“I feel whole now” Music Therapy to maintain identity when living with Schizophrenia

We love sharing stories from the music therapy space and we’re thrilled that NDIS participant Rob* was keen to share a little about his experience of music therapy.

Rob is living with Schizophrenia and had previously learnt classical guitar, but hadn’t engaged with his musical identity for some time. He was keen to try music therapy to holistically enhance his physical, cognitive and communication functional skills while supporting his mental health.

When Rob first began music therapy, his goal was to work with a music therapist to “build good musical health and develop good technique”. He likened the potential of music therapy to “doing a push up and getting stronger”. 

Music therapy supports Rob’s mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, including creating opportunities for self-expression, developing confidence, connecting to and affirming his identity, as well as emotional regulation. Plus by including guitar playing in sessions Rob is developing his fine motor skills (finger dexterity) and cognitive functioning (motor planning, attention, decision making and much more!).

Playing familiar songs and improvising with the support of a music therapist is a shared collaborative experience that involves live auditory feedback. These music experiences foster joy, which means Rob can address his NDIS goals in a motivational and meaningful way. Recently, Rob invited his music therapist to improvise a new melody over a classical guitar piece he had been learning on his own. He shared that playing with a music therapist gave him confidence and he was excited about the progress he could make. At the end of this session he said “I feel whole now”. 

*Name used with participant consent.