Running head: RECONNECTING TO EMOTIONS THROUGH MUSIC

Reconnecting to Emotions Through Music:

A Depth Psychotherapy Consideration

A dissertation submitted

by

Tamara Nerdrum

to

Pacifica Graduate Institute

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in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the
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Doctor of Philosophy
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in
Depth Psychology

with emphasis in
Depth Psychotherapy
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This dissertation proposal has been

Accepted for the faculty of
Pacifica Graduate Institute by:

Dr. Lionel Corbett, Chair

Dr. Sukey Fontelieu, Internal Reader

Dr. Jonathan Brady, External Reader

RECONNECTING TO EMOTIONS THROUGH MUSIC ii

May 4, 2021

Copyright 2021 by

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Tamara Nerdrum
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RECONNECTING TO EMOTIONS THROUGH MUSIC iii

Abstract

Reconnecting Emotions Through Music:

A Depth Psychotherapy Consideration

by

Tamara Nerdrum

Music is pervasive in every culture. Nearly everybody listens to music everyday. Music

helps people connect to their emotions. In this qualitative phenomenological study, the

researcher explores the insights of people of different cultures, ages, and gender to

discover how music can change mood. People connect events to emotion, which is easily

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extracted with the use of music. This dissertation presents research to support how the
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brain changes while listening to different types of music, thus understanding how one

might unlock a memory to be able to come to a resolution and release unresolved trauma.
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As a tool in depth psychotherapy people connect events to emotion, which is easily

extracted with the use of music. Listening to certain pieces of music that help connect one

to a past event is key to demonstrating the importance of the use of music as image in
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therapy. This research demonstrates how often people connect events to emotion, which

is easily extracted with the use of music, and quickly becoming a valuable tool in depth

psychotherapy.
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Dedication

This dissertation proposal is dedicated to my parents Carolyn and Jack Nerdrum,

who taught me insight and music; to my sister Stephanie, who healed my mind and body

using music therapy; my brother Jay, who encouraged me to play a musical instrument;

and my brother Eric, who taught me order, unconditional love, and support. My good

friend Tracy Lyou who lent me books on dissertation writing, offered encouragement on

this journey. This work is also dedicated to my children, Sara Porter, Ben and Joanne

Porter, Annie and Alex Malekzadeh, Peggy and Julian Crovetto, and Omar Ali, for

teaching me that music is everywhere, and patience can save the day.

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RECONNECTING TO EMOTIONS THROUGH MUSIC v

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge the chairperson for my dissertation committee, Dr. Lionel Corbett,

for his candid honesty and unfailing support; my internal reader Dr. Sukey Fontelieu, for

understanding the difficulty of staying within prescribed time frames; and my external

reader, Dr. Jonathan Brady, who supported my efforts with patience, understanding, and

renewed energy, as each new path was trod. A huge thanks goes to Jan Freya, editor

extraordinaire. A special acknowledgement goes to Pacifica Graduate Institute for

allowing me permission to conduct research for this study.

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RECONNECTING TO EMOTIONS THROUGH MUSIC vi

Table of Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................................... iii

Dedication ................................................................................................................................iv

Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... v

Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1

Introduction to the Research Topic ............................................................................ 1

Purpose Statement ....................................................................................................... 4

Researcher’s Relationship to the Topic ...................................................................... 6

Relevance of the Topic for Depth Psychology ........................................................ 10

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Statement of the Research Problem and Questions ................................................. 14
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Chapter 2. Literature Review ................................................................................................ 16

Music as a Healing Phenomenon .............................................................................. 17

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Sufi Mystics and Musician Healers.............................................................. 18

Music and the Numinous .............................................................................. 21

Cultural Music and Emotional Healing Communities ................................ 25

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Fugue Music and Mental State ..................................................................... 29

Neurological Research on Music .............................................................................. 32

Studies Relevant to the Research .............................................................................. 35

The Pervasive Action of Music in the Brain ............................................................ 38

Elements of Music in Relation to the Brain ................................................ 39

Harmony Restored by Music ........................................................................ 44

Biology of the Brain and Nervous System: How It Works in Relation to Music . 45

Relevant Aspects of Depression ............................................................................... 52

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Literature Relevant to the Researcher’s Theoretical Approach .............................. 54

Chapter 3. Methodology and Procedures.............................................................................. 58

Research Approach .................................................................................................... 58

Research Methodology .............................................................................................. 61

Participants ................................................................................................................. 68

