Feasibility of emotion-regulating improvisational music therapy for young adult students with depressive symptoms: A process evaluation

Abstract

Introduction: Depression can be a serious problem in young adult students. There is a need to implement and monitor prevention interventions for these students. Emotion-regulating improvisational music therapy (EIMT) was developed to prevent depression. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of EIMT for use in practice for young adult students with depressive symptoms in a university context. Method: A process evaluation was conducted embedded in a larger research project. Eleven students, three music therapists and five referrers were interviewed. The music therapists also completed evaluation forms. Data were collected concerning client attendance, treatment integrity, musical components used to synchronise, and experiences with EIMT and referral. Results: Client attendance (90%) and treatment integrity were evaluated to be sufficient (therapist adherence 83%; competence 84%). The music therapists used mostly rhythm to synchronise (38 of 99 times). The students and music therapists reported that EIMT and its elements evoked changes in all emotion regulation components. The students reported that synchronisation elicited meaningful experiences of expressing joy, feeling heard, feeling joy and bodily responses of relaxation. The music therapists found the manual useful for applying EIMT. The student counsellors experienced EIMT as an appropriate way to support students due to its preventive character. Discussion: EIMT appears to be a feasible means of evoking changes in emotion regulation components in young adult students with depressive symptoms in a university context. More studies are needed to create a more nuanced and evidence-based understanding of the feasibility of EIMT, processes of change and treatment integrity.

Preliminary evaluation of music-based emotion-regulation skills to augment CBT for adolescents with ADHD

“…Although these data are preliminary, it may suggest that adding music to standard psychological treatments can play a role in the treatment of young people with ADHD since it provides them with a self-regulatory system (Antonietti et al, 2018). Many music therapists consider emotion regulation to be a potential benefit of music-based skills training and use music in therapeutic relationships to improve adolescents’ ability to manage/regulate their own emotions and use adaptive cognitive-emotional strategies (Aalbers et al, 2021; Marik & Stegemann, 2016). Since emotion regulation considered as an essential component of broader self-regulation system (Diamond & Aspinwall, 2003; Geva & Feldman, 2008), promotion of self-regulation competence through music helps them in the top-down and effortful executive control and enables them to manage/regulate the emotions and impulsive tendencies.…”

“…The intervention protocol consisted of 12 individual weekly sessions each lasting 60 min and followed standard-practice CBT for adolescents with ADHD (Sprich & Burbridge, 2019; Sprich et al, 2015; Sprich & Safren, 2020) and adjunctive music-based treatment to enhance emotion-regulation skills. The conceptual framework, strategies, and targets for the latter were adapted from theory and research related to both music-based interventions (Aalbers et al, 2019, 2021), and emotion-regulation skills (Marik & Stegemann, 2016; Rosen et al, 2019). We chose music-based emotion-regulation strategies to augment standard-practice CBT for ADHD on the basis of its track record in addressing emotion-regulation deficits (Dursun et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2017).…”

“…Although the boundaries of musical interventions continue to be debated, the interventions themselves can involve either active or receptive methods (Aalbers et al, 2019; Freer & Evans, 2019; Raglio et al, 2015; Wan & Schlaug, 2010). In active methods, participants make music; in receptive methods, participants listen to music (Aalbers et al, 2021; Gardstrom et al, 2015; Wheeler, 2015).…”

A Music Therapy Intervention for Refugee Children and Adolescents in Schools: A Process Evaluation Using a Mixed Method Design

“…This questionnaire was filled in after each group session and each individual session. Treatment integrity was considered sufficient when both therapist adherence and competence reached a percentage of >60% at group level [ 34 ].…”

Online group music therapy: proactive management of undergraduate students’ stress and anxiety

“…Despite music therapists working with diverse age groups and diagnoses, only three studies have been published to date on the effects of music therapy with university or college students (26)(27)(28). Each of these studies reported on the benefits of engaging in music therapy to treat a clinical symptom or developmental difficulty; however, only one of the studies implemented a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design (27) and none included a physiological measure.…”