scholarly journals How do I Perceive the Silences in my one-to-one Music Therapy Sessions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Theodore Sekeris

<p>Music therapy research is predominantly focused on the sounds and words that occur in sessions. The role and place of silence within usual practice is not so well covered in research literature. In this research, I used an auto-ethnographic approach and thematic analysis to try and understand how I perceive the silences in my own individual music therapy sessions with learners at a high school. This approach allowed me to connect with my own personal experience with silence, as it is a highly subjective and context dependent phenomena and tool. I perceived silence in nine major themes. Findings suggest I tend to ‘observe’ the learners when silences occur, for a variety of reasons, and this seems to contrast with my previous understanding of my therapeutic approach. Specifically, I found that I am more behaviourally focussed than I realised before I began my research journey, particularly in the way that I write and recall events in the therapy room. The research process enabled me to find out more about my personal relationship with silence, and to some degree a personal truth about myself.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Theodore Sekeris

<p>Music therapy research is predominantly focused on the sounds and words that occur in sessions. The role and place of silence within usual practice is not so well covered in research literature. In this research, I used an auto-ethnographic approach and thematic analysis to try and understand how I perceive the silences in my own individual music therapy sessions with learners at a high school. This approach allowed me to connect with my own personal experience with silence, as it is a highly subjective and context dependent phenomena and tool. I perceived silence in nine major themes. Findings suggest I tend to ‘observe’ the learners when silences occur, for a variety of reasons, and this seems to contrast with my previous understanding of my therapeutic approach. Specifically, I found that I am more behaviourally focussed than I realised before I began my research journey, particularly in the way that I write and recall events in the therapy room. The research process enabled me to find out more about my personal relationship with silence, and to some degree a personal truth about myself.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Luke Stothart

<p>As shown in the research literature, improvisation is a less common approach to music therapy practice than the use of familiar songs or group singing when working with elderly people in residential settings. This research explores the ways in which improvisation in music therapy could benefit elderly participants in a residential setting. A secondary analytic process was conducted involving a careful analysis of existing clinical data by the student music therapy researcher. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings consisted of three core themes which captured the ways in which improvisation was included in music therapy sessions: these were improvisational approaches described as anchoring, reflecting and dialogue. These core themes were strongly influenced by writings on improvisation method by the late Tony Wigram. Results showed improvisation has potential in its use among older adults in a residential facility. Conclusions could be used to help other elderly residential facilities that are willing to implement similar models of practice.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Luke Stothart

<p>As shown in the research literature, improvisation is a less common approach to music therapy practice than the use of familiar songs or group singing when working with elderly people in residential settings. This research explores the ways in which improvisation in music therapy could benefit elderly participants in a residential setting. A secondary analytic process was conducted involving a careful analysis of existing clinical data by the student music therapy researcher. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings consisted of three core themes which captured the ways in which improvisation was included in music therapy sessions: these were improvisational approaches described as anchoring, reflecting and dialogue. These core themes were strongly influenced by writings on improvisation method by the late Tony Wigram. Results showed improvisation has potential in its use among older adults in a residential facility. Conclusions could be used to help other elderly residential facilities that are willing to implement similar models of practice.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Ole Bonde

In August 2013, the Centre for Music and Health published its first anthology in English - ‘Musical Life Stories’. In the Anthology, 17 authors from 6 countries present their research on the influence of music in a lifelong health perspective. A unique feature of the book is a collection of “personal narratives” by the authors. 13 of the authors wrote a short, free-form narrative about the influence of music on their own identity and health from a life span perspective. This article describes a thematic analysis of the 13 narratives. I investigated the question “Do these music therapy/music psychology researchers use music for their own health in different ways than lay people?” The themes identified are related to the international research literature on music and identity, as well as being considered in relation to the author’s study of health themes in the musical autobiographies of music therapy students at Aalborg University (DK). The analysis reveals that the researchers’ appreciation and appropriation of music’s affordances are basically the same as those reported by music therapy students and lay people.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quang Ngoc Nguyen

