I was initially drawn to Lillian Eyre's article, "The Marriage of music and narrative: Explorations in art, therapy, and research," as I felt it would explore the use of narrated improvisations as a clinical technique. More than this, Eyre goes a step further to put her ideas into action. The pilot study she presents in her article focuses on the combination of improvisation and the narration of one's life story.
I am currently working in a children's hospital for my practicum placement, which relies almost exclusively on the use of improvisation. I have accompanied an improvisational story on the guitar before, but it took the form of a fairy tale as opposed to a concrete life story. I had started this session with a young girl on the oncology unit by providing a guitar accompaniment while she read the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. My supervisor then suggested we make up our own story. The heroine of the story was Dora the Explorer, who, after leaving her younger siblings at home to go on an adventure, returns to the house to find the three bears inside. At first, Dora is afraid that the bears are going to eat her siblings, but as she enters their room, finds that the bears are tucking them safely into bed. In that situation, I used the underlying themes of the story - abandonment, new adventures, being hurt versus being cared for - to assess where the patient was in that moment.
I think improvisation and narrative could be used in many ways with many different populations. It may be that while patients in a psychiatric institution would glean more meaning from an autobiographical narrative and accompanying improvisation, children may need to tell their story within the context of a fantasy; indeed, fantasy stories of make-believe lands may not be appropriate for those in the psychiatric setting who lack a solid reality orientation. Children are accustomed to hearing familiar children's stories about Goldilocks, Red Riding Hood, and Snow White, and most have pretended or made up their own similar stories. If we, as music therapists, can encourage this playful expression with our music, hospitalized children can participate in a recreational, expressive activity that distracts from procedural pain and anxiety.