Exploring parents’ musical agency in resource-oriented music therapy with their preterm infants in the NICU and at home

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction Engaging parents in musical interactions through singing to their preterm infants is becoming a primary music therapy (MT) approach within the neonatal context. Parents describe their positive experiences during MT in the NICU and post-discharge. A recent longitudinal study offered families resource-oriented music therapy services from birth to home. Aim Based on an interpretive phenomenological analysis of parental experiences of MT in the LongSTEP trial, I posit musical agency as a theoretical framework for understanding the processes that are enabled during MT with families of preterm infants from birth to home. Method I explore the concept of musical agency through social and psychotherapy theories and through examples taken from MT sessions and interviews. I illustrate how the guiding principles of a resource-oriented approach to MT correspond with enhancing musical agency. Results Musical agency is every person’s ability to use music for personal and social needs. Musical agency is released and interchanged through musical interactions between parents and their preterm infants during MT. Resource-oriented principles in MT may offer music therapists ways to empower clients’ musical agency. Discussion Musical agency may increase other forms of agency and support parents to connect to themselves and their preterm infants, depending on parental appropriation of music’s affordances. Embracing the framework of agency calls for music therapists to be aware of power dynamics and shift to a collaborative approach within MT sessions, aligning with a resource-oriented approach.