Music Therapy and Evidence-Based Treatments: Combined Approaches for Military Populations

Date of Award

8-24-2024

Document Type

Doctoral Research Paper

Degree Name

Psy.D.

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Kathryn Barrs

Second Advisor

Erica Adkins

Third Advisor

Rohini Gupta

Keywords

Military psychology, Music therapy, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Moral injury, Evidenced-based psychotherapies, Prolonged exposure, Creative art therapies

Abstract

The need for responsive and adequate mental health services is particularly acute within the military and Veteran population. In the past two decades demand for these services, and particularly trauma processing interventions have increased tremendously. However, this population faces many barriers in terms of accessing these services. Some of these barriers include mental health stigma, staffing shortages, long wait times, and competency of providers. Due to the high need, the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have dedicated many resources to researching appropriate trauma treatments. The current gold standards used by the DoD and VA include Prolonged Exposure, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Research into these treatments has shown promising results in the reduction of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, though high dropout rates and reduced effectiveness in some individuals present challenges. There is also a gap in research related to investigating the benefits of more integrated and creative approaches for trauma treatment. This paper aims to illustrate the effectiveness of integrating creative approaches into evidence-based treatments. There will be a review of Creative Art Therapies, and specifically music therapy, including their development in the field of military psychology and their current applications. A case study will be utilized throughout the paper to bring to life the effectiveness of combining evidenced based trauma treatments with music therapy.

Copyright Date

6-10-2024

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Rights Holder

Einav Nahum

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

43 pgs

File Size

388 pgs

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