Psychological flexibility for the well-being of musicians: New possibilities for psychological counseling

Abstract

Musicians face demands such as long-term practice, skill assessment, mental preparation difficulties, anxiety, depression, and study addiction. These challenges extend to their professional life with occupational demands influencing well-being, which underlines the necessity for psychological interventions and preventive programs. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/training, based on the psychological flexibility model (acceptance, defusion, self as context, committed action, values, and contacting the present moment), has recently been implemented in work with musicians and appears to be effective in lowering performance anxiety and enhancing performance. This study aimed to conceptualize the psychological functioning of musicians using the psychological flexibility model and to qualitatively analyze possible differences between musicians with high and low experiential avoidance measured with the Measurement of Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (MEAQ-30PL). The survey was administered twice, with slight modifications the second time, to two samples of 57 and 63 musicians, respectively. In both experiential avoidance groups, we observed flexibility processes such as values and engaged actions, and inflexibility processes such as fusion with thoughts and avoidance of unease. We also found differences between the ways in which committed actions, fusion, and inflexible attention were expressed by participants with high and low experiential avoidance. We discuss these results in light of preventive programs in music education, with an indication of improvements that could be made on the basis of the psychological flexibility model.