The practice of Music Psychotherapy evidenced in articles of the Brazilian Journal of Music Therapy between 1996 and 2010

Abstract

To broaden our understanding of the relationship between Music Therapy and Psychotherapy, we investigated how Music Psychotherapy would be present in academic articles on the practice of music therapists with people with some type of mental disorder, illness or psychological difficulty. In order to do this, we assumed Bruscia (1998)'s, proposal theoretical, who identified four levels of Music Psychotherapy according to the degree of use of verbal speech in the music therapy process. As well as resorting to the work of Wheeler (1983), who propose three types of music psychotherapeutic practice from the objectives related to the use of the word. In this sense, considering our initial question, the bibliographic references studied and the methodological approach suggested by the Thematic Analysis of Braun and Clarke (2006), we chose to analyze the articles published in the Brazilian Journal of Music Therapy between 1996 and 2010. We conclude that Music Therapy as a form of psychotherapy and Music Psychotherapy in its different levels and types of practice were present in the publications of this journal between 1996 and 2010. This finding confirmed the strong relationship between Music Therapy and Psychotherapy, as well as provided us with greater clarity regarding the practice of Music Psychotherapy.