Microanalysis of a Music Therapy Session Segment with An Autistic Child

Abstract

The following microanalysis helps analyze an essential aspect of a music therapy session with a child diagnosed with autism. This detailed analysis highlights how essential music is in this little girl’s life, both in expression and communication. Microanalysis in music therapy aims to critically analyze the therapy process, focusing even on the smallest elements from a musical and therapeutic view. The music therapy sessions with this client and the analysis are based on the theory of communicative musicality developed by Trevarthen and Malloch. Just as Malloch argues that communicative musicality between mother and infant has three essential parts - pulse, timbre, and narrative - so it is observed that the analyses of the segments chosen were based on these principles. The narrative of the musical interaction between the client and therapist points to the fact that it expresses innate motives for sharing emotion and experience with other people and creating meaning in shared activity. It allows two people to share a sense of passing time and to create and share the emotional framework that evolves through this shared time.

Keywords

• Music therapy, autism, communicative musicality, microanalysis, attunement, psychology.