Music and Medicine Vol 15, No 2: Article Feature and Table of Contents
Special Issue: Music Therapy and Chronic Pain
Guest Editors: Hilary Moss and Katie Fitzpatrick
Featured article
From Cacophony to Calm: Music therapy from the perspective of a person living with chronic pain
Patricia O’Shea, Katie Fitzpatrick, Hilary Moss
Service user perspectives are relatively rare in published research on music therapy. This paper focuses on the perspective of a person living with chronic pain, and her experience of music therapy while being involved in music therapy research. She reflects on her music making in the sessions and how she uses music outside of therapy. This is followed by reflections from her music therapist and a discussion of how service user perspectives can inform knowledge and practice. The paper concludes with recommendations made by the service user for future music therapy services arising from her experience, and advocates for the inclusion of service user voices in future research. It is hoped that music therapists, clients, other healthcare practitioners, and anyone interested in music therapy will find this paper gives an interesting insight into one person’s experience of music therapy for chronic pain.
Keywords: music therapy; chronic pain; client perspective; patient participant research
Can you provide an overview of the article and the topics it explores?
Within music therapy literature I understand the perspective of a service user is relatively underrepresented. This paper offers my account of my lived experience of music therapy, and further on in the paper, I discuss my participation in music therapy research. I discuss how we incorporated some music therapy tools into our sessions too. I have been suffering from chronic pain and illness for thirteen years. My music therapist shares her reflections and discusses how service user perspectives can inform knowledge and practice. The paper concludes with recommendations for future music therapy services based on my experience in collaboration with my friends in Chronic Pain Ireland (CPI).
In the article, we explore:
- The use of music and music therapy in the management of chronic pain.
- I speak about my lived experience of music therapy.
- There are reflections from my music therapist.
- Recommendations for future research.
- The methods and techniques used in music therapy and chronic pain are discussed.
What was the impetus for writing the article?
I am an advocate of using non-pharmacological methods to manage pain, reduce stress and improve physiological and psychological health. Music therapy has served as an amazing vehicle for me to express how it feels to live with chronic pain and its biopsychosocial impact on my life. I have experienced many modes of self-expression and exploration through using music therapy. Regular practice of music and music therapy has released my creativity and unlocked my imagination. Music therapy has gifted me a healthy, holistic, and sustainable way to express my emotions and relieve my pain, especially when I am in an acute episode of unrelenting pain. Music therapy continues to heal me and helps me feel, calm, hopeful, confident, and empowered.
Through my involvement in this University of Limerick music therapy project, I have learned that lived experiences of service users with chronic pain are relatively rare in published research on music therapy. I wanted to share my insight from my lived experience with music therapy to give hope to other people like me, who live with chronic pain and or illness. I hope my involvement in this project will encourage members of the public to get involved in research. My music therapy research experience has given my life a new direction and purpose. I hope my insight will inspire music therapists and inform future music therapy practice and research.
What future research or areas of exploration would benefit the field and application of what was discussed in this article ?
(a) We advocate for the inclusion of service user voices in future research.
(b) I have put a list of steps together in collaboration with my friends from CPI, regarding what needs to happen to make music therapy more accessible for people living with chronic pain.
- Tailor research to relieve stress and gather clinical data to promote the efficacy of music therapy.
- Work to establish sustained funding from health service providers and other organizations to cover the cost of therapies, as finance is an issue for anyone living with chronic pain.
- Social prescribing needs to come into play here.
- Run music therapy sessions in community centers and accessible local locations.
- Provide music therapists with training and awareness of the need for adaptations to facilitate individual needs and preferences, for example, comfortable seats and the ability to get up and move around if necessary, during sessions.
- Offer online as well as face-to-face music therapy sessions – individual and group sessions are beneficial.
- Telehealth music therapy makes sessions available to people who would struggle to attend outside the home.
- Explore the full range of technology available as part of music therapy sessions.
- Explore further the role of everyday music in the health and well-being of people living with chronic pain. For example, simple group activities such as dancing or singing in a choir as well as creating tailored playlists.
- Employ songwriting in music therapy sessions for people with chronic pain. This is fun and creative, distracts from pain, and can be a powerful form of self-expression.
- Providing a soundproof singing booth to sing, or scream, to release anger and relieve pain would be very useful.
- Make music therapy instruments available through a rental system to allow people attending music therapy sessions to take instruments home to explore their expressive potential further and to test out whether they might want to buy instruments.
How do you think this article impacts the current understanding of music and medicine?
Within chronic pain management, the use of music therapy is fairly rare. This article advocates for further access to music and music therapy interventions for this population. It gives one person’s experience of how music and music therapy can help in the management of chronic pain. It gives a new insight into music and medicine in this area from the perspective of a service user /client.
Patricia is a retired Primary School Physical Education Teacher living in Killarney, Co. Kerry in Ireland. She has a BSc. in Health and Fitness. She is a patient representative on the Music Therapy and Chronic Pain special interest group of the International Association of Music Medicine. She represents the patient lived experience of Music Therapy. She has been living with Chronic Pain since 2010, and has been a member of Chronic Pain Ireland (CPI) for a number of years. She highly recommends their services.
Table of Contents
Editorial
“What do you need? And how can I help?”: The role of music and music therapy in chronic pain.
Hilary Moss, Katie Fitzpatrick
Full Length Articles
An agenda for excellence: the role of music therapy for people living with chronic pain
Katie Fitzpatrick, Hilary Moss, Joke Bradt, Amy Clements-Cortes, John Corcoran, Lisa Marie Gallagher, Stéphane Guétin, Dominic Harmon, Caroline Hussey, Joanne Loewy, Patricia O’Shea
The development of a music therapy pain assessment model
Joanne Loewy
From Cacophony to Calm: Music therapy from the perspective of a person living with chronic pain
Patricia O’Shea, Katie Fitzpatrick, Hilary Moss
Music therapy and paediatric chronic pain: A scoping review
Sarah Alley, Alison Sweeney, Hilary Moss
Effect of a web-based app music intervention in the management of chronic pain: a randomized controlled trial by type of pain
Patrick Ginies, Perrick Poisbeau, DeSWayne Williams, Darcianne Watanabe, Jacques Touchon
A comprehensive music based approach for chronic pain in a 96 year old female
Amy Clements-Cortes
Music therapy for people with chronic pain: Facilitators and barriers
Katie Fitzpatrick, Dominic Harmon, Hilary Moss
Interview
Music therapy and neonatal pain management: An interview with Dr Alexandra Ullsten
James Burns, Alexandra Ullsten
0 Comments