Family-based music therapy: from dissonance to harmony

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study is unique in that it expands the use of family music therapy to a broader range of families. It moves beyond the prevailing tendency to employ family music therapy with families of children with special needs to nonclinical families seeking therapy. Joining Alvin’s free improvisation model and Satir’s experiential family therapy, the study engages family members in mutual musical improvisation. It explores the clinical application and therapeutic value of short-term family-based music therapy with three families in a community setting. Each family received six pre-structured interventions from the dual-expertise music and family therapist. Results reveal family-based improvisations accurately accentuated family dynamics as musical representations. They provoked heightened awareness of family difficulties, which were explored using process questions and verbal reflections. Evidence suggests that family-based music therapy can serve as an effective and accurate family clinical assessment, and an intervention addressing an array of family objectives. Family-based music interventions tapped into family resources for the sake of promoting family and individual congruence and well-being. The study informs music therapists of the clinical value of adding a family-systems perspective to their professional toolbox, and family therapists and other clinicians of the potential of family-based musical interventions in family therapy.