Birch, Catherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1944-7334 (2024) Hidden Voices: Journeying towards trauma-informed practices in community music. Doctoral thesis, York St John University.

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Abstract

Trauma, as a global phenomenon, affects individuals and communities, leaving deep-rooted impacts. The effects of traumatic experience are not always visible and can be masked through social and cultural constructs, as well as an individual’s inability to speak the unspeakable. This thesis is based on the assertion that across the multiplicity of contexts in which community music takes place, prior traumatic experience is statistically likely to have affected many participants. Additionally, many community music practices operate in spaces where participants have been marginalised, stigmatised, and oppressed. This thesis therefore sets out the proposition that trauma-informed practice is a necessary consideration for facilitators to promote safe and responsive practices. The five values of trauma-informed care create the conceptual lens, with notions of safety, trust, collaboration, empowerment, and choice integrated throughout the research process, design, methodology, and data analysis.

Explorations for this thesis revealed a significant gap in critically reflective research around trauma-informed community music practice. Theoretical understandings of trauma-informed practice are varied, and the concept has unhelpfully become a buzzword in recent years. To respond to the guiding research question - what is trauma-informed practice and how might it be applied to facilitated music making? - the research design utilises Case Study Research with critical examination of contemporary music-making projects offering insight into both formalised structures of trauma-informed practice and projects where there has been little or no engagement.

Findings suggest an inconsistency of approaches, and that against the changing global landscape, it is no longer sufficient to ignore the potential for participants’ experience of prior trauma within community music practices. Trauma-informed practice is found to be the most effective when contextually driven and responsive to the specific needs of individuals and communities. Conclusions suggest that, with an integrated mantra of do no harm traumainformed practice is an ethical response that can support music facilitators to sharpen their focus and learn how to attend to the hidden voices of their participants. The five values of trauma-informed care form an interconnected entity that can support application of musical, relational, and pedagogical aspects of practice. This thesis, therefore, aims to open constructive and critical dialogue around trauma-informed practice, and its application within community music.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Status:	Unpublished
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music
School/Department:	School of the Arts
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/10506

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