Ep 55 Barbara Wheeler

Music Therapy Conversations

Luke talked to Barbara Wheeler about her wide ranging experience in music therapy as a researcher, clinician, educator, and author.

Barbara L. Wheeler, PhD, MT-BC, holds the designation of Professor Emeritus from Montclair State University, where she taught from 1975-2000. She initiated the music therapy program at the University of Louisville in 2000, retiring in 2011. She presents and teaches in the U.S. and internationally. She has a current faculty appointment at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, Katowice, Poland. She has been an active clinician throughout her career and worked with a variety of clientele. Barbara edited Music Therapy Handbook (2015); Music Therapy Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives (1995); Music Therapy Research (2nd Edition, 2005); is one of the editors of Music Therapy Research (3rd Edition; 2016); and is coauthor of Clinical Training Guide for the Student Music Therapist (1st edition, 2005; 2nd edition, 2017). She is also the author of numerous other articles and chapters. She is a past president of the American Music Therapy Association and was Interview Co-Editor for Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Barbara received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Federation of Music Therapy in 2017 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Music Therapy Association in 2019.

In this interview they cover a wide range of topics, among them the issue of the importance of randomised control trials in building the evidence base for music therapy. the resources below include reference to several of these, as well as other articles referred to in this discussion.

The first two are examples of relatively small RCTs, done by a single investigator or team, in one setting. There are many examples of this type of RCT.

Ghetti, C. M. (2013). Effect of music therapy with emotional-approach coping on preprocedural anxiety in cardiac catheterization: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Music Therapy, 50(2), 93-122.

Chlan, L., Weinert, C., Heiderscheit, A., Tracy, M. F., Skaar, D., Guttormson, J., & Savik, K. (2013). Effects of patient directed music intervention on anxiety and sedative exposure in critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilatory support. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 309(22), 2335-2344. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.5670

The next two are multi-site RCTs.

Robb, S. L., Burns, D. S., Stegenga, K. A., Haut, P. R., Monahan, P. O., Meza, J., ... & Haase, J. E. (2014). Randomized clinical trial of therapeutic music video intervention for resilience outcomes in adolescents/young adults undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant: a report from the Children's Oncology Group. Cancer, 120(6), 909-917.

Robb, S. L., Burns, D. S., Stegenga, K. A., Haut, P. R., Monahan, P. O., Meza, J., …Haase, J. E. (2014). Randomized clinical trial of therapeutic music video intervention for resilience outcomes in adolescents/young adults undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant: A report from the Children’s Oncology Group. Cancer, 120, 909–917. doi:10.1002/cncr.28355

The final two are Protocols for RCTs. These are large, multi-site studies, not yet completed.

Ghetti, C., Bieleninik, Ł., Hysing, M., Kvestad, I., Assmus, J., Romeo, R., ... & Gold, C. (2019). Longitudinal Study of music Therapy’s Effectiveness for Premature infants and their caregivers (LongSTEP): protocol for an international randomised trial. BMJ open, 9(8), e025062.

Baker, F. A., Bloska, J., Braat, S., Bukowska, A., Clark, I., Hsu, M. H., ... & Odell-Miller, H. (2019). HOMESIDE: home-based family caregiver-delivered music and reading interventions for people living with dementia: protocol of a randomised controlled trial. BMJ open, 9(11), e031332.Felicity Anne Baker

Additional references

Wheeler, B. L., & Baker, F. A. (2010). Influences of music therapists’ worldviews on work in different countries. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 37(3), 215-227.

https://voices.no/community/index.html?q=fortnightly-columns%252F2001-various-problems-language-and-terminology