“As a music therapist clinician-researcher, my primarily interest is in deepening knowledge of music therapy processes, with the ultimate goal of improving music therapy services for patients. My research interests include synchrony, music therapy, therapeutic relationships, empathy and chronobiology,” said Sun Sun Yap.
The research focused on nonverbal synchrony – defined as the quantified coordination of body movement between patient and therapist. This was observed in music therapy patient and the therapist dyads during verbal interactions before and after a music intervention. In addition, correlations between nonverbal synchrony and patients’ self-reported readiness for therapy were also analysed.
Findings revealed a significant increase in nonverbal synchrony after the musical intervention as well as patient-leading during this synchrony. The increase in nonverbal synchrony seemed to suggest that the music intervention served as a platform for what is known as entrainment. It appears to have given dyads the space they required to communicate with one another, to respond and adapt to each other’s rhythm, which was then reflected in the increased level of motion energy, measured during verbal interactions after music intervention. It is possible that this entrainment during the musical intervention enhanced the patients’ self-regulation, and also empowered them, which resulted in the subsequent increase in patient-leading during the nonverbal synchrony.
Shaping the academic research landscape
Sun Sun Yap’s latest publication is based on her doctoral thesis, entitled ‘Synchrony in music therapy and its relationship with self-reported readiness for therapy. A mixed methods case series study’, written as part of the Josef Ressel Centre’s Right Period project.
The article was published in a special issue of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, titled Interpersonal Synchrony and Network Dynamics in Social Interaction. This special edition of the journal brought together researchers and research teams from a range of disciplines, who investigated the mechanisms and functions of interpersonal interaction, with a view to extending expertise in this highly interesting and complex phenomena, and highlighting the effects they can subsequently have on real-life social interaction.
“I feel that I have a duty to publish the results of my research, not just because it was publicly funded and required the involvement of many other people – including patients – but also because I would like to share my findings with other therapists and researchers, so that we can generate even more new insights that would benefit our patients. It’s an honour to have my work published alongside outstanding studies carried out by highly respected researchers. As an IMC Krems researcher, I’m also proud to play a part in shaping the academic research landscape,” Sun Sun Yap explains.
About Sun Sun Yap
Sun Sun Yap MSc is a clinician-researcher, and works as a music therapist with neurological patients at Tulln University Hospital. She is also a researcher and lecturer at IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems. Presently doing her doctorate at the Cambridge Institute of Music Therapy Research at Anglia Ruskin University, Sun Sun Yap’s current research focuses on nonverbal synchrony during music therapy and its relationship with neurological patients’ readiness for therapy. In addition, her research concentrates on music therapy, empathy, personalised therapy and neurological rehabilitation. She also has a professional background in the performing arts, and worked on autobiographical theatre, site-specific projects as well as traditional songs from mountain regions around the world as part of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards. She has qualifications in maritime engineering and banking and finance, and is also a passionate long-distance runner.
