CIMTR Public Research Webinar: Safe & Sound - Music Therapy for Refugee Children and Adolescents: a process evaluation’

Abstract:

There is a growing number (19-54%) of refugee children and adolescents with psychological problems in schools. These children often experienced high stress levels and uncertainty during their journey and first months in their new country. At school, teachers report increased levels of concentration problems, anxiety and anger, which may result in problems with social interactions and difficulties in participating in educational programs. A focus on resilience and protective factors can prevent the development of psychosocial issues. Music therapy has the potential to focus on development of resilience and supporting protective factors in refugee children and adolescents.

A music therapy intervention ‘Safe & Sound’ was developed for this group and benefits can be seen in different school settings. However, this was not systematically investigated in a scientific context. Therefore, we performed a process evaluation to investigate the success factors and barriers, treatment integrity and first perceived effects of Safe & Sound. A process evaluation is seen as an essential part of designing and testing interventions. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected in three schools in the Netherlands. 108 children and adolescents, three music therapists and ten teachers were included. In this presentation, we will introduce the music therapy intervention Safe & Sound and present first results on success factors and barriers, treatment integrity, and perceived process and effects of Safe & Sound.

Biographies:

Sander van Goor is a music therapist and a solution focused therapist from the Netherlands, who is experienced in trauma treatment with the focus on resilience. At the moment he mainly works with refugee children and youth and the people who surrounds them. He gives training and workshops about trauma and resilience. In 2016 he started to develop the intervention Safe and Sound. Sander has working experience in Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brasil and he works as a trainer for the NGO Sounds of Change in the Middle East. He is also a musician and worked as a supervisor and teacher for music therapy students in the Netherlands at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences.

Susan van Hooren is professor at Zuyd University of applied sciences and Open University of the Netherlands. She is head of the research centre of arts therapies in the Netherlands, known as KenVaK. During her career, she combined practice based research, with teaching activities and clinical work. She has -as (neuro)psychologist and sexologist- clinical experience with a broad range of psychopathological disorders (e.g. dementia, depression, ADHD, sexual disorders). Her research, supervising (PhD- & masterstudents), and teaching focus on evaluating arts therapeutic interventions and its working factors, aging, sexology, and clinical psychology, resulting in many publications in high ranking peer reviewed journals and contributions on national and international conferences.