Finding healing through songwriting: A song for Nicolette

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this article is to outline one person’s lived-experience of songwriting. Using data from an individual participant as an archetype of a larger Post-Intentional Phenomenological project, this songwriter’s experience is understood as both cathartic and transcendent. Illuminated by the phenomenological description of ‘gravitating-levitating’, songwriting served as a form of healing for both the participating songwriter and listeners of the resulting music. Salient intersections of community music and leisure are explored. Findings offer a glimpse into the complexities and insights of these phenomena as a lived-experience.