Without a guideline or structure, conducting a literature review on a psychological construct might become a chaotic process . This canvas was built based on the author's experience in order to help psychological researchers classify, organize, and summarize the information relating to the psychological construct of interest into several essential aspects including definition, classification, measurement, sample, predictors and outcomes, mediators and moderators, interventions, and theories. For each aspect, there are some guiding questions which are expected to help researcher decice which information should be focused while examining scientific documents. The completely filled canvas should depict the status quo of the research on the psychological construct of interest, facilitating the research process.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madelon North ◽  
Emily Jane Kothe ◽  
Anna Klas ◽  
Mathew Ling

Veganism is an increasingly popular lifestyle within Western societies, including Australia. However, there appears to be a positivist approach to defining veganism in the literature. This has implications for measurement and coherence of the research literature. This exploratory study assessed preference rankings for definitions of veganism used by vegan advocacy groups across an Australian convenience sample of three dietary groups (vegan = 230, omnivore = 117, vegetarian = 43). Participants were also asked to explain their ranking order in an open-ended question. Most vegans selected the UK definition as their first preference, omnivores underwent five rounds of preference reallocation before the Irish definition was selected, and vegetarians underwent four rounds before the UK definition was selected. A reflexive thematic analysis of participant explanations for their rankings identified four themes: (1) Diet vs. lifestyle, (2) Absolutism, (3) Social justice, and (4) Animal justice. These four themes represent how participants had differing perceptions of veganism according to their personal experience and understanding of the term. It appears participants took less of an absolutist approach to the definition and how individuals conceptualise veganism may be more dynamic than first expected. This will be important when researchers are considering how we are defining veganism in future studies to maintain consistency in the field.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 46-66
Author(s):  
Irena Smetáčková ◽  
Petr Pavlík

Career choices of most pupils at the end of the primary school conform to gender norms. Only a few of them continue to study in a field traditionally considered appropriate for the opposite sex. The qualitative study presented here maps the reasons for such choices based on a sample of 25 female and 31 male students who study gender-atypical secondary school program for one to three years. The data were collected using a questionnaire with open-ended items and analysed using the qualitative thematic analysis. The results revealed that the reasons for school choices of boys and girls differ to certain extent. Their situation also differs with respect to the support they receive from their close ones and the acceptance by their classmates. The parents of girls disapproved of their choices more often than the parents of boys. Girls were also ridiculed more frequently by their peer groups.


2021 ◽  
pp. 216747952110019
Author(s):  
Rikishi T. Rey ◽  
Zac D. Johnson

To properly manage college student-athlete dissent, stakeholders (e.g., coaches, teammates, administration, athletic trainers, etc.) must first recognize the situations that cause athletes to dissent. Although athletic dissent is not a new concept, to date, it has only been examined at the high school level. To fill this gap, this study begins to explore this issue at the college level by examining the triggering agents that cause college student-athletes to communicate dissent. Participants ( N = 72) from 11 different sports were asked to complete multiple narratives in response to open ended questions after reflecting on a time where they communicated dissent. Results of a thematic analysis indicate that there are eight triggering agents of dissent, demonstrating distinct differences between high school and college student-athlete dissent due to various contextual factors. These findings highlight the needs and desires of college student-athletes which can help coaches, administration, and other stakeholders to promote positive college student-athlete experiences.


Author(s):  
Sarah J. Stein ◽  
Kwong Nui Sim

Abstract While information and communication technologies (ICT) are prominent in educational practices at most levels of formal learning, there is relatively little known about the skills and understandings that underlie their effective and efficient use in research higher degree settings. This project aimed to identify doctoral supervisors’ and students’ perceptions of their roles in using ICT. Data were gathered through participative drawing and individual discussion sessions. Participants included 11 students and two supervisors from two New Zealand universities. Focus of the thematic analysis was on the views expressed by students about their ideas, practices and beliefs, in relation to their drawings. The major finding was that individuals hold assumptions and expectations about ICT and their use; they make judgements and take action based on those expectations and assumptions. Knowing about ICT and knowing about research processes separately form only part of the work of doctoral study. Just as supervision cannot be considered independently of the research project and the student involved, ICT skills and the use of ICT cannot be considered in the absence of the people and the project. What is more important in terms of facilitating the doctoral research process is students getting their “flow” right. This indicates a need to provide explicit support to enable students to embed ICT within their own research processes.


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