Meeting art with art: arts based methods enhance researcher reflexivity in research with mental health service users

This paper presents a rationale for arts based practices in music therapy research, and provides an example of using ABR techniques in research. Arts based materials are increasingly demonstrated to have capacity to extend processes of reflexivity and analysis in a range of qualitative health research studies. By comparison music therapy research studies have rarely employed arts based methods or techniques. There is a need for more studies in music therapy that employ arts based research to demystify and elaborate a wider range of creative approaches within music therapy inquiry. In the study described in this paper ABR was used to reflect on the contribution of a service user in a community mental health context who participated in a focus group about his experiences of music therapy. ABR was found to offer a creative way to engage service users, and to deepen and extend the researcher’s reflexivity when responding to materials created by research participants.