The Art of Resilience: A Musical Approach to Creativity and Resilience in the Music Therapy Relationship with Children and Adolescents in a Semi-Ambulatory Context.

This doctoral research focuses specifically on children and adolescents in semi-ambulatory pediatric care, in which the music therapy literature has a gap despite specific contextual challenges. These children face the unpredictability of their illness and treatment on the one hand, and find themselves in a fragmented social environment on the other. Due to this care setting, they often have less access to psychological support compared to fully hospitalized patients, and this fragmented social context may affect their social functioning. Music therapy demonstrates the potential to support medical care needs in a playful and creative way. Thus this research will examine how a connecting and creative music therapeutic relationship can act as a holding environment, providing the child with optimal support throughout the medical care process. As the disease threatens more than just their physical health, it is essential to enhance resilience within this safe, caring, and supportive environment of the music therapeutic relationship, which is crucial for their ongoing development, (mental) well-being, and quality of life (QOL). The qualitative research utilizes a participatory data collection method through both individual and group modules. This iterative process leads to the development and optimization of music therapeutic interventions specifically aimed at empowering resilience factors in children and adolescents with chronic medical illness in a semi-ambulatory care context.