Spirituality and music therapy, and working with children and adolescents with mental health issues through the arts

Part 1: Spirituality in Music Therapy: A deep, yet uneasy relationship

Spirituality has remained a largely underexplored subject in the music therapy field. This is perhaps unexpected given the deep spiritual roots of many contemporary music therapy approaches. This gap is partly due to the perceived threat that spirituality (and its potential connection to religion) may pose to the development of music therapy as a legitimate, evidence-based profession within a secular healthcare environment that seeks to differentiate itself from traditional forms of healing. 

In recent years however, there has been increased attention to the need for a renewed engagement with spirituality in music therapy. Such engagement is underpinned by critical perspectives towards conventional notions of truth, goodness and beauty in music therapy practice, research and theory. In this webinar, drawing on my ethnographic research in the field and my music therapy practice in palliative care, I will discuss such critical perspectives. Through a performative exploration of spirituality, I will point towards new emerging conceptual and methodological directions with potential implications for the wider interdisciplinary field of the arts in health.

Part 2: Creative Arts Activities for Children and Adolescents with Mental Disorders

 Children and adolescents living with mental health problems often experience stress, poor mood states, and emotional dysregulation which may influence their quality of life and wellbeing. Arts interventions have been discussed widely in adolescent psychiatry, but both research on the practicalities and individual responses in the target groups is rare. 

Two arts pilot projects 'Art is a doctor' and 'Find myself through Mozart' were offered to young people at the University Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Salzburg, Austria. A goal of these projects was to enable art as therapy, as a healing and treatment process for the collective and the individual through singing, textile design, music, dance, acting, film/multimedia art, or clownery. 

The objectives to be addressed in the two pilot studies have been the feasibility and the individual benefit of different types of creative art activities for young people with psychiatric crisis. Study 1 quantitatively analyzed the impact on psychological (mood, wellbeing, quality of life), neuroendocrine (salivary cortisol), and immune (salivary immunoglobulin A) responses, and Study 2 qualitatively investigated the narrative feedback of adolescent psychiatric patients who participated in workshops around the opera "Idomeneo" by W.A. Mozart. 

The preliminary results suggest that music and arts activities may provide benefits for young people with mental health problems. However, substantial heterogeneity exists in current evidence and reports included both negative and positive responses, but also varied in specific content. In most cases, the sex of the respondee and previous arts participation showed no systematic influence. Participants were sensitive to the nature of the program, indicating individual preferences of the form and content in each art activity. We conclude that multi-faceted arts programs for young people undergoing psychiatric treatment are advantageous to meet individual preferences, elicit joy and be experienced as a welcome distraction. Moreover, our results suggest that both quantitative and qualitative methods are well suited to capture the wide range of responses to arts offerings in adolescent psychiatric patients. Furthermore, our results give an indication that multi-faceted arts program for adolescents undergoing psychiatric treatment can serve as enriching additional offer. However, major methodological challenges in setting up a controlled study with a larger group of young mental health patients in a clinical setting exist.  

Part 1: Attendees will be able to:

• Critically reflect on notions of spirituality and their connection to music therapy;
• Consider contemporary questions and dilemmas underpinning music therapy's engagement with spirituality; 
• Communicate future potential directions regarding practice and research in music therapy and the wider arts in health field.

Part 2: Attendees will be able to:

• Reflect on how arts activities can be implemented in clinical settings with children and adolescents;
• Consider the most appropriate research methods to employ in evaluating arts activities in mental health care.