Conceptualizing ‘relationships’

Compared to ‘music’ and ‘therapy’, the term ‘relationship’ rarely arises in the interviews, as the informants tend to use descriptions like ‘how we know each other’ and ‘our collaboration’,

rather than ‘our relationship’. Thus, in order to explore how the informants conceptualize their relationships, I focus on the roles that they take on and assign each other in the interviews. I think of these roles as positions that the adolescents and music therapists draw on to describe their interactions – positions that reveal different dynamics in their relationships.

In this analysis, I have intentionally categorized and separated the roles described in the interviews. In the empirical material, however, these roles are interrelated and constantly overlapping. I therefore do not find that the informants intentionally step in and out of specific roles, but rather that they draw from multiple roles simultaneously, occasionally emphasizing perspectives that are more in line with some roles than they are with others.

8.4.1 Adolescent / music therapist

The most prominent description of the roles of the informants that I find in the empirical material is ‘adolescents’ and ‘music therapists’. These are also the descriptions that I use throughout the thesis, even though we have seen several examples of both adolescents and music therapists challenging the ‘therapist’ label. Still, I find that the terms ‘adolescents’ and

‘music therapists’ are fitting descriptions of the roles that the informants tend to take in the interviews, as explained in the following.

It appears to me that the description ‘adolescent’ is accepted by all the informants, as they use it consistently throughout the interviews. The only exception is Mia (MT) in the interview with Sarah (A), in which she occasionally describes the adolescents as ‘participants’ (she does not repeat this description in her interview with Luna (A)). Terms like ‘client’, ‘user’, ‘child’ or

‘young adult’ are not used in any of the interviews, except when describing what the adoles-cent is not (e.g. extract B.9). The description ‘music therapist’, as noted above, is challenged by some of the adolescents and music therapists. Despite this, I find that the informants tend to position Maeve, Mia and Madilyn (the three music therapists) as those responsible for the music therapy sessions – that is, they are hired to provide a service to adolescents in the child welfare services. This is especially clear in the discussions of payment and restrictions on the length of the music therapy sessions, as found in the interviews with Sarah/Mia and Olivia/Madilyn (and to some degree in Amelia/Maeve). In these interviews, the adolescents talk about wanting more time with their music therapists, but they are denied this wish for financial reasons. So, even though both Sarah (A) and Olivia (A) say that they do not consider Mia and Madilyn ‘therapists’, they still talk about their music therapists as paid professionals in the child welfare system.

I find that the informants take on the roles of ‘adolescents’ and ‘music therapists’ in discus-sions on decision-making in the music therapy relationship as well. For instance, Maeve (MT) says in two of her three interviews that it is important that the adolescents know that they can object to her suggestions, and that they should not feel forced to do anything in her sessions. Mia (MT) expresses a similar thought, when saying that she does not want to tell the adolescents how to behave, and that she tries to respect their thoughts and viewpoints.

Maeve and Mia’s statements reveal to me a power dynamic in the relationship, in that they have the power to define the activities of music therapy, but their suggestions are based on the wishes of the adolescents. Also, the adolescents are described as acting in diverse ways, bringing different moods and emotions into music therapy, while the music therapists’ actions are described as reliable and stable.

I find another difference between adolescents and music therapists when it comes to descrip-tions of musical taste. At no point in the interviews do we get to know the favourite musical genres or songs of the music therapists, whereas the adolescents frequently share information about their favourite music. This could be because the interviewers focus on the adolescents’

experiences (in accordance with my instructions), but it shows a tendency that is underscored by adolescents like Olivia and Natalie, who both comment that their music therapists are ‘open to all kinds of music’. Whereas the adolescents describe having particular tastes, the music therapists are described as enjoying ‘everything’.

From my perspective, the descriptions above show dynamics similar to traditional ‘music therapist–client’-relationships (see Bruscia (2014)), in that the music therapists are described as being in control of the situation, while basing the activities of the sessions on the wishes of the adolescents. In this context, it is also interesting to see that even though the adolescents and music therapists occasionally distance themselves from the ‘therapist’ label, there are also several instances of the informants describing the music therapist as a ‘therapist’. In Isabel’s (I) interview with Maeve (MT) and Chloe (A), Isabel talks about herself and Maeve as music therapists who need to know what adolescents think about music therapy, and Maeve does not object to the use of her job title, even after Chloe says that she does not consider Maeve a ‘music therapist’. In the interview with Amelia (A), the adolescent jokingly suggests that Isabel could be her music therapist (and at another point, her psychotherapist) because she seems so nice, and in Luna’s (A) interview, the adolescent talks about having sessions with other music therapists than Mia (MT). Also, in her interview with Sarah (A), Mia repeatedly describes herself as a music therapist, despite saying that she does not consider her relation-ship with Sarah to be a ‘therapist–client relationrelation-ship’ (extract B.9). In all these examples, the informants use the description ‘music therapist’ without any negative connotations.

