Imagery, Metaphor, and Perceived Outcome in Six Cancer Survivors’ Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM) Therapy

While health care systems in the United States and other countries are giving increased attention to helping cancer patients recover from treatment, most Danish cancer survivors have very few options, especially if they need psychological or psychosocial support The large-scale, private organization Kræftens Bekæmpelse (The Danish Cancer Society) offers support groups and verbal counseling, and all cancer survivors are, in principle, entitled to a one week stay at a rehabilitation center (Dallund Castle, Funen). Besides this resource, there are small-scale private organizations supporting cancer survivors in different ways. In Denmark, music therapy has not yet been integrated into psychological or psychosocial support services, and the clinical protocol in this study was a first attempt to investigate how cancer survivors might benefit from music therapy, in this case The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM) (Bonny, 1978). The BMGIM is “a music centered, transformational therapy, which uses specifically programmed classical music to stimulate and support a dynamic unfolding of experiences in service of physical, psychological, and spiritual wholeness (Association for Music and Imagery, 1990, p. 4). Abroad, especially in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and Germany, some studies and programs have indicated that music therapy in general, and BMGIM in particular, has promising potentials as a supportive psychological and psychosocial intervention with cancer survivors. The inspiration and motivation for this study was grounded in the results and reports from such studies and programs, and also with hopes of opening the doors of somatic hospitals and rehabilitation programs in Denmark for music therapy.