Improvisational music therapy for emotion regulation in young adults: a scoping review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Young adulthood is a developmental stage characterized by major academic, occupational, and interpersonal transitions, and is associated with increased vulnerability to anxiety, depressive symptoms, and difficulties in emotion regulation. As awareness of mental health and psychological well-being continues to grow, music therapy has gained increasing recognition as an accessible and engaging therapeutic approach that uses music and musical experiences to support emotional and psychological health. Within the field of music therapy, Improvisational Music Therapy (IMT) emphasizes spontaneous musical interaction and has increasingly been applied to facilitate emotional expression and emotion regulation among young adults.This scoping review aimed to map how Improvisational Music Therapy has been used to support emotion regulation in young adults (RQ1) and to identify the therapeutic processes, techniques, and outcomes reported in the existing literature (RQ2). A comprehensive search across major electronic databases and key music therapy journals resulted in the inclusion of 19 empirical studies. The included studies described IMT in both individual and group formats, including Integrative Improvisational Music Therapy (IIMT), Emotion-Regulating Improvisational Music Therapy (EIMT), and Group Impromptu Music Therapy (GIMT). Commonly reported therapeutic processes included musical synchronisation, therapist attunement, emotional expression, and resonance frequency breathing. Reported outcomes included both direct measures of emotion regulation (e.g., Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale [DERS]) and related affective outcomes, such as depressive symptoms, anxiety, and emotional processing. Overall, this review maps the current evidence on the application of IMT for emotion regulation in young adults and identifies conceptual and methodological gaps to inform future research and clinical practice.