ery experiences and the therapist’s additional comments. This is the basis for the following step.
Step 4: Semantic
In the semantic section, the therapist considers the interaction of music and imagery, the client’s
bodily response, the significance of the imagery and the occurrence of transpersonal experience.
Step 5: Ontology
The ontology section interprets the meaning of the session in relation to the client’s lifeworld.
Step 6: Metacritique
The final metacritique discusses the types of transpersonal experience occurring during the session,
and their relationship with the music.
Kasayka’s analyses of the session material are elaborate and elucidating. She provides detailed
descriptions of each piece of music, measure by measure, coordinated with the client’s experience
of imagery, and the therapist’s guiding comments. Subsequently, she interprets the outcome of the
session within the framework of the client’s lifeworld.
She concludes that the musical sequences of the Peak Experience program “both elicit and
support transpersonal experience. They likewise serve to deepen and extend such experiences. The
sequences have the potential to assist the client in redefining, refining and transforming the images
which form transpersonal experience” (p. 117).
Kasayka’s division of the study into two separate investigations ensures clarity and richness in ob-
servations, descriptions and interpretations. She has elaborated on the spiritual orientation to the
Bonny Method in a book chapter (2002:57).
2.3.5. Grocke (1999): A Phenomenological Study of Pivotal Moments in Guided Ima-
gery and Music Therapy
Denise Grocke’s doctoral dissertation presents a study of pivotal moments in Guided Imagery and
Music therapy. Grocke explains a pivotal moment as “an intense and memorable GIM experience
which stands out as distinctive or unique” (p. 220). Her study is in three parts:
(1) Interviews with seven clients about their experience of pivotal moments.
(2) Interviews with the therapists who had facilitated the sessions identified as pivotal.
(3) Descriptions of the music programs underpinning the pivotal experience.
Interview analyses
For analyzing the interviews in parts one and two, Grocke adopts approaches of phenomenolog-
ical psychology (Polkinghorne 1989:53-55) in a procedure that progressively distills an interview
transcript. The procedure first identifies key statements and meaning units. Next, it distills essence.
Finally, it leads to a global description of the experience of pivotal moments (pp. 61-62). Grocke’s
interview analyses (pp. 69-136) are elaborate and informative. However, an account of phenomeno-
logical psychology is beyond the scope of the present text. Grocke has presented her interview pro-
tocol in a summary of the study (Forinash and Grocke 2005:329-330).
Music underpinning pivotal moments
For music analysis, Grocke selects four GIM sessions, which display clearly identifiable pivotal mo-
ments. Three pivotal experiences are related to a full GIM program:^29
29 For detailed descriptions of the Bonny music programs, see Grocke (2002:99-133)