Decision making in music therapy: The use of a decision tree

The prescription of decision making within music therapy interventions is a key topic for both clinicians and researchers. Decision trees are graphical representations of problems and are commonly used in the healthcare setting to determine solutions to complex choices. They are efficient and easily interpreted, and assist with finding connections and ultimately potential outcomes to the decisions faced. They are straight-forward to replicate and therefore strengthen the validity of decision making in the therapy or research setting. This article will describe the development and application of a decision tree which was designed for a study of group music therapy for women with breast cancer. Additionally the decision tree provided a framework for determining applicable clinical interventions to meet the needs of participants. Case vignettes from clinical work with women with breast cancer will be used to illustrate the use of this tool.