Evaluating Music Therapy
Stuart Wood
Barchester Healthcare / Nordoff Robbins
Research context
 Student on Nordoff Robbins UK PhD
 Developing work from research project in Neuro
rehabilitation and Dementia Care 2004
 Not a guide to How to Evaluate CoMT, but
discussion of some themes and problems
Evaluating Music Therapy:
A Classic Model
“…evaluation is the process of determining how much
progress a client is making towards achieving the goals of
therapy. Progress is usually evaluated by observing any
changes that the client is making as a result of treatment,
and by comparing the client’s current status with his/her
status at a previous time.” Bruscia (1987)
BASELINE ASSESSMENT
MEASUREMENT
Assumptions / Foundational Values
of ‘Classic’ Evaluation Model
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Medical / Treatment model
Positivist
Standard & standardized
‘Client’ is fully autonomous at point of evaluation
Goal-directed ‘treatment’ can be linked with
measurable outcomes
 ‘Client’ makes measurable progress that can be
compared with a previous point in time
‘New’ view of Music Therapy

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Psycho-social model
Context-based
Non-standard and responsive
‘Client’ is seen in continuum of individual communal experience. Client-Therapist in music.
 Goals often less functional, therefore harder to
link with a direct ‘intervention’
 Some clients change ‘inside’ music rather than
changing over time
WHAT BASELINE?
WHAT MEASUREMENT?
Previous Research Suggests
Multimodal Musical Experience
Fig 4: List of actions from workshop analysis.
• A reason to meet
• A framework for structuring interaction
• A mode of paying attention
• A source of pleasure and motivation
• A form of learning
• A mode of equality
• A matrix for accessing functional ability and
skill
• A source of confidence
Wood (2006)
Music is one part of a person, and it can help
other parts of the person change?
Or
Music is a world of experience, and different
parts of a person change within that world?
Evaluating Music Therapy:
Some questions
 What are we working with?
A different and/or multifarious concept of music / therapy
 Who are we working with?
A different and/or multifarious concept of client / therapist
 What are we working for?
New and sometimes radical political / social / musical changes
 How do we know it’s working?
Needs a new approach to ‘evaluation’
Theoretical Framework: Tensions
 Musical / Para-musical Experience
eg. Categorising the process of planning and putting on a concert
 Universal / Individual Experience
eg. Client experiencing self as individual and part of context or
social structure simultaneously
 Effectiveness / Influence
eg. Recognising that some work seeks to influence situations and
re-frame individual perspectives, rather than cause specific effects
 Indigenous / Shared Knowledge
eg. Does our need to communicate with other professionals dilute
our musical thinking?
Challenging Basic Elements
‘Client’
‘Session’
‘Progress’
‘Therapist’
‘Musicality’
EVALUATION
Evaluating Music Therapy
Stuart Wood
Barchester Healthcare / Nordoff Robbins