The use of personal songwriting as a form of journaling in a music therapy internship: An arts-based autoethnographic exploration
This arts-based autoethnographic study explored my experiences as a music therapy intern in a hospital setting as I used personal songwriting as a form of journaling. The study addressed the following questions: What is my experience of using personal songwriting as a form of journaling during my music therapy internship? What are the themes of my personal songs? The data collected in this qualitative study was in the form of musical journal entries. A total of twenty-seven musical journals were recorded using various recording devices and transcribed into chord charts. These twenty-seven musical entries document each week of my intern experience. The musical entries synthesized in this study yielded five overarching themes: self-doubt, community, turbulence, faith, and transformation. The findings of this study align with previous research by Grant and McCarthy (1990) and Clements-Cortés (2019), who also identified common themes of self-doubt, emotional growth and professional development during music therapy internships. This study further emphasizes the importance of personal expression through songwriting in navigating the emotional and professional challenges of internship experiences.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations