experiences, which were a complex web of powerful moments of connection and challenging experiences. They also described their ‘ways of being and responding’ to the musically intimate experiences, which detailed how they managed boundaries in these moments. The most interesting aspect of this research is the emergence and definition of musical intimacy. Musical intimacy captures a complex aspect of music therapy that was experienced by all 20 of the music therapists involved in this study. Musical intimacy provides a way for music therapists to conceptualise boundaries in their practice. It alludes to powerful moments of connection we can experience, and how there can be challenging moments in and around the music in music therapy. The ‘ways of being and responding’ are the beginnings of developing a new understanding of boundaries in music therapy practice. It is my belief that through this theoretical framework of musical intimacy and boundaries, we can begin to understand the complex nature of music and boundaries in a contemporary approach to music therapy practice.