Music Therapy Within Brain Injury Rehabilitation: To What Extent is Our Clinical Practice Influenced by the Search for Outcomes?

Abstract

Discusses whether, in a goal-oriented medical setting, the value of personal expression and the emotional consequence of this expression in music therapy can be reflected in measurable outcomes. Do the clinical procedures selected reflect what best meets the client's needs, or the therapist's need to measure the effectiveness of their intervention? The author outlines music therapy treatment programs involving 2 hospitalized clients with nonverbal brain damage: a 30 yr old male injured in a traffic accident, and a 48 yr old male who sustained anoxic brain damage after a cardiac arrest. The strengths of different approaches with these clients are compared, one a neuro- rehabilitation model with measurable outcomes vs a more improvisatory approach where the components of musical interactions compensated for the patient's inability to structure his own responses, but where outcomes were not measurable. The latter case illustrates how meaningful achievements in music therapy intervention within a rehabilitation setting can be difficult to communicate as clearly identified outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)