A Pilot Study of Mindfulness-Based Music Therapy in an Intensive Outpatient Program for Adults with Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders

This pilot study was designed to explore the use of mindfulness-based music therapy in an intensive outpatient program for adults with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. All participants completed the Brief Serenity Scale (Kreitzer et al., 2009) as a pre-test prior to their participation in this study. Participants took part in four monthly 50-minute mindfulness-based music therapy groups. At designated points throughout each music therapy session (including the beginning, end, and after each specific experience), the participants marked on a Likert scale where their thoughts were, in relation to the past, present, and future. Post-test measures of the Brief Serenity Scale (Kreitzer et al., 2009) were completed after the participants’ final study session. Descriptive statistics were used to identify trends in data from the Likert scales, and results indicated that the highest number of participants in each session felt present after the musical introductions. Differences between pre- and post-test scores were calculated using inferential statistics. The statistical analysis of the overall pre- and post-test scores showed no significant differences in the mean scores, although the mean score was higher for the post-test than the pre-test. Pre- and post-test scores for the individual questions showed a significant difference for four responses. These responses are all connected with the serenity factor of inner haven (Kreitzer et al., 2009)