Proceedings, Oxford, UK (2002) - World Federation of Music Therapy

cases, conflicts may result in an interruption of communication, which
therefore ceases to be co-regulated.
The co-regulation coding system, therefore contains a series of categories
that describe forms of communicative processes that are qualitatively
different, from the creation of the reciprocal and innovative action to an
absence of communication that can be observed between the participants.
(FOGEL, 2000) The category is a set of actions grouped according to the
characteristics of the communicative process that can be qualitatively
identified in a given timeframe. Each category mutually excludes
another with different qualitative characteristics.
Another dimension of the decoding system is the identification of frames.
Frames consist in the situations that provide the background to the
interaction and which, in a given place, time and environment, organise
the partners’ co-actions, thus restricting the range and characterising
some of its processes. Frames are therefore large segments of co-actions
that have a coherent theme and lead to certain particular forms of specific
co-orientation between the participants.
4. THE RESEARCH PROJECT IN MUSIC THERAPY
4.1 Premise
The adaptation of the Co-regulation Coding System to music therapy is a
clinical research project. It develops on both the qualitative level, in
order to suit the needs of clinical work such as unrepeatability and the
variability of the phenomena under examination and on a quantitative
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