A personal recovery narrative through rap music in music therapy

Siobhán Nelligan, Tommy Hayes, Tríona McCaffrey

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

The following chapter provides a descriptive overview of music therapy and its potential benefits for supporting people experiencing severe and enduring mental illness to journey toward personal recovery. Music therapy is a health profession in which music is employed as the primary agent for therapeutic change. It has been increasingly recognised that the values underpinning music therapy practice are closely aligned with those of recovery in mental health. As a person-centred therapy, music therapy supports personal recovery by capitalising on protective factors and clients' individual resources. This chapter begins with a descriptive overview of music therapy and its role in mental health recovery, including a literature review outlining its clinical efficacy in alleviating the negative and global symptoms associated with schizophrenia. From a recovery perspective, exclusively pursuing quantitative outcomes when establishing evidence for music therapy provision is problematic, as it de-emphasises the role of service users' lived experiences in informing the therapeutic process. Accordingly, while presenting a comprehensive overview of supporting music therapy literature, this chapter means to delineate the emerging personal and clinical recovery discourses in the field. This is achieved primarily through the presentation of a case example outlining the personal recovery journey of a young man through his self-selected preference for Rap music. The development of a meaningful personal narrative has been identified as a particularly relevant component of the recovery process. Through this case example, the authors seek to illustrate this young man's use of Rap music in forging a narrative identity beyond his experience of illness. Overall, the authors hope to demonstrate music therapy's potential to provide experiences of mastery, personal agency, connection and vitality despite the presence of ongoing symptomatology, while offering a unique medium through which meaningful narratives can be formed.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSchizophrenia
Subtitle of host publicationTriggers and Treatments
PublisherNova Science Publishers, Inc.
Pages233-268
Number of pages36
ISBN (Electronic)9781536169904
ISBN (Print)9781536169898
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2020

Keywords

  • Music therapy
  • Personal narrative
  • Recovery
  • Schizophrenia

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