Abstract

Music therapists often pursue specialized trainings to obtain additional skills that will enhance their work with specific client populations or help them to address particular health concerns. When trainings may contain techniques or theoretical orientations that seem contradictory rather than complementary, it can lead to confusion for therapists in their day-to-day practice, as was the case for the current author. The purpose of this heuristic self-inquiry was for the researcher to engage in self-reflective and experiential practices and to explore her feelings and perspectives on perceived disparities between vocal psychotherapy and somatic experiencing techniques used within her music therapy practice. Data collection and analysis procedures integrated components of vocal psychotherapy and somatic experiencing and were conceptualized within Moustakas’ six phases of heuristic inquiry. Content analysis of the material that emerged resulted in three overarching categories: personal insights, clinical insights, and insights about my professional identity––each one containing sub-categories supported by personal explications, journal quotes, and audio excerpts from self-reflective experiential improvisations. A creative synthesis of results and vision for moving forward was realized within the form of a sound collage, built from layered audio samples taken from the improvisations. Multiple implications are discussed, and the researcher offers concluding remarks about the multi-faceted value of reflective practice.