"Sparks that became a little light over time": A qualitative investigation of musicking as a means of coping in adults with PTSD

This article investigates the experience of musicking (the performance of musical activity) among people coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Using qualitative research methods, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 10 male participants in a music project for people coping with PTSD induced by war and terrorism. The project consists of individual music lessons once a week and a musical enrichment group that meets once a month. Group meetings include workshops and lectures by music professionals and artists, during which participants are exposed to diverse musical content. Following an interpretive phenomenological content analysis, we were able to identify two central themes arising from the interviews: musicking as an intra-subjective experience and musicking as mediator of inter-subjective relationships. A further analysis revealed three superordinate themes: musicking as a secure place, musicking as a dialectic experience, and musicking as a means for identity reconstruction (bridging between past, present, and future). From this we concluded that for our interviewees musicking is a secure place for their wounded self, which allows the reconstruction of a coherent personal narrative while conducting a dialectic encounter with the trauma and its symptoms via nonverbal language. Consequently, we recommend musicking as a therapeutic tool for people coping with war-induced PTSD from both intrapersonal and interpersonal perspectives.