A Symphony of Movement: The impacts of a music therapy movement group with orchestral musicians in a stroke rehabilitation setting

This interpretivist research explored the impacts of a music therapy movement group (MTMG) in the context of stroke rehabilitation from the perspectives of a transdisciplinary therapeutic team. The group was lead with a neurologic music therapy approach over the course of seven weeks. The therapeutic team consisted of a music therapist, a student music therapist, two physiotherapists, and five orchestral musicians. The data for this research came from interviews which I undertook as the student music therapist and researcher. The interviews included a focus group with the physiotherapists, a focus group with the musicians and an interview with the music therapist. I analysed the data through thematic analysis, and eight themes emerged. These were the affordance of music, patient journeys, strengths of a transdisciplinary team, deinstitutionalising the space, emergence of a community, challenge of difference, personal meaning of the project and desire for music therapy sustainability. These themes were discussed using the Te Whare Tapa Whā model (Durie, 1985) and demonstrated that the MTMG was perceived to have holistic outcomes relating to all aspects of wellbeing. The findings from this research revealed that the MTMG was perceived to be beneficial for both patients and members of the therapeutic team, and it is recommended that similar music therapy groups are implemented elsewhere for rehabilitation and in hospitals across Aotearoa, New Zealand.