Abstract
BackgroundWhile music-making interventions are increasingly recognised as enhancing mental health, little is known of why music may engender such benefit. The objective of this article is to elucidate the features of a programme of group drumming known to enable mental health recovery.MethodsQualitative research was conducted with 39 mental health patients and carers who had demonstrated recovery following engagement with a programme of group djembe drumming in the UK. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews and focus group interviews designed to understand the connection between drumming and recovery and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).ResultsResults revealed three overarching features of the drumming intervention: (1) the specific features of drumming, including drumming as a form of non-verbal communication, as a connection with life through rhythm, and as a grounding experience that both generates and liberates energy; (2) the specific features of the group, including the group as a space of connection in and through the rhythmic features of the drumming, as well as facilitating feelings of belonging, acceptance, safety and care, and new social interactions; (3) the specific features of the learning, including learning as an inclusive activity in which the concept of mistakes is dissolved and in which there is musical freedom, supported by an embodied learning process expedited by the musical facilitator.ConclusionThe findings provide support for the conceptual notion of ‘creative practice as mutual recovery’, demonstrating that group drumming provides a creative and mutual learning space in which mental health recovery can take place.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13612-016-0048-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
While music-making interventions are increasingly recognised as enhancing mental health, little is known of why music may engender such benefit
While we demonstrated in previously reported research that group drumming for mental health patients and their carers can enhance wellbeing (Fancourt et al 2016a, 2016b), these studies stopped short of examining what features of the musical intervention enabled this
Participants were recruited through hospitals, psychologists and psychiatrists working in the UK National Health Service (NHS) or private practice, or through mental health and carer support organisations and charities
Summary
While music-making interventions are increasingly recognised as enhancing mental health, little is known of why music may engender such benefit. According to Seligman (2011), wellbeing is sustained by five elements: Positive emotions (including happiness and life satisfaction), Engagement (complete immersion in an activity), Relationships (being cared for and valued), Meaning (significance of life and belonging to something larger than the self ), and Accomplishment (achievement and mastery). These PERMA elements focus on the ways in which we can be well, rather than on symptoms of ill health, and include both hedonic (feeling good) and eudaimonic (functioning well) aspects of wellbeing. Drawing on these conceptual starting points, mental health is framed in what follows as optimal, multidimensional wellbeing rather than symptoms of illbeing
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