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Exploring the role of a music therapy intervention in an Employee Wellness Organisation

There are a number of organisations offering Employee Wellness Programs (EWPs) to South African companies, while other businesses have established their own in-house EWPs. Broadly speaking, EWPs are designed to promote employee wellbeing in order to increase productivity. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to determine whether a music therapy intervention could address employee wellness needs.

A single music therapy workshop was conducted with five participants who were employees at a South African Employee Wellness Organisation. The workshop comprised active and receptive music therapy techniques. Participants were interviewed in a focus group after the workshop. Data were prepared by means of thick description and transcription and were analysed using thematic analysis. The following themes were identified: ‘making and feeling connections’, ‘navigating boundaries, ambiguity and change’, ‘quality of group music-making’, ‘the workshop experience’, ‘personal development’ and ‘team building’.

Findings indicate that the music therapy intervention addressed wellness needs associated with personal development and team building. Reflection was shown to have a significant relationship with both personal development and team building. Other notable relationships within these categories included stress-relief, acknowledging diversity and increased trust in the group.

A model was proposed illustrating the embedded and interconnected conditions present during the workshop that addressed the employee wellness needs of team building and personal development. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Music / MMus / Unrestricted

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/65019
Date January 2018
CreatorsMcWalter, Melissa Gayle
ContributorsLotter, Carol Barbara, melissa.mcwalter@gmail.com
PublisherUniversity of Pretoria
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Rights© 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.

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