Feasibility of Music Therapy in Community Substance Misuse Treatment Services

Music therapy participants will interact both musically and verbally with the therapist and will be given a range of both electronic and acoustic instruments to choose from. Music therapy sessions will be based upon music improvisation, and as such participants are not required to have any previous instrument or other music experience and be invited to improvise freely using the instruments. The music therapist will accompany participants in the improvisation. This provides participants with an opportunity to connect with emotions and feelings connected to hidden psychic material. Following improvisations, the therapist and client will identify these moments of interest which can be further explored either verbally or through further improvisation. The music created within sessions will be recorded and participants can take a copy of the recordings home and it will be used in the therapeutic monitoring and analysis of sessions.