An integration of physical and psychological health through the Hero’s Journey in Guided Imagery & Music: A cross-case analysis

Abstract

The Hero’s Journey narrative is prevalent in literature and the cinema and is also often utilized as a framework within which to explore and understand the circuitous nature of a client’s therapeutic process. The Hero’s Journey is conceptualized and discussed predominantly as a psychological process occurring within the mythological and imagery world of the client in psychotherapy, which is also applied to music psychotherapy approaches such as Guided Imagery and Music (Bonny Method). A cross case analysis of case studies conducted by researcher-clinicians from four different countries have revealed unexpected affordances of the Hero’s Journey for both physical and psychological domains via narrative and thematic analyses of clients’ GIM experiences. This cross-case analysis compares four GIM clients’ narratives from four different countries of origin within four applied clinical contexts: substance use disorder, a single musician, cancer care, and cardiac rehabilitation. A brief client history and summarized therapeutic case material from each case study (research or clinical) is presented in terms of methodology, emergence, and significance of the Hero’s Journey. The cross-case analysis explores and reviews these GIM case studies, where clients have undergone literal physical and psychological transformation and/or engaged with both physical and psychological aspects of their health conditions as integral components of their therapeutic and recovery processes. Further, links are made to manifestations of mental and physical health with the Hero’s Journey in the GIM process.