Ann MacLeod
‘Go with the "wave of music" to dive deep’: Exploring perceptions of psychedelic-assisted therapy and the role of music within this practice
MacLeod, Ann; Clarke, Victoria; Warner, Catherine
Authors
Dr Victoria Clarke Victoria.Clarke@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Qualitative & Critical Psychology
Cathy Warner Catherine.Warner@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer
Abstract
There is increasing interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy (PT) as a mental health intervention; however, there is a long history of stigma associated with psychedelics, which may be a barrier to implementation. For this reason, it is important to examine the acceptability and perceptions of PT among mental health professionals, service users and the wider public. In almost all PT research carried out to date, music listening is used as an essential adjunct to support the therapeutic aims, such as having a ‘peak experience’ and emotional release, however existing research has not addressed the perceptions of the role of music in PT. This qualitative study used a novel hybrid vignette-story completion method to explore understandings of PT and the role of music in the practice. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to develop three themes: 1) ‘Psychedelic therapy can reach the parts that other therapies cannot reach’; 2) ‘Music as a guide’; and 3) ‘It’s no magic bullet’: the potential risks of PT. The analysis highlights the important role that music is perceived to play in the practice of PT, positive perceptions of PT as a mental health intervention, alongside concerns about potential risks.
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Mar 4, 2025 |
Online Publication Date | Mar 11, 2025 |
Publication Date | Apr 30, 2025 |
Deposit Date | Mar 12, 2025 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 12, 2025 |
Print ISSN | 0197-4556 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 93 |
Article Number | 102284 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2025.102284 |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13936025 |
Files
‘Go with the "wave of music" to dive deep’: Exploring perceptions of psychedelic-assisted therapy and the role of music within this practice
(593 Kb)
PDF
Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
You might also like
Thematic analysis
(2024)
Book Chapter
Approaches to thematic analysis: Becoming a knowing researcher
(2023)
Book Chapter
The learning experiences of UK autistic university students during the Covid-19 pandemic
(2023)
Journal Article
Thematic analysis
(2023)
Book Chapter
Downloadable Citations
About UWE Bristol Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@uwe.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search