Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

B1 Metaphorical investigations of the body are included in other categories. This
subcategory is exclusively for the very concrete experience of bodily processes of
pain management, cleaning, repairing, touching etc.
B2 Deep relaxation is found in episodes where there is no image activity and the
client reports (during the music-listening or in the postlude) of relaxed body parts
or the whole body being relaxed as a result of the music-listening.
B3 Episodes dominated by music exploration reveal themselves as ‘detached’
descriptions of the music’s meaning or reports of being (in) the music.
C1-3 Episodes may be dominated by cognitive thinking, existential reflections or
diverse associations to either the past, present or future life of the client.
D1 Meditation to music is always connected to deep relaxation (B2), but goes
further and may include the experience of non-metaphorical colours, altered states
or experiences of deep or expanded awareness.
D2 The client does not experience imagery of the types mentioned (A-B-C). This
may have many explanations, however they are not in focus in this study. 52
Additional subcategories:
E Cancer specific imagery includes visual or sensory-kinaesthetic imagery of
cancer cells, imagery representing experiences at the hospital during operation or
treatment, fear of relapse, or the client’s body with repercussions.
F Transpersonal imagery includes imagery that is neither intra- or interpersonal
nor social, e.g. religious, spiritual or non-dual experiences.
G Core metaphors may appear and return in episodes within a session or between
sessions – they may or may not be the core of a narrative.
Imagery in category A may be physiological, intrapersonal (e.g. anxiety, depression,
unspecified anger), or interpersonal (e.g. being alone vs. being together; dealing with
52 Imagery is one of three inborn representational systems (sensory-kinaesthetic, image, semantic) (cf. Horowitz
1983). However, the image system may be damaged from physiological or psychological reasons. Episodes with
no imagery may be caused by many reasons, including resistance or other psychodynamic responses. As this issue
is not part of the study I will not go into further arguments about cause and effect (for a discussion see Bruscia
1998)
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