Book Description

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of music therapy relaxation techniques on stress and anxiety levels of music and music therapy students and music and music therapy professionals. Subjects (N=60) were divided into an experimental group and a control group. Half of the subjects participated in a music-assisted relaxation (MAR) session, and the other half of the subjects participated in a relaxation session with no music. Each session consisted of approximately 30 minutes of a relaxation session, with 15 minutes before the session and after the session to fill out the pre- and post-test questionnaires. The relaxation script used, entitled Total Relaxation, comes from 30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery, & Inner Healing edited by Julie T. Lusk. The pre- and post-test questionnaires used were the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Spielberger, 1983) and the Derogatis Stress Profile (DSP) (Derogatis, 1997). An additional post-test questionnaire determining the level of enjoyment and relaxation using a Likert Scale of 10 degrees was also used. All subjects gave written consent prior to participation in this study. Data results were graphically and statistically analyzed after all subjects participated in one 30-minute relaxation session. Results indicated an overall significant decrease of stress levels in all groups but no significant difference between music and non-music groups.