Music therapy with children who suffered violence qualitative research in a public hospital in the city of Buenos Aires

Abstract

Background. Child sexual abuse often remains concealed within family settings, hindering timely detection and therapeutic intervention. This study examines the contribution of psychoanalytic music therapy to identifying sound-expressive indicators of abuse and supporting trauma processing in childhood. Objectives. To determine the clinical and theoretical contributions of psychoanalytic music therapy to the detection and treatment of sexual violence against children and adolescents in a public hospital. Methods. A flexible qualitative study was conducted through participant observation over ten months (October 2023–July 2024) in individual and group music-therapy programmes at a general hospital in Buenos Aires. Six cases (aged 3–13 years) were purposively selected using sequential sampling. Field-diary notes were analysed via intentional vignettes and source triangulation. Results. All six participants exhibited meaningful therapeutic changes—recovery of speech, affective containment and shared play—during the intervention. Emergent sound-expressive categories (silence, silencing and noise) operated both as trauma indicators and focal points for clinical work. Musical improvisation fostered expressiveness and symbolic elaboration of abuse. Conclusions. Psychoanalytic music therapy is a strategic tool in public-health contexts: it enhances detection of child sexual abuse through trained listening and offers transitional sonic-play spaces that foster relational repair and subjective integration. Integration into multidisciplinary teams and larger comparative studies are recommended.