New research shows listening to emotive music while being guided by a psychologist could encourage people to seek mental health support.
James Cook University music psychology scholar and senior lecturer Dr Amanda Krause co-authored the new journal article, with the study centring on whether a focused listening experience might buffer the impact of self-stigma to encourage help-seeking.
Estimates suggest that less than half of Australians who are experiencing mental illness will seek support, with the self-stigma of help-seeking a widely cited barrier.
The case study focused on the Indigo Project's Listen Up event, where participants engaged with a curated music playlist (which draws on soundtrack, ambient and experimental music) along with oral guidance provided by a psychologist.
"A lot of people have a self-stigma that they think 'Oh, I'm not feeling good but I can't get help because then that would mean something's wrong with me'. But the Why Try model suggests that if we can intervene and give people self-efficacy, self-esteem around that, then they will actually seek out support," Dr Krause said.
"The focused listening event was designed to support reflection, processing your emotions and mindfulness, and our study showed that participation actually did that and promoted help-seeking."
Dr Krause said 270 people completed a survey after being involved in the event, and there were also several one-on-one interviews, which showed that it promoted participants to think about how they could practice self-care.
"When we did some statistical analysis, the people who did say they were experiencing higher levels of mindfulness from this event, that buffered that relationship of self-stigma to help-seeking," she said.
"In other words, the people who felt like they were experiencing mindfulness through this listening event were more likely to seek help on mental health issues.
"It's not just a happy listening experience for these people, it is a roller coaster of emotions where people have an intense emotional experience which sometimes involves crying.
"But it's also a cathartic release so even if it's positive and negative emotions that are felt, the whole experience gave them a safe space to actually start processing those emotions and have it serve as that first step to additional support."
Dr Krause said a lot of people listen to music in everyday life while working, running or doing other things but these focused, psychologist-guided sessions could be crucial in breaking down that initial barrier.
"If we can lower that self-stigma, then that should help people seek the support they need, which would be an amazing result," she said.
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