Studying Nonlinear Change in Music Therapy Applying Dynamic Systems Theory

Change in music therapy is often modeled linearly. In linear analysis, change is represented as the difference between the scores recorded before and after treatment, where changes in the input are proportional to the output. However, changes in complex systems are often not linear and depend on time. We propose Dynamic Systems Theory (DST) as a means to overcome the shortcomings of linear analysis and enrich the study of change in music therapy. This article aims to introduce and critically discuss the applications of DST in music therapy, focusing on its theoretical and methodological aspects. DST offers a meta-framework to model nonlinear change in music therapy, considering time as continuous. The application of DST can further enhance the understanding of how music therapy works, the shape of the change, and how the relevant therapeutic processes within music therapy support therapeutic change. An introduction to DST theory is provided along with its history, implications, assessment methods, statistical analyses, mathematical modeling, and implementation examples in music therapy research.

An Investigation into Time Relationships in Co-Improvisation with Children Having Epileptic Fits

This qualitative research project investigates aspects of time and timing in co-improvisation with children suffering from epilepsy. Recently, a growing interest in time and timing has emerged in the field of music therapy. However, the impact of epilepsy on time relationships in music therapy has not been systematically explored to date.

Using both video recordings of sessions and interviews with therapists experienced in working with epileptic children as data, the impact of epilepsy on musical time relationships is explored. Time relationships are understood to include not only the relationship between the therapist's and client's timings, expressed in timing of musical activity and body movements, but also the subjective experiences of time a therapist has whilst working with epileptic children, especially when they have a seizure.

The findings of this study support and complexify previous theoretical writings on time and timing in the music therapy literature. The impact of an epileptic seizure on the timing between client and therapist is analysed. The complex relationships between timing and psycho-physiological changes are explored, including possible effects of the therapist's emotional responses on timing. The findings of the study suggest that music therapists share certain experiences of time in work with epileptic children. Finally, there is a discussion of music-therapeutic strategies used by therapists when time relationships are affected by an epileptic episode.

Music therapy with sexually abused children

Music is part of everyday life, and is generally regarded as therapeutic. There is increasing interdisciplinary interest in innate human musicality and the link between music and the emotions. Innate musicality is evident in the dynamic forms of emotional expression that both regulate and cultivate the foundations of meaning in human communication (intersubjectivity). This article discusses music therapy, drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives, and illustrated by case material of individual music therapy with a sexually abused child. Where the growth of mind and meaning is devastated at its core by early relational trauma, music, when used with clinical perception, may reach and work constructively with damaged children in an evolving, musically mediated therapeutic relationship.