Maija Salokivi (PhD, Music Therapist MA, Bachelor of Social Work) has worked for many years as a music therapist for psychiatric and neurological child and adolescent clients, specialising in emotional and interpersonal skills. Her doctoral research was on developing an emotional skills instrument for music therapy with early adolescents, and this development work is still ongoing.

Research interests include emotional and interpersonal skills, the psychosocial well-being of children and adolescents, instrument development, psychometrics, music therapy assessment, and music therapy for children and adolescents.

The Sound of Emotion – Music Therapy’s Unmeasured Potential

The study makes the invisible visible: a measure is developed for assessing the emotional skills of children and young people in music therapy. Music is a path to emotions, enabling the inner world to become visible through the act of playing, singing, composing, songwriting, or improvisation. These internal experiences, which have become visible to the client, can be addressed in therapy. Music therapy has been found to be a useful aid in addressing mental health challenges in children and young people, but until now, it has not been possible to accurately measure this progress.

The research continues the development of a measure, which began as a doctoral dissertation, from validated statements to a fully tested and finalised measure. The measure is used to study the development of emotional skills in children and young people with mental health problems in music therapy. The trustworthiness (validity) and reliability (repeatability) of the instrument will be studied, and a final version of the measure, accompanied by a manual, will be developed. Work on a digital version of the measurement will then commence.

The measure will provide a new opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of therapy and offer a concrete tool for both therapists and researchers. Therapists will be able to verify the results of their work in accordance with evidence-based healthcare practices, allowing them to target their work more precisely to the individual needs of each client. For researchers, the tool will enable more reliable research into the effectiveness of music therapy with different client groups. The tool will also benefit those who fund therapy, as it will enable them to target rehabilitation funds at interventions that have been proven to work.