Reflexive Research in Music Therapy

This book explores how researchers in music therapy define and engage with reflexivity, and what reflexivity accomplishes. The six reflexivity journeys that unfold in music therapy researchers’ descriptions of their processes are termed Sentinel Reflexivity (restraining one’s influence in the pursuit of an accurate understanding of a phenomenon or participants’ experiences); Lens Reflexivity (exploring the implications of one’s perspectives and constructions as one investigates a phenomenon); Authorial Reflexivity (exploring the reasons behind and implications of arguing for a more just interpretation of a phenomenon); Empathic Reflexivity (exploring the process and implications of developing understanding through closeness); Restorative Reflexivity (exploring and sharing one’s perceptions and experiences of the phenomenon under investigation); and Relational Reflexivity (exploring and sharing how meaning is created through interconnectedness). The goal of the book is not to argue that one approach is better than another. It is to propose a strategy for creating coherent and congruent research that aligns values, purpose, process and product. Andeline dos Santos co-directs the music therapy Masters program at the University of Pretoria. She is author of Empathy pathways: A view from music therapy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), (with Co-Editor-in-Chief of the open-access music therapy journal Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy and an associate editor for the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy. This book explores how researchers in music therapy define and engage with reflexivity, and what reflexivity accomplishes. Through critically reviewing music therapy literature from the past 20 years and drawing on interviews with many of the authors of those papers, six approaches to reflexivity are proposed. This work presents a framework for understanding these approaches, shows the foundations they are built upon, and clarifies researchers' strategies in practice. The six reflexivity journeys that unfold in music therapy researchers’ descriptions of their processes are termed Sentinel Reflexivity (restraining one’s influence in the pursuit of an accurate understanding of a phenomenon or participants’ experiences); Lens Reflexivity (exploring the implications of one’s perspectives and constructions as one investigates a phenomenon); Authorial Reflexivity (exploring the reasons behind and implications of arguing for a more just interpretation of a phenomenon); Empathic Reflexivity (exploring the process and implications of developing understanding through closeness); Restorative Reflexivity (exploring and sharing one’s perceptions and experiences of the phenomenon under investigation); and Relational Reflexivity (exploring and sharing how meaning is created through interconnectedness). The goal of the book is not to argue that one approach is better than another. It is to propose a strategy for creating coherent and congruent research that aligns values, purpose, process and product.