Transference to the Topic .......................................................................................... 70

Interviews ................................................................................................................... 72

Data Collection .......................................................................................................... 74

Data Analysis ............................................................................................................. 74

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Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................... 77
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Limitations and Delimitations of the Research ........................................................ 79

Limitations to the Interview Process ........................................................................ 81

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Organization of the Study ......................................................................................... 81

Chapter 4. Presentation of Findings ...................................................................................... 83

Participants’ Responses to Interview Questions ...................................................... 85

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Pearl................................................................................................................ 85

Kim ................................................................................................................. 87

Dan ................................................................................................................. 89

Louise ............................................................................................................. 92

Diana .............................................................................................................. 93

Chapter 5. Discussion of Findings ........................................................................................ 95

Emergent Themes ...................................................................................................... 95

Parent and Child Reconnect Using Music as the Conduit .......................... 95

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Relief From Grief .......................................................................................... 97

Relief From Grief Over Loss of Relationship. ............................................ 98

Relief From the Pain of Relationship Break-Ups. ...................................... 98

Music and Movement. .................................................................................. 99

Discussion .................................................................................................................. 99

Music and Depth Psychology: Implications for a Treatment Plan .......................104

Archetypal Aspects of Depth Psychology and Healing With Music .......105

Archetypes emerging From Psyche ...........................................................111

Examples of the Utilization of Depth Psychology in Music Therapy ..................116

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Tilly and Jung ..............................................................................................116
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Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) ............................................................117

Sonic Entrainment .......................................................................................120

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Chapter 6. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................121

References.............................................................................................................................123

Appendix A: Recruitment Flyer ..........................................................................................137

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Appendix B: Brief Mood Survey ........................................................................................139

Appendix C: Instructions to Participants ............................................................................140

Appendix D: Informed Consent ..........................................................................................142

Appendix E: Interview Questions for Participants.............................................................148

The style used throughout this dissertation is in accordance with the Publication Manual

of the American Psychological Association (6th ed., 2009) and Pacifica Graduate

Institute’s Dissertation Handbook (2019–2020)

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RECONNECTING TO EMOTIONS THROUGH MUSIC x

List of Tables

Table 1. Participants’ Responses to Interviews .................................................................... 84

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MUSIC HELPS RECONNECT US TO OUR EMOTIONS

Chapter 1

Introduction

Introduction to the Research Topic

Depth psychologists, scientists, and healers of many traditions have recognized

that music has the power to heal one’s mind and body in overactive or underactive

emotional states by helping one get in touch with one’s emotions and learn to regulate

them. Psychologists, scientists, and leaders of world religions have struggled to

understand and articulate this notion for hundreds or even thousands of years. A review

of the historic literature revealed that no one knew why or how music helped to reconnect

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people to their emotions, but it was clear that people seemed to feel emotions upon

hearing particular pieces of music.

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Although using music to heal emotions for the benefit of mind and body is not a
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new concept among depth psychologists, some difficulty remains explaining how this

healing occurs. In his 1956 conversation with Margaret Tilly (1977), depth psychologist

Carl Jung acknowledged music as an untapped phenomenological resource:

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[Music] opens up whole new avenues of research I’d never dreamed of. . . . I feel

that from now on music should be an essential part of every analysis. This reaches

deep archetypal material that we can only sometimes reach in our analytical work

with patients. This is most remarkable. (as cited in Tilly, 1977, p. 275)

It is interesting that Jung wanted a first-hand experience of being in a session with Tilly,

a San Francisco, California, concert pianist and music psychotherapist. After Jung invited

her to his home and granted her an interview, he asked that she actually conduct her

music therapy with him. Jung valued what neuropsychologists later called “now
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moments” (Stern et al., 1998), which is why he was able to recognize what was

happening in the music session with Tilly, but it seemed there was more than just the

music. Perhaps the music was simply the medium. A “now moment” is a phenomenon

explained beautifully by Tilly with regard to her music therapy:

With any duo that engages in implicit relational knowing schemes of ways of

being with another develop. Now moments are suddenly different and unpredicted

moments such as a joke that either laugh at or an unanticipated stomach grumble,

or reaction to a spider on the ceiling. If such a moment is seized and recognized it

can be a moment of meeting. Such a moment of intersubjective landscape of the

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patient’s implicit relational knowing much as an interpretation can alter the
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intrapsychic landscape of the patient’s explicit knowing. (as cited in Stern et al.,

1998, p. 911)
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In their ways of being with one another in these now moments, Tilly was able to show

Jung the benefits of healing emotions using music. The music amplifies the present

moment, as music can often represent a bridge to the intrapsychic now moment that
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changes the patient’s implicit relational knowing into explicit knowing.

