Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

• Limited smoking and alcohol intake,
• No ongoing prednisone therapy
• No history of psychiatric problems,
• Availability for the 26 weeks of the study
Four of the participants had a diagnosis of breast cancer, while two had abdominal
cancer. Five of the women in the study had gone through surgery followed by either
radiation or chemotherapy or both, while one had an inoperable cancer (cancer cells
identified as breast cancer located behind one eye). Time passed from end of active
medical treatment ranged from 7 weeks to 21 months.
In Denmark only very limited options are offered to cancer patients in rehabilitation.
Yet it is well known from the literature that the patients experience multiple stressors,
also in the rehabilitation phase, where they are expected, to a greater or lesser extent,
to resume their roles in family and working life. The participants in this study had
chosen different strategies for their rehabilitation. Some of them did not receive any
other forms of psychosocial support parallel to the music therapy, while others had
parallel consultations with psychologists or participated in self-help groups. This may
have influenced the results of this study, and since there was no control group it is not
possible to say that music therapy was responsible for the effects presented in the
quantitative investigation.
4.3 Clinical setting, therapeutic procedure and materials
Participants received 10 individual BMGIM sessions, in most cases one every two
weeks (sessions might be with shorter or longer intervals due to vacations, illness and
similar). Each session lasted approximately two hours and took place in the private
practice of a BMGIM therapist with Fellowship of the Association of Music and
Imagery in the USA (FAMI).
Therapeutic procedure
The session format was the normal BMGIM format in four stages, as described by
Bonny (1978) and Ventre (2002):
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