8.4.2 Adolescent / not therapist

In the interviews with Olivia (A), Sarah (A) and Chloe (A), the informants occasionally describe their music therapists as different from what they define as ‘therapists’. All three adolescents have experiences with other forms of therapy, and they describe other therapists negatively in their interviews. The adolescents do not immediately suggest another title for the music therapists, but Madilyn (MT) comments that, from her perspective, she is simply

‘Madilyn’ in their sessions.

Madilyn also distances herself from other therapists when describing how Olivia talks to her about being frustrated with the “psychologists and dumb adults” in her life. Maeve (MT), in her interview with Chloe (A), makes a similar statement, by describing therapy as feeling

“fake”. As seen in extract B.9, Mia (MT) views her relationship with Sarah as different from traditional therapeutic relationships. These moments show that the music therapists are willing to challenge notions like ‘therapy’ and ‘therapists’. However, these descriptions from the music therapists are brought up late in the interviews with the three adolescents who talk about having negative experiences with therapists. After hearing the adolescents talk negatively about ‘therapy’ and ‘therapists’, Maeve, Mia and Madilyn (MT) might have wanted to express opinions that were in line with the adolescents’ perspectives. If so, this is an example of the informants adjusting their descriptions to fit with the discursive repertoires of the other.

8.4.3 Adolescent / adult

The informants occasionally use the term ‘adult’ to describe the music therapists or other workers in the child welfare services. One example is extract A.8, in which Maeve (MT) says that it can be scary to share music with an adult, referring to the first time she meets the ado-lescents, when she asks them to put on some of ‘their’ music. Later in the interview, she says

“adults like me” are used to being in control, and it can be difficult to know whether or not the adolescents agree with her suggestions and decisions if they do not speak up. Both Mia (MT) and Sarah (A) describe the music therapist and her co-workers at the meeting place as

‘adults’, though other descriptions are used as well. They also describe certain behaviours as being age-specific, as in the adults thinking or behaving a certain way because they are adults.

In all the examples above, I find that the term ‘adult’ is used to refer to people who have author-ity in the adolescents’ life. The ‘adults’ are the ones who are in control, they can be ‘scary’, and the adolescents may have to meet them even though they find them ‘dumb’. I thus consider the term ‘adults’ to be a general description of different people involved in the adolescents’ life who do not necessarily share a job title, but hold a position of power. The music therapists’

use of the term may be seen as a way of referring to their position as one of the authorities in the adolescents’ life, without using the description ‘therapists’.

8.4.4 Adolescent / music teacher

There are no moments in the interviews in which the informants describe the adolescents as ‘students’ or the music therapists as ‘teachers’, but they frequently talk about learning and teaching music. Natalie (A), Sarah (A) and Chloe (A) say they started attending music therapy because they wanted to learn to play instruments and write music, and through their sessions, they have learned to do both these and other activities that they did not think they were interested in doing when they started (e.g. Luna (A) and songwriting, extract F.4). Thus, they not only engage in the activities that they initially wanted to, but are also provided with the opportunity to experience and engage in other activities that they find interesting and fun.

The descriptions of the music therapist as someone who is experienced with music and the adolescent as someone who wants to learn music reveal a contrast between the two groups.

The music therapists possess the knowledge and the power to teach, and the adolescents are placed in the position of the inexperienced learners. The adolescent do not protest this posi-tion: at several points in the interviews, they express their appreciation of the music therapist’s musical talent. For instance, Natalie (A) comments that playing music with someone who is experienced makes her feel better at playing.

In contrast to how the adolescents appreciate the music therapists’ abilities to teach, many of the adolescents describe negative experiences with earlier lessons with music teachers, as discussed in the section above devoted to the exploration of music as skills (8.2.4). This may be a reason why they do not describe their music therapists as ‘teachers’, as they might associate the group with negative emotions. The the term ‘teacher’ could in this sense be in a similar position as the term ‘therapist’, as neither of the descriptions are preferred when talking about the music therapists, even though the discussions reveal interactions and power dynamics in the music therapy relationship that are similar to client–therapist and student–teacher relationships.

8.4.5 Musicians and friends

All of the roles described above emphasize differences rather than similarities, placing the adolescents and music therapists in contrasting, hierarchical positions. However, the inform-ants also describe their relationship in terms that are more egalitarian. For instance, Sarah (A) uses the term ‘friend’ to describe Mia (MT). Although the music therapist does not use

the same description for Sarah, she does describe their relationship as a “friendship” at one point in the interview, and at another point, says that they are “musicians who write songs together” (extract B.9).

With the exception of the examples above, the terms ‘musicians’ and ‘friends’ are rarely used in the interviews, but there are numerous descriptions of interactions in which the informants emphasize the equal contribution of the adolescent and the music therapist. Chloe (A) and Natalie (A) say that they enjoy making music with Maeve (MT) because both they and the music therapist come up with suggestions to how the music should sound, or how to play a particular section. Mia (MT) and Madilyn (MT) similarly describe the ways that Luna (A) and Olivia (A) contribute to the songwriting process, portraying their work as a collaboration that is made possible by ideas and suggestions from both themselves and the adolescents. In these descriptions, I find that the adolescents and music therapists talk about a relationship of equality that stands in contrast to the descriptions discussed in the earlier subsections.