Multimodal arts psychotherapy with adolescents suffering from conduct disorders

• Original method of treatment: stories written under musical induction combined with active music therapy.
• Original tools of research: rating scale for the stories