Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

of loss, adversity and hope, and to review their life story in communication with both
therapist and relatives (O’Callaghan 1998). Turry and Turry (1999) documented the
positive effect of creative song improvisations with children and adults with cancer.
Together with a client Turry wrote a narrative on the song-improvisation based
therapeutic process (Turry and Logis 1999). Turry (1999) documented the therapeutic
potential of song improvisations with children with cancer and blood disorders.
Hilliard (2003) reported from a controlled study (n=80) of the influence of music
performed live on functional status and quality of life (QoL) of terminally ill hospice
patients. QoL was higher for those subjects receiving music therapy, and it increased
over time as they received more music therapy sessions.
A few studies include both active and receptive music therapy interventions with
cancer patients (Bunt and Marston-Wyld 1995; Bunt, Burns et al 2000; Waldon
2001).
The first two studies were drawn from a music therapy treatment and research
program that was established at Bristol Cancer Help Centre (UK) in the 1990’s, and
several reports have presented clinical work as well as research projects The music
therapy program combines a weekly music listening experience (both live and
recorded music) and an improvisation session, both in groups. Bunt and Marston-
Wyld (1995) published the first evaluation study, based on semi-structured interviews
with patients, also addressing similarities and differences between music therapy and
counselling. Emphasis was placed on core qualities uniting the two disciplines, the
access to and expression of feelings, and the importance of the active use of
instruments in music therapy. Before and after each music therapy session, the
patients gave words and phrases, which described their view of music. Music and
music making helped stimulate patients physiologically and psychologically, and the
patients became more group-oriented. The next report (Bunt, Burns et al 2000)
investigated the changes observed in the first study in a design integrating
psychological data (using the Mood Adjective Checklist of the University of Wales
Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST-MACL) pre and post active and
receptive sessions), physiological data (salvia testing for sIgA and cortisol pre and
post) and qualitative data from focus group discussions (n = 29). The UWIST-MACL
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