A Music Therapist’s Exploration of Vocal Psychotherapy and Somatic 
                    Experiencing: A Heuristic Self-Inquiry 
                             
                             
                        Carolyn Neapole 
           
           
                          A Thesis 
                           in  
                        The Department  
                           of  
                       Creative Arts Therapies  
           
                 Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements  
           for the Degree of Master of Arts (Creative Arts Therapies, Music Therapy Research 
                         Thesis Option) 
                        Concordia University  
                      Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
                             
           
                         April 2022 
                             
                      © Carolyn Neapole, 2022 
                                                                       
                                                                                                               
                                                      CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY 
                                                       School of Graduate Studies 
                                                                       
                                                                       
                        This is to certify that the thesis prepared 
                        By:            Carolyn Neapole 
                        Entitled:      A Music Therapist’s Exploration of Vocal Psychotherapy and Somatic 
                                                 Experiencing: A Heuristic Self-Inquiry 
                         
                        and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of 
                         
                         Master of Arts (Creative Arts Therapies, Music Therapy Research Thesis Option) 
                         
                        complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with 
                        respect to originality and quality. 
                         
                        Signed by the final Examining Committee: 
                         
                                                       ______________________________________ Chair 
                                                       Cynthia Bruce 
                         
                                                       ______________________________________ Examiner 
                                                       Guylaine Vaillancourt 
                         
                                                       ______________________________________ Examiner 
                                                       Cynthia Bruce 
                         
                                                       ______________________________________ Supervisor 
                                                      Laurel Young 
                         
                         
                         
                        Approved by           ________________________________________________ 
                                                        Guylaine Vaillancourt, Chair, Department of Creative Arts Therapies 
                                                 
                                                                                           
                                    
                        __2022__YEAR                                 ___________________________________ 
                                                                                     Annie Gérin, Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts 
                             
                         ABSTRACT 
                             
          A Music Therapist’s Exploration of Vocal Psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing: A 
                       Heuristic Self-Inquiry 
                             
                        Carolyn Neapole 
           
          Music therapists often pursue specialized trainings to obtain additional skills that will 
          enhance their work with specific client populations or help them to address particular 
          health concerns. When trainings may contain techniques or theoretical orientations that 
          seem contradictory rather than complementary, it can lead to confusion for therapists in 
          their day-to-day practice, as was the case for the current author. The purpose of this 
          heuristic self-inquiry was for the researcher to engage in self-reflective and experiential 
          practices and to explore her feelings and perspectives on perceived disparities between 
          vocal psychotherapy and somatic experiencing techniques used within her music therapy 
          practice. Data collection and analysis procedures integrated components of vocal 
          psychotherapy and somatic experiencing and were conceptualized within Moustakas’ six 
          phases of heuristic inquiry. Content analysis of the material that emerged resulted in three 
          overarching categories: personal insights, clinical insights, and insights about my 
          professional identity––each one containing sub-categories supported by personal 
          explications, journal quotes, and audio excerpts from self-reflective experiential 
          improvisations. A creative synthesis of results and vision for moving forward was 
          realized within the form of a sound collage, built from layered audio samples taken from 
          the improvisations.  Multiple implications are discussed, and the researcher offers 
          concluding remarks about the multi-faceted value of reflective practice. 
           
           
           
           
           
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                      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
                             
             My profound thanks go to the people in my life who loved and supported me as I 
          navigated the journey of completing my graduate studies and this thesis. Thank you to 
          my family for loving me and providing me with a life where education was always 
          possible and valued. Thank you to Susan Summers and Stephen Williams for being my 
          music therapy thesis sounding boards. You gave me good advice and drank a lot of tea 
          with me as I thought out loud about this research adventure. To Carol Wiedemann and 
          Kelsi McInnes (the Western Canada Dream Team), thank you for all the friendship, 
          encouragement, and laughs throughout the last 2 years – I’m so lucky to have had you as 
          classmates and friends.  
             To Sabine Silberberg, my dear friend and colleague, thank you for supporting me 
          to find my way. It wasn’t the first time and might not be the last.   
           And finally, thank you to my thesis advisor, Dr. Laurel Young, who guided me as I 
          made my way from clinician to researcher. Thank you for sharing your considerable 
          knowledge and experience with me, for encouraging me to aim high, and for helping me 
          to produce a study that I am proud of. Our profession is lucky to have you. 
           
           
           
                       
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