Using Mixed Methods In Music Therapy Health Care Research: Reflections On the Relationship Between the Research Question, Design and Methods in the Research Project Receptive Music Therapy With Female Cancer Patients in Rehabilitation

“Mixed  methods” (or “multiple methods” or “multiple strategy”) research design is a fairly new concept in music therapy research. It is inspired by recent methodological developments in the social sciences, covering the interaction of quantitative and qualitative methods in one and the same research study. Mixed methods are not the same as the diversity or pluralism of methods advocated by many scholars who are critical towards the principles of evidence-based practice. This article presents an example of mixed methods in music therapy research: a psycho-social study of music therapy with female cancer survivors. Problems related to ontology, epistemology, design and methodology are illustrated and discussed, and the perspective is broadened into a discussion of the core concepts of triangulation as related to validity.