E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Raglio, Alfredo: Qualitative Research
to the carrying out of the sessions and the stiffness of the methodology
rules.
There have been problems connected with continuity,anxiety about
possible results and the conditioning of the inexorable methodological
inflexibility.
There is a macroscopic difference between the structuring of sessions with
therapeutic objectives and those with research objectives;in the latter the
music therapist is just watching and is consequently "neutral" and should
limit his gestures to the minimum.Any variation added by him would alter
the results and the objectivity of observation and evaluation.
Another important aspect was the criterion for collecting data;we outlined
observation protocols to quantify data related to the relationship and
production, at the same time trying to safeguard that amount of non
quantifiable emotions which are of primary importance to every therapy and
to every artistic-creative process.We did not want to achieve a technicality
at the expense of the most emotional and inner responses because they
are,probably, the most meaningful aspects in a therapeutic process.
That is why it is necessary to find a technique more effective from a
therapeutic point of view, and also to deepen the knowledge linked to the
sound/relationship correlation and to improve the methodology of the Music
Therapy treatment.
The goal of the first phase of the research (with patients) was to establish a
comparison between Music Therapy and other techniques of non-verbal
communication by emphasizing the specific use of the sound-music element in the
music -therapeutic context.
In the second phase of the research (with patients and a control group of
healty people) we studied the body-sound-music expressive possibilities in
different music therapeutic settings. This showed a significant variation of
replies depending on the different settings.
The research work will be continued by a third phase (with patients and a
control group of healthy people) aimed to analyze the influence of the
presence and action of the music therapist in the setting.
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