“Human Experiences are so Complex”

A significant percentage of music therapists work in mental health settings. The music therapy literature evidences a range of perspectives on mental health diagnoses, but there is little in the way of research exploring music therapists’ and trainee music therapists’ sense-making around them. This qualitative study uses a novel story completion-reflexive improvisation-interview (SC-RI-I) method to explore in-depth eight UK qualified and trainee music therapists’ assumptions and beliefs about, and approaches to, mental health diagnoses. We used reflexive thematic analysis to develop four themes from the data: 1) Ambivalence about diagnosis; 2) Where do music therapists fit?; 3) Music therapists are client-centred; and 4) Music therapists critique the system. The participants expressed mainly reservations about mental health diagnoses, but also acknowledged they can have value, and were uncertain about their own positioning within diagnosis-led mental health systems. They emphasised the importance of recognising client individuality and prioritised person-centred approaches, which they viewed as fundamentally at odds with diagnosis-led mental healthcare. Their accounts often echoed anti-/critical-psychiatry views, critiquing both mental health systems and wider understandings of mental health. The SC-RI-I method could serve as a useful framework for producing rich and detailed data about music therapists’ experiences and perspectives in future research.