As previously mentioned, once these moments of meeting occur in therapy, they

can lead to what Ogden (1997) referred to as something more than just a transference or

countertransference moment, He wrote, “I do not conceive of transference and

countertransference as separable psychological entities that will arise independently of or

in response to one another, but as aspects of a single intersubjective totality” (p. 78).

Ogden wrote about an intersubjective moment that occurs in the therapy room, especially

if listening to a particularly activating piece of music or within a group, such as during a

MUSIC HELPS RECONNECT US TO OUR EMOTIONS 3

drumming circle, when everyone is in the flow of the music. In such a case the musicians

are said to be in the moment. Carter (2010) expanded upon this type of event, explaining

that when one is engaged, the feeling is palpable, there is substance to the occurrence,

and it brings a healing moment to both patient and therapist:

Contemporary psychoanalysts, infant researchers and neuroscientists are

struggling to understand and describe the nature and therapeutic value of this

interactive exchange that transpires in the liminal realm of the consulting room.

There is something that happens “in between” two people, “in between” outer and

inner life, “in between” unconscious and conscious, which is co-created and

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potentially therapeutic and life giving. Along these lines, Ogden speaks of the
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analytic third as the third subject created by the unconscious interplay of the

analyst and analysand. He sees this analytic third as something continually in a

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state of flux, as a process not an entity. (p. 205)

The moments of truth in therapy resonate, and it is as if members of an entire orchestra

are completely in tune and in time with one another.

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After Jung’s session with Tilly ended, his daughter wrote to Tilly:

Perhaps you don’t realize that you did something very important for me and my

father. I have always loved music, but he has never understood it, and this was a

barrier between us. Your coming has changed all that and I don’t know how to

thank you. (as cited in Tilly, 1977, p. 275, note)

Even though Jung had heard all the very best musicians, he was unable to connect the

benefits of the music with his own emotional relationships without the help of a music

therapist. As a result of the music therapy with Tilly, his view changed dramatically,
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especially after experiencing a numinous moment during the music, which he

experienced as a form of depth psychotherapy (as cited in Tilly, 1977, p. 275, note). It is

likely that the unconscious interplay of the analyst and analysand that Ogden (1997)

described allowed Jung to explore those emotions that had eluded him prior to the

interview with Tilly. The relevance of this research for depth psychotherapy is that it

would aid in the ability to explore the countertransference and intersubjectivity that music

as image brings to the therapy room. This current research is an attempt to understand

how these instances, or conscious and unconscious interplays, help to articulate now

moments (Stern et al., 1998) or the moments that Ogden (1994) described as the analytic

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third, in which something powerful “happens” in the therapeutic setting (p. 3).

Purpose Statement
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The purposes of this study was to investigate alternate patterns of getting in touch
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with one’s emotions and learn ways to regulate them in one’s mind and body through

music. Nearly everyone either plays an instrument or has listened to music in some form.

The topic of the study is addressed from a depth psychological perspective, including an
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archetypal view of musical origins and lyrical poetry as described by the mythic nine

muses. The research took a phenomenological approach, utilizing qualitative data

obtained from the results of structured interviews with five participants. These

participants were selected from a pool of those who attested to having a numinous

experience or noticed a particular emotional reaction while listening to music as a passive

participant or while playing music as an active participant. This study is intended to

contribute to a new perspective in the field of depth psychotherapy that acknowledges

that the mind is connected to the emotional body and that the body often reacts based on
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a history of emotional reactions. These are traditional perspectives that allow therapists to

help patients to get in touch with their emotions using music as a tool. Body rhythms

such as fear-based nervous system reactions or stress-related circulatory functions are

often in tune with one’s biorhythm, which moves to a biorhythmic tune based on a

history of complexes. Van de Kolk (2014) explained this phenomenon in his report of a

study he conducted on yoga in which he measured the physiological effects of trauma’s

impact on the body by measuring the heart rate variability (HRV) in a well-regulated

person and observing those effects of calming the nervous system while reliving a trauma

memory of a post traumatic stress, and other incidents where the nervous system becomes

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triggered or excited. The parallel between learning to regulate (HRV) using with yoga is
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a good model for learning to regulate one’s system using music therapy. In a well-

regulated person and observing those effects of calming the nervous system while
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reliving a trauma memory of a post traumatic stress and other incidents where the

nervous system becomes triggered or excited (pp. 268-271). The function of the body,

that becomes agitated and unable to become regulated becomes problematic in a person
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who has not experienced how to self-regulate, how to react, or why one might react in a

particular way, because often, one’s body reacts even before one’s mind has had a chance

to think about the reaction, a situation that van Der Kolk addressed more fully (pp. 58-

73). To prevent incongruence and facilitate change, it is necessary to illuminate these

instances to the patient and promote awareness of these biorhythm functions. This study

examines the ways in which music affects these biorhythms.

