‘Soundscapes’: A Norwegian music programme in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) elucidated through individual GIM therapy

Abstract

This text focuses on the music-listening practice of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM). Soundscapes, a music-listening programme comprising only Norwegian music, is described and illustrated through the practice of GIM with a female executive in her mid-thirties. After offering a brief overview of the GIM method, including development, training, and the music in GIM, I then turn to the development of the music programme Soundscapes. Thereafter, I discuss the music programme’s potential to evoke images related to Norwegian landscape and culture. The main themes in the GIM process, ‘in motion’ and ‘belonging’, link to the client’s renewed line of development. I suggest that music and music-listening can promote images and transformative experiences where nature and cultural belonging are core elements, and that this is particularly evident when the Soundscapes programme is incorporated into GIM therapy.