Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

Table 6. 3 Elaborate description of core categories
New perspectives – on past/present/future (all six participants)
All participants described how the BMGIM process enabled them to experience
themselves and aspects of their life – in the past, in the present and/or in the future –
in new and different, often surprising ways. ’New ways’ include not only the
discovery of unknown personal resources, interpretations and perspectives, but also a
new readiness and ability to face difficult and challenging aspects of their life,
including living with cancer. There is both a cognitive and an emotional dimension to
the category. The imagery and the emotions are described as coming first, the more
cognitive insights later.
Enhanced coping (all six participants)
All participants describe how they – at follow-up – were able to look back and
identify new coping strategies at least partly developed as an outcome of the BMGIM
therapy. It has provided the participants with a ”tool” that can be used for emotional
adjustment, introspection or self-inquiry and exploration, supporting self confidence,
relaxation, and finding courage to confront even difficult psychological issues. Two
participants compared BMGIM to visualization techniques and described the main
difference as an emotional depth and dynamic quality of the imagery in BMGIM, due
to the music. ‘Control’ was not mentioned directly as an issue, however, it is clear that
the control and security provided by the BMGIM format played an important role for
the participants’ courage to explore their inner world.
Improved mood and Quality of Life (all six participants)
All participants described how the BMGIM experience had contributed to a balancing
or stabilization of their mood state and improvement of their Quality of Life in several
ways. States of beauty, harmony, comfort, happiness, and joy were often mentioned
and related to both music and imagery. This category may be understood as a
synthesized result of the other categories.
Enhanced Hope (all six participants)
All participants addressed the emotional abyss and existential chaos of the
confrontation with the cancer disease. Hope is a belief in being able to overcome this
state of chaos, loss and disempowerment and regaining a sense of stability and finding
an optimistic attitude towards present and future, even if many things in life are
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