Authenticity across disciplines and within families

Authenticity is a widely (and quite differently) used term within many different disciplines but has not to date been thoroughly researched as a phenomenon within music therapy. Resources and interaction skills in families are crucial for the child's healthy development and future. We need more information about how we across disciplines can use music to prevent challenges and support
strengths in everyday family life. This paper wishes to present a PhD project focusing on the concept of self-authenticity and its meaning and applicability within music therapy, community music, and music performance within a family-oriented context. As the project is part of the MUsic, FAmilieS & InterAction research group (MUFASA), the paper will also introduce MUFASA as part of the
presentation. The goal of the PhD project is to discover and unfold meaning in music professionals’ subjective experiences of authenticity when conducting the MUFASA-activities. This, in order to investigate – through phenomenological and hermeneutical research methods – how the concept of authenticity can be defined and understood including looking at possible benefits and challenges
when working with families and searching for patterns and similarities within and across the three different disciplines. The MUFASA research project is mainly a randomized controlled trial design aiming to investigate the effect of music activities on family interaction, parental stress and child wellbeing for families with children at the age of 7-10. The interventions include three disciplines;
music therapy, community music, and music concerts and focus for all three interventions is prevention and a resource-focused approach.