Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 3 of 3
-
ItemMusico-relational competencies: Examining the convergence of musical and relational competencies in improvisational group music therapy for people with borderline personality disorder( 2020)This thesis details an emergent, qualitative study on music therapy process resulting in the new concept of musico-relational competence. The project began with an exploration of music processes in the context of outpatient adult psychiatry. Seven participants, a cofacilitator and a music therapist (also the researcher) took part in an improvisationally based group music therapy program over eight weeks. All sessions were recorded on video and analysed to explore how music process influenced therapeutic process. The emergent design allowed for discovery and adjustments along the way. This led to taking an ethnographic and ethnomusicological approach to the analysis of the video data (including music analysis), focusing on the meaning making process of participants in the study. There are a few studies suggesting that music therapy is of benefit to people who experience Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) (Hannibal, 2014; Plitt, 2014; Schmidt, 2002; Strehlow & Lindner, 2015), yet very little written on music process, or music therapy with groups of people who live with BPD. Therefore, this study utilised an emergent methodology with the aim of beginning to understand music therapy processes in this context. Findings from this study are presented as five perspectives on musical competence orientation. They include Musical Structure, Musical Language Competencies, Musical Interaction Competencies, Knowledge and Experience of Group Improvisation, and Changes in Feeling States that Accompany Improvisation. A new theory on competency orientation was developed to explain the phenomena examined in this study complemented by the existing theories of group process (Tuckman, 1965; Yalom, 2005), alliance rupture and repair (Safran, Crocker, McMain, & Murray, 1990; Safran & Kraus, 2014) and implicit relational knowing (Bruschweiler-Stern et al., 2010; Trondalen, 2016). The main finding that emerged from the analysis were the musico-relational competency orientation of participants and the influence of this orientation on relational cycles in group improvisation. The relational cycle in improvisational music therapy is enacted via musical connection, disconnection and reconnection as experienced in musical ‘limbo’ periods. Over time, via repeated experience and changing competency orientation, negative emotionality experienced by participants decreased, contributing to therapeutic process in sessions. The main therapeutic process enacted was tolerating the dynamics of implicit relational knowing during group improvisation. The implications of this finding are relevant to music therapists practicing group music therapy in adult psychiatry, and potentially in other contexts. The importance of the musico-relational competency orientation, in addition to working with limbo phases of improvisation can influence program design, evaluation and interpretation of music therapy process. With further investigation of this phenomena, I hope that group methodologies utilising these principles will become more widely practiced in music therapy.
-
ItemMusical recovery: the role of group singing in regaining healthy relationships with music to promote mental health recovery( 2016)This thesis describes an emergent project which investigates the role of group singing in inpatient and community mental health settings. Music therapy has previously been identified as a way to foster processes of mental health recovery (Hense, McFerran & McGorry, 2014; McCaffrey, Edwards, & Fannon, 2011; Solli, Rolvsjord, & Borg, 2013). However, little is known about the specific factors apparent in group singing which promote recovery. This project aimed to address this gap by exploring the role of group singing in promoting recovery through a small mixed methods study and a larger grounded theory study. Adults aged between 18 and 72 years who were in mental health recovery participated in this research and were recruited from a number of different inpatient and community contexts around Melbourne. Key principles of recovery-oriented philosophy (Slade, 2009) and resource-oriented music therapy (Rolvsjord, 2010) were adopted. An initial mixed methods study was conducted which aimed to both explore experiences of group singing and measure outcomes of belonging before, during and after a 10 week community group singing program (Bibb, Baker, Tamplin & McFerran, under review). The qualitative analysis revealed that being with others, being heard, having a sense of purpose, achieving something and group size and setting contributed to participants experiences of the group. However, little could be concluded from the quantitative data, since for individual reasons, each of the four participants reported difficulty completing the measures. This led to a change in focus of the study to include an additional interview question asking participants to specifically reflect on their experience of completing the self-report outcome measures (Bibb & McFerran, under review). In addition, a need to critically examine the measures used in mental health research and the assumptions surrounding their ‘reliability’ was identified. A method of Critical Interpretive Synthesis was used to interrogate the most commonly used self-report outcome measures in mental health research in the last ten years (Bibb, Baker & McFerran, 2016). The results of the critical synthesis indicated that many of the measures most commonly used in mental health research do not align with the contemporary recovery-oriented philosophy of mental health care. The second study of this thesis adopted a grounded theory approach to explore the conditional and contextual factors involved in group singing. Collaborative interviews allowed for the participant and the interviewer to be active in making meaning of the participant’s experience (Holstein & Gubrium, 1995). The findings of this study, after 29 interviews, impelled the development of a new term, ‘musical recovery’ which depicts a process of regaining healthy relationships with music to promote mental health recovery. A number of factors are identified as promoting and interfering with musical recovery within a group singing context. The musical recovery framework illustrates how music therapy practice can be a process of recovery in itself.
-
ItemMusical identities of young people recovering from mental illness( 2015)This thesis details a Participatory project investigating how and why promoting young people’s musical identities can facilitate their recovery from mental illness. Studies describe how young people use music listening for managing aspects of their mental health across community-based (McFerran & Saarikallio, 2014; Saarikallio & Erkkila, 2007) and mental health settings (Cheong-Clinch, 2013). Music therapy is also articulated as a way to facilitate processes of recovery from mental illness (McCaffrey, Edwards, & Fannon, 2011; Solli, Rolvsjord, & Borg, 2013). Despite growing awareness of the potential of music to support recovery from mental illness, little is known about what conditions actually facilitate growth of musical identity in ways that foster recovery processes. This project aimed to address this gap by investigating what is needed in order to promote young people’s musical identities in ways that facilitate their recovery from mental illness. The intention was to understand both the processes involved and the resources required to facilitate recovery. A Participatory orientation (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2008) was chosen to align with the recovery approach (Davidson, Row, Tandora, O'Connell, & Lawless, 2009; Slade, 2009b) of the youth mental health service where this study took place. The Participatory philosophy was also seen as appropriate to the social agenda of the study in seeking to address young people’s access to musical resources to promote their recovery. Eleven young people currently attending the music therapy program at the youth mental health service chose to participate across two emergent cycles of action and reflection. In the first cycle, young people participated in collaborative qualitative interviews exploring how their musical identities changed with experiences of mental illness and recovery. A critical interpretation of Constructivist Grounded Theory was used to gather and analyse the data. The finding from this cycle was a constructed grounded theory that detailed young people’s recovery of musical identity. A second cycle of research emerged from this theory, to explore what community-based resources are needed to further facilitate recovery. This cycle involved mapping young people’s musical needs compared to what was available and possible in the local community. Findings from this study were an identified set of musical needs of young people, and the initiation of the Youth Music Action Group to begin addressing the meeting of these needs through community partnerships and advocacy. Findings from this study indicate that promoting musical identity can facilitate young people’s recovery from mental illness by: contributing to a health-based identity, facilitating meaning-making, and supporting social participation. However, the findings indicate a number of conditions are necessary to facilitate these processes. First, the music therapy theory through which to construct these processes needs to accommodate both the pathology of young people’s expression of musical symptoms as well as acknowledgement of the resource of musical identity for recovery. Second, music therapy needs to be available to support young people’s recovery of musical identity during early stages. Third, community-based music resources need to be available and appropriate to young people immediately following their experience of music therapy. Fourth, modes of research need to expand in order to promote greater democratic participation of young people in ways that promote their equal citizenship. These findings contribute to music therapy and youth mental health knowledge, and can inform future service design.