Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

Perilli (1999) 22 associated these levels with the four well-known levels of
psychotherapy: 1. Supportive, 2. Insight/Re-educative, 3. Reconstructive, and 4.
Transpersonal.
“An intervention at supportive level may present metaphors with transpersonal
content; psychodynamic experience of repressed material etc. may happen at
supportive, re-educative or reconstructive level. To work more or less deeply,
using elicited metaphors, will depend from the purpose of the therapeutic
intervention.”
A valid empirical operationalization of the therapeutic experience was developed by
Klein et al. 1986 (here from Hougaard 2004, p. 406f). A seven step “experiencing
scale” is used to measure the level of emotional-cognitive integration in the
therapeutic process. Empirical research lends support to the hypothesis that a high
level of emotional-cognitive integration is predictive of good therapeutic outcome,
and that changes (increase) in the level of the client’s experience is a good therapeutic
outcome in itself.
Table 3. 6 The Experiencing Scale (Klein et al 1986)
1. The client reports events from the external world in an unpersonal, detached
manner, and refuses to participate in a dialogue on the internal world.
2. The client reports events from the external world in a more engaged and personal
way; descriptions of personal behaviour and emotions are more intellectual.
3. The client is reactive and emotionally involved, when reactions to external events
are reported in a rather narrow and behaviour-focused description.
4. The client is self-descriptive and associating when describing emotions and
personal experiences.
5. The client is explorative, elaborative and hypothetical when emotional problems
and conflict experiences are addressed.
6. The client is focused on the idea that there may be “more to it” and has a
recognized sense of inner reference
7. The client develops an unfolding, spontaneous reporting style based on a
recognized sense of inner references connecting the experiential content.
22 Perilli (1999) was an unpublished first draft for Perilli (2002).
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