Music Therapy in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit: Providing Emotional Support During Adolescence

Abstract

This paper describes the role of music therapy in addressing the emotional needs of an adolescent boy with leukemia undergoing a bone marrow transplant. A review of the research and case-study literature provides an understanding of the complex and diverse psychosocial needs of adolescents with cancer and how music therapy is able to meet these needs. Selected descriptive clinical session notes outline the struggles and challenges presented to and discovered by both the patient and the music therapist during the course of the program. The song writing process described allows for a variety of concerns and issues to be explored within this therapeutic relationship. This case study also identifies the ongoing need for music therapists to be flexible, sensitive and adaptive when considering the appropriateness and styles of their program management (including the possibilities of presentation and publication of their case material) and the potential effects of such management on the therapeutic relationship.