Songwriting as an Integral Practice

Abstract

As I alluded to in the introductory chapter, the main aim of this research was to expand and deepen our understanding of the potential of songwriting to transform the lives of people across the lifespan. I was particularly motivated to construct concrete, descriptive, and clear perspectives that could assist the clinician to make choices about what method and model of songwriting would most aptly meet the needs of the people engaging in therapy I wanted to offer flexible methods and models as context is everything in music therapy practice. While I am typically averse to assigning concepts and perspectives in boxes or categories because of the danger that this might lead to rigid application (the antithesis of what I hoped for), I believed at the outset (and still believe) that being able to be more specific in naming what we do and why we do it will enhance music therapy discourse, improve our reporting of the use of songwriting in research, and will assist in determining what methods, models, and practices are most efficacious to address a broad range of goals and purposes in diverse contexts .