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Researcher’s Relationship to the Topic

The emotional movement of music is fascinating to me and especially captured

my attention after watching Gabrielle Giffords (2011) being healed by music

(administered by music therapists) in the television interview by Diane Sawyer on ABC

News: 20/20. Giffords had suffered from a 2011 gunshot wound through her left frontal

lobe. The application and healing effect of the music awakened me to the fact that this is

exactly the technique that was used in my own healing process from a traumatic brain

injury. Giffords was being serenaded with guitar music as she walked along pushing a

grocery cart, her legs moving in metronomic rhythm to the music. The music therapist

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explained that the bullet had severed connections in her brain and interrupted the usual
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neuronal pathways. Music helped retrieve the body movement by sending a message to

be processed to another area of the brain, enabling a new entrainment of this reroute. This
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new pathway allowed movement to occur by a less conventional route. Giffords also

regained her speech using music through the same technique of rerouting from the Broca

and Wernicke’s language areas, as explained by Micklos in 3-D Brain (DNA Learning
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Center & Micklos, 2009), to the cingulate gyrus, which is connected by neurons to the

limbic area of the brain. Through the limbic area, the music allowed Giffords to open up

emotionally with the aid of the music therapist.

Little was known about using music to heal the mind and body 50 years ago,

when I suffered a traumatic brain injury as a 4-year-old child. The doctors sent me home

from the hospital as a paraplegic mute with little hope of recovery. After several months

of listening to music and a lot of coaxing from my sister (4 years my senior), I was once

again able to walk and talk. The music healed my emotions, first, as I was led through a
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process of synchronistic events that pointed to the realization of what had helped to heal

my body, then to the discovery of how the healing occurred.

The synchronistic events came to light for me after seeing the Gifford (2011)

interview, discovering Sacks’s (1973, 2007a, 2007b) neurological case studies; and by

way of the movie, The Music Never Stopped (Moritz & Kohlberg, 2011), which is also

the title of a Grateful Dead song found on their Blues for Allah album (Barlow & Weir,

1995, track 6). When I watched The Music Never Stopped (Moritz & Kohlberg, 2011), I

noticed something remarkable. The story was about a man who suffered a brain injury as

the result of a tumor. Even though the man was not healed by the music, the music

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seemed to unlock a door to his memory, and during the time the music played, he became
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animated. It became evident that music and healing had an important connection. The

movie, simply described, is based on a case study by Sacks, who had also documented
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hundreds of case studies of miraculous instances where patients have literally awakened

from deep comas with the aid of music. The particular case study upon which the movie

is based is found in Sacks’s (2007a) An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical

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Tales. After reading some of these case studies, I realized that there were simply too

many coincidences to ignore in my own case.

I received many signs such as those mentioned above, which Jung (1931/1969)

would term synchronicities, that led me to reflect upon both physical and emotional

healing effected by the use of music. First, the physical healing was imminent, whereas

emotional healing would come later with the help of a therapist who would use music in

the same way a depth psychotherapist might use image to help find underlying issues.

Physically, the healing of my body seemed apparent, and it was less obvious that
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emotional healing was occurring, though one might come to understand those subtleties

at some point. As difficult as relearning to walk and talk had been, I still had emotional

trials to overcome. For me, the emotional healing was not a result of the synchronicity

but rather an acausal connection that led to the reflection on these synchronicities, which

began my process into the examination of healing the body by utilizing music. My

emotions were out of balance. One moment I was euphorically happy, and the next

moment, I felt unbelievable sadness, and there seemed to be no escape from this

emotional swing nor could a preadolescent articulate this range of emotion or negotiate

the type of depression that occurred. It was only as an adult, after reading Corbett’s

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(2015) The Soul in Anguish, that I realized the experience could be described as a rite of
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passage issue, as he referred to the “middle or liminal period . . . [as] the most difficult

time, because the initiate does not know where he or she is going or what the outcome
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will be, so it is a period fraught with suffering” (p. 279).

