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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1456033
This article is part of the Research Topic The Arts Therapies and Neuroscience View all 8 articles

Thematic and intertextual analysis from a feasibility studying using the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) with clients in eating disorder treatment

Provisionally accepted
Annie L. Heiderscheit Annie L. Heiderscheit 1,2*
  • 1 Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • 2 Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, East of England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Eating disorders (ED) are characterized by serious and persistent disturbances with eating, weight control, and body image. Symptoms impact physical health, psychosocial functioning, and can be life-threatening. Individuals diagnosed with an ED experience numerous medical and psychiatric comorbidities due to issues caused by or underlying the ED. Therefore, it is vital to address the complex nature of an ED, as well as the comorbid and underlying issues. This necessitates a psychotherapeutic approach that can help to uncover, explore, and support working through unresolved emotions and experiences. Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) is an in-depth music psychotherapy approach utilizing therapist-programmed music to support the client in uncovering and examining underlying and unresolved issues. The literature surrounding the use of GIM with clients in ED treatment is anecdotal and comprised primarily of clinical case studies. This secondary analysis, based on a descriptive feasibility study that integrated GIM sessions into the client’s regular ED treatment and examined 116 transcripts from a series of sessions of eight clients. Thematic analysis of the transcripts identified nine subthemes and three themes that emerged. These themes include emotional landscape (feeling stuck, acknowledging emotions, and working through unresolved emotions), relationships (self, others, and eating disorders), and transformation and growth (finding strength, change, and empowerment). A short series of GIM sessions helped ED clients identify and address issues underlying the ED and to gain or reclaim a sense of self that enabled them to make choices for their life that support their recovery and sense of empowerment. Intertextual analysis revealed imagery indicative of the Hero’s Journey. Further, how engagement in this embodied aesthetic experience stimulates perceptual, cognitive, and affective brain functions which are key in fostering behavioral and psychological change is explicated as it relates to ED treatment and recovery.

    Keywords: Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music, Music Therapy, Eating Disorders, imagery themes, neuroaesthetic approach

    Received: 27 Jun 2024; Accepted: 01 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Heiderscheit. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Annie L. Heiderscheit, Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.