In Visible Hands: The Matter and Making of Music Therapy

Area of Science:

• Music Therapy
• Phenomenology
• Embodied Cognition

Background:

• Music therapy practice involves complex interactions between therapist, client, and materials.
• Understanding the embodied and material dimensions of music therapy is crucial for practice and training.
• Existing literature often separates the 'doing' from the 'being' in music therapy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the concepts of matter and making in music therapy through embodied reflexive retrospection.
• To investigate the phenomenological, ontological, and epistemological perspectives of music therapy practitioners.
• To highlight the interconnectedness of material, creative, and narrative elements in music therapy.

Main Methods:

• Embodied reflexive retrospection with six music therapists.
• Participants re-enacted significant therapy hand positions from memory.
• Thematic analysis of participant narratives, body casts, and literature.

Main Results:

• Identified themes: The biographic hand, The body, space, place, and time, The plural hand, Matter of the hand, The method in hand.
• Revealed the inseparability of matter, making, and narrating in music therapy.
• Demonstrated how embodied experiences inform therapeutic practice and understanding.

Conclusions:

• Music therapy is inherently multi-sensory and material-based.
• Embodied experiences offer profound insights into the practice of music therapy.
• The study emphasizes a holistic view of music therapy, integrating physical, creative, and narrative dimensions.