Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

how they raise difficult issues relating to attachment (1.2). Either way, it shows that
their need was being met through the work.
Twenty sessions were not enough for students to show sustainable change in their
self-awareness. Change in self-concept is known as resilience on the Music Therapy
Star (Triangle and Coram, 2011) and is recognised as a stage which can take longer to
achieve than the others. The results from this study indicate that the length of
treatment was too short for this stage of resilience to be reached. However, it is also
worth noting that students with complex needs might improve within a music therapy
session but regress when they are back in the classroom or in another setting with
their peers (Lindeck, 2012).
I was aware that during the project many students were living in very difficult
circumstances which did not change whilst they received music therapy. As most of
the student’s time is spent away from the school environment and in potentially
difficult situations, this has to be considered in the analysis of data. This makes the
findings from the interviews even more poignant because many of The Centre School
students talked about enjoying the freedom of being playful and creative. Even if this
experience is limited to the therapy room, it can make a great impact on their
emotional well-being. Quibell’s drama therapy study (2010) with disaffected
students, mentioned in the literature review (2.5.1), showed that both teachers and
parents reported improvement in the students, but the students themselves found it
harder to be positive in their answers about their emotional well-being.
Another thought about self-reporting could be that students at The Centre School are
more likely to be used to various different professionals talking to them individually.
On meeting the interviewer for a second time, acquainted with the setting and with
the absence of any anticipated repercussions from the first meeting, the students may
have been more trusting and felt able to reveal a more honest account of their
feelings. This would also lead to differences in their scores.
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