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Music therapy groups for adolescents in oncology inpatient wards : the affordances of vocal improvisation for the expression of social resilience

This dissertation is a qualitative study of how vocal improvisation within music therapy groups may afford the construction of social resilience for in-patient adolescents in oncology wards. The study was conducted at the Pediatric Oncology Unit at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria. The case study involved six daily group music therapy sessions, with four to eight participants. The primary music therapy technique was vocal improvisation to assess how the participants perform themselves as resilient (or not). Excerpts of video recordings were analyzed through Gee’s (2005) suggestion for discourse analysis. Session notes were written as an additional data source to contextualize the excerpts. Through discourse analysis, four primary discourses were identified: participant as patient, participant as adolescent, cultural adolescent, and participant as Hip-hop musician. These enabled the participants to explore their performance of selves in various ways. It was concluded that vocal improvisation in group music therapy enabled the expression of lack of resilience, as it received those feeling less resilient and provided them with safety and containment. It also offered the participants a means of instant coping within the various discourses that were identified. Vocal improvisation in this context also afforded the participants a space to adapt to their challenges as they explored various types of participation by learning from past experiences/ways of being, and adjust accordingly. Finally, the participants could transform through the changing relationships within the group itself, and how these social changes offered a social environment that afforded the resilience of the whole group. / Mini Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Music / MMus (Music Therapy) / Unrestricted

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/63818
Date January 2017
CreatorsBurger, Leigh-Ann
ContributorsOosthuizen, Helen, leighannburger1@gmail.com, Dos Santos, Andeline
PublisherUniversity of Pretoria
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeMini Dissertation
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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