Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

music listening has been substantiated by this study’s multi-layered empirical
investigations of how music and imagery lend themselves to deeply personal
processes of self-exploration and how music may serve as a unique ‘Co-therapist’.
There are still many questions to answer, but I have got a reassuring glimpse of the
reality behind Auden’s poetic and wise words on the music experience:
9.7 Conclusion
....Where hope within the altogether strange
From every outworn image is released
This study examined the influence of ten individual BMGIM sessions on mood and
quality of life in six cancer survivors. Using multiple methods methodology the
“influence” was studied (a) as the effect of ten sessions on selected variables in a
quantitative investigation, while (b) it was attempted to understand the processes
underlying the “influence” in a qualitative investigation using analytic procedures
from hermeneutics and grounded theory. A few music therapy studies have previously
documented a decrease in anxiety and an increase in quality of life in cancer survivors
after ten BMGIM sessions, however this was the first study to include a study of types
of psychosocial and therapeutic outcome as experienced by the participants, a study of
the configuration of the imagery in the music-listening periods of the sessions, and a
study of the relationship between the music and the imagery in a developmental
perspective.
In returning to the initial questions of the study presented in chapters 4 and 5, the
following statements summarise the findings:
Can ten BMGIM sessions improve the mood of the participants?
Five of six participants in the study decreased their level of anxiety from pre-test
to post-test and follow-up. The decrease was significant, and the effect size was
very large. Five of six participants decreased their level of depression, however
this decrease was not significant, and the effect size was small to medium.
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