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Updated: Jun 14, 2025

Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
Creating and Reliving the Moment: Using Musical Improvisation and Care Aesthetics as a Lens of Connection and
Robyn Dowlen1, Dougal Henry James McPherson2, Caroline Swarbrick3
1Division of Psychology and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
Abstract:
Musical improvisation is a generative process of spontaneously creating music 'in the moment'. For people with young onset dementia, musical improvisation provides an extended opportunity for creative self-expression and connection to one's own body and life story. Using visual research methods, including video elicitation interviews, this paper explores the 'in the moment' musical experiences of five people living with young onset dementia who took part in a 15-week improvised music-making programme (Music in Mind). We frame the exploration of the group's musical experiences through the emerging lens of 'care aesthetics'-a concept that identifies the sensory relations and embodied practices between two (or more) people in a caring relationship. In the context of this analysis, we look to the caring practices by, with, and between people living with dementia, their family members, and the musicians who lead the programme and the relationship of these practices to feelings of self-expression and meaningful connection. Musical improvisation has the potential to support the psychological, social, and spiritual wellbeing of people living with young onset dementia. In applying a lens of care aesthetics, it is possible to observe the micro-level experiences of people living with dementia and their family carers.
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