A Phenomenological Study on Music Therapists Treating Trauma Patients

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to gain understanding and knowledge of the lived experienceof music therapists treating trauma patients. Within the music therapyfield, the trauma therapy has been gaining interest over the years. There have beenmany books and articles written about the trauma patient population itself and themusic therapy interventions. However, the problem to be addressed is that currentlythere is a lack of study focused on the music therapists’ experience of treating traumapatients in relation to such topic as Vicarious Traumatization (VT), CompassionFatigue (CF), and Burn Out. There is evidence from the Secondary Traumatic StressSyndrome (STS) how conducting trauma therapy may result in VT, CF, and Burn Outfor the therapists. However, within the music therapy field this is a subject that wasnot explored and studied much. The research was conducted within thephenomenological framework with added musical improvisation of “Self-Portrait” asan artistic inquiry component. The subjects who conduct trauma therapy wererecruited and they were interviewed using the open-ended interview guide. Themusical data was analyzed based on a Structural Model for Music Analysis (SMMA)developed by Erdonmez Grocke (1999) and the verbal data was analyzed based onModification of the Stevick-Collaizzi-Keen Method of Analysis of PhenomenologicalData (Moustakas, 1994). The results show how challenging it is for the therapist to bepresent and working with trauma patients and what it feels like to hear the traumamaterials of the patients. There was only one case reported of having experienced VT,CF, and Burn Out as a result of working with trauma patients. It is important to notethe findings from the musical data and the verbal data are congruent and concurrentwhich supports and strengthens the research results.%%%%M.A., Creative Arts in Therapy – Drexel University, 2009