Date of Award

5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of the Arts

Department/Program

John J. Cali School of Music

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Brian Abrams

Committee Member

Ting Ho

Committee Member

Karen Goodman

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to expand on a desire to expand our knowledge, and understanding about Bipolar Disorder and its relationship with compositional music therapy as a possible beneficial treatment for this illness. Compositional music therapy is both a music therapy intervention and process in which the client and therapist work together to generate an original, permanent musical model. The music may be instrumental or vocal, of any genre, and may be musically notated as a score, handwritten/types, or recorded (CD, Tape, MP3, etc.) It may incorporate the client’s original song/rap, lyrics, poetry (set to music), or be instrumental-only. This leads me to answer the research question, what are the benefits of compositional music therapy for clients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder? This question will be further examined in three subordinate questions as follows: 1 .What are the basis and/or rationales for selecting music composition as a method to address client goals for adult patients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder? 2. How is the compositional music therapy process useful and/or helpful in addressing clinical goals of clients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder? 3. How is the compositional music therapy product useful and/or helpful in addressing clinical goals of clients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder? This research study also seeks to answer both the research question and subordinate questions by consulting with various music therapists who have worked directly with adult patients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. This survey research examines the benefits of compositional music therapy as differentiating from other forms of music therapy, as well as what is important about the music compositional product and process in adult clients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.

File Format

PDF

Included in

Music Therapy Commons

Share

COinS