Putting Clinical Process into Image: A Method for Visual Representation of Music Therapy Sessions

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In many instances, music therapists are called upon to analyze their own work or to present it to others. However, the temporality and complexity of clinical-musical events generates challenging difficulties in providing a quick overview of a single session. In the present paper, a method to visually map the events that occur in music therapy sessions is proposed, following in the footsteps of authors who have suggested graphical notation as a possible solution to the problem. The Music-therapy Analyzing Partitura (MAP) is used by the therapist to describe what happened in a session and is shared with colleagues who may read and discuss it. The establishment of a standard code is proposed, which is based on known principles of music notation and new simply designed symbols and icons. Two sessions with a group are described and the advantages and disadvantages of the MAP are discussed. The methods used by therapists and researchers to describe and analyze work have received considerable attention in music therapy literature (e.g., Bergstrom-Nielsen, 1993; Bruscia, 2001; Forinash, 2000; Forinash & Gonzalez, 1989; Langenberg, Frommer, & Tress, 1993; Lee, 2000; McFerran & Wigram, 2005; Smeijsters & Storm, 1996). The clinical sound that evolves from a single session is usually extremely complex and difficult to comprehend and analyze. Some of the complications include the following: (a) that music in therapy is not necessarily organized in a conventional form; (b) that words might coincide with the music in varying ways; and (c) that the music of the therapist is usually intertwined with the client's music, which presents great complexity in defining the relationship between them. These problems significantly increase when one considers describing or analyzing a session of group music therapy that involves several lines of musical communication or when one is interested in comparing different sessions. One major reason for the complexity in grasping auditory information, including improvisations, speech, and recorded music, is that this information is spread over time. Human memory and perception make it difficult to perceive a session's worth of information from a bird's-eye perspective. A verbal description of what occurred in a session, the method frequently used by therapists, is also problematic in this sense because the experience of reading is spread over time as well. Another major problem with verbal accounts of sessions is that they are not arts-based in form so they reduce the holistic, arts-centered experience of the session to a linear description. One possible solution to this problem is to translate the auditory information into a visual format, creating a musicalclinical map (Bergstrom-Nielsen, 1993). In contrast to auditory information, visual information, such as graphs and pictures, is spread over space but remains unchanged over time. If the mapping system is simple enough, it can provide an overview of events at a glance. In the present study, the establishment of a standard method to visually map sessions in music therapy is suggested. To clearly represent the complexity of events, a framework that integrated ideas from the Western musical notation system, from former music therapy notators, and from cartography (i.e., geographical mapping) is proposed. The principles of Western musical notation and general aspects of cartography are discussed. Several approaches proposed by earlier authors to visually represent material in music therapy are also reviewed. Next, the Music-therapy Analyzing Partifura' (MAP) in the context of a group session is demonstrated and its basic characteristics are explained. Finally, the functions of the MAP and further developments for using such a format are presented. Musical Notation Though many notation systems were invented in the past 4000 years, only a few can be considered to be monomial (i. …