As an adult, again, I turned toward music. At the time, those around me thought it

was a miracle just having the ability to walk and talk; I could never speak about the
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subtleties of emotion without seeming ungrateful for how much healing had already

occurred. There seemed to be no way to articulate what or how the healing occurred until

I saw the interview with a music therapist who was helping to heal Giffords (2011).

In 2011, after beginning a master’s program in psychology, the connection

between music, medicine, and emotional healing was emerging quickly from my

unconscious through many synchronistic events that occurred and began to demand my

attention. From reading Sacks’s (1973, 2007a, 2007b) multiple case studies, I noticed that

something unusual was happening for me, with music as the common denominator. Many
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of Sack’s cases shared common language indicating mental and emotional states with

music accompanied by movement. Recently, medical breakthroughs using positron

emission tomography (PET) scans help to see the literal effects of music on brain

activity. If music helps to connect us to memory and movement memory, even when

cognition fails, and it taps into our deepest emotions, revealing our deeper longings, it

seems an important endeavor to research music as an invaluable tool for use in depth

psychotherapy. The therapist might be able to use music as the key to unlock patterns of

behaviors that have long outlasted their usefulness. Paying attention to synchronicities

and then learning to grow through a process of examination using music is the way that

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many people are or have been healed but may be unaware of the process as it occurs as
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Sack’s has revealed through multiple studies (1973, 2007a, 2007b).

To recap the sequence of synchronicities, they began when the movie, The Music
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Never Stopped (Moritz & Kohlberg, 2011), came to my attention. The song by the music

group, The Grateful Dead has the same title, and is one of my favorites. Next came the

shooting of congresswoman Giffords, whose experience seemed horrific. I had been

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following her story in a journalism class, and when Sawyer interviewed her about the

progress of her healing aided by music (Giffords, 2011), it became clear that the same

type of music therapy had been administered to me as a child and that it was key to my

relearning how to walk and talk. As if right on cue, all of these events spontaneously

unfolded within a very short period of time after a professor had explained Jung’s

(1952/1969) theory of synchronicity.

At this point, it became difficult to maintain my previous excitement about

candidates for the study, and the study itself for that matter. The transference to my own
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expectations of the outcome of the study began to emerge. I fully expected the outcome

to present itself in a particular way, though the way of the outcome was not clear to me at

the time. I thought if one only played upbeat music, one’s affect would change, but the

study participants indicated an alternative to that concept. As it became difficult to keep

an open mind, I found myself trying to sway the collected information to make it fit into

my own scheme of things. As different information began to appear in the emergence

recurring themes, I was forced me to rethink the outcome of the study by eliminating self-

doubt and leaving an opening for something new to happen. A well-known conversation

between Jung (1977) and Tilly confirms that he thought enough of music therapy to give

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it an honorable mention (p. 275), but how would an interview and assessment be enough
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to illustrate the effects of music as value therapeutically? This part of the process must be

done with an open mind, open-ended questioning, and deep listening. This is not an easy
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process.

Relevance of the Topic for Depth Psychology

It is easy to see how music aids in healing physical and speech disabilities, such
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as described in Gifford’s (2011) interview and also discussed in many of Sacks’s (1973,

2007a, 2007b) cases, but linking music to healing a depressive emotion may be more

difficult to demonstrate, as emotions are more subtle, and depression is more intangible

than a dark cloud. Vink (2009), in his review of literature on the topic, asked some

important questions regarding the possibility of music providing emotional healing:

Does music induce emotion in the listener or do we project emotion to music? It

is the latter opinion that is supported most frequently in music psychology

research. Various studies demonstrate that a variety of physiological and

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psychological changes occur when listening to music, although it is not yet clear

how these changes are brought about, they appear to be directly related to the

various musical qualities. The question of how music influences the listener is of

importance to music therapy. Music therapy and music psychology generally

function as separate disciplines. (pp. 144–158)

Vink proposed that music therapy and music psychology could benefit from each other’s

efforts in a living-apart-together relationship. In any case, the literature shows that an

important link has been made between emotions, healing, and therapy.

Whether one projects emotion on the music or music induces the emotion, music

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can be used in place of or in conjunction with image in the therapy room. Music and
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image reach deep places within the psyche that are connected to emotion, and this can

occur within a matter of minutes. Perhaps listening to a song such as Elton John and
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Bernie Taupin’s (1984) “Sad Song,” from the album Breaking Hearts, would invoke a

remembrance of a mood or even a situation:

Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain
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And ironing out the rough spots

Is the hardest part when memories remain. . .

And it feels so good to hurt so bad,

And suffer just enough to sing the blues.

Turn ‘em on, turn ‘em on

Turn on those sad songs

When all hope is gone

Why don’t you tune in and turn them on?

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They reach into your room, oh oh oh

Just feel their gentle touch. (track 10)

As Vink (2009) noted, the listener may project an emotion onto the song or may simply

hear a dissonant tune coupled with sad lyrics. Dissonance is defined thus: “1. Music

lacking harmony. 2. Unsuitable in combination; clashing” (“Dissonance,” 2002, p. 415).

This dissonance of tone may help one to connect with being sad or happy, and therefore,

one is able to sink into the tune emotionally, which may allow the release of emotion

versus being stuck. As an example, if one is initially listening to joyful music, but the

tone becomes dissonant, it may induce a memory to come forward. Suddenly, there is a

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change in one’s voice or in a musical piece, and while the upbeat music draws one in, the
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dissonant or sad tone connects on a different level. Instead of being stuck in depression,

an individual is able to connect with the sad emotion, process it, and move through it.
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Often, this process takes place spontaneously in the unconscious. Emotion may be

triggered in public places such as a grocery store, when one hears background music that

brings one back to the moment of an emotional trauma. With therapy and advances in
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technology, these triggers may be more readily identified or recognized. Newly

developed technologies such as the PET scan and electroencephalogram are being used to

provide valuable information about how the brain and nervous system utilize musical

information.

At McGill University in Montreal, Canada, a research team is devoted to the

study of how different types of music elicit different responses in the brain. These studies

conducted by Alluri et al. (2012) illustrate what is occurring physiologically to the brain

and nervous system as it is exposed to music and monitored by PET scans. Their research
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has shown that “music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving,

similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system” (p. 2). The

researchers were able to verify peak time response by studying the dopamine released

during the anticipatory and peak emotional experience to music. In their report of their

results in Nature Neuroscience, Alluri et al. stated,

Using neurochemical specificity of raclopride positron emission tomography

(PET) scanning, combined with psycho physiological measures of autonomic

nervous system activity, we provide direct evidence for endogenous dopamine

release in the striatum at peak emotional arousal during music listening. To

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examine the time course of dopamine release we used functional magnetic
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resonance imaging (MRI) with the same stimuli . . . and found a functional

dissociation. (para. 1)
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The article included images of the PET scans of the brain before and after the musical

arousal, which showed the remarkable results. The results were cross-referenced with

magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) to determine the length of time one might remain in a
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state of euphoric response or any number of other emotional responses.

The psychological and neuroscientific research reviewed briefly above, as well as

the questions and observations proposed by Carter (2010) and Ogden (1997) regarding

simple and complex transference and countertransference in the therapy room are

explorations that indicate the benefit of music therapy as an invaluable tool in the depth

psychotherapeutic field. This tool could be useful in reaching otherwise inaccessible

areas of the psyche by inducing image through music in a more streamlined route rather

than waiting for a now moment to occur naturally. This induction of a now moment is
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much like what occurs in comedy. There is a momentum that leads up to a punch line,

utilizing a familiar story but with a twist, so that the comedian with impeccable timing is

able to reach the psyche in an uncanny way, culminating in what we now know as a now

moment.

Statement of the Research Problem and Questions

The research problem is whether or not music has a place in emotional healing in

the depth psychotherapeutic setting. Two research questions related to depth psychology

guided this inquiry:

 How does music help an individual to connect with his or her inner self or

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authenticity, and outwardly with others to create a healing space?


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Can music change the way one thinks and feels in a way that heals the mind

and body?
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My aim in conducting this research study was to understand the guiding principles of

using music to assist in emotional healing as a form of psychotherapy. My research

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explored the phenomenology of this type of healing by investigating the lived experience

of those who utilized the benefits of being reconnected with their buried emotions to be

able to release the ill effects. My purpose was to validate the use of music as a tool in the

area of healing emotions. Historically, using music to heal the body seemed appropriate

only for speech and movement. Even though patient’s mood may have been lifted and

hope restored, the subtleties of its application as providing emotional support and healing

seemed to be overlooked due to the more demonstrative positive changes that were

observed in the motor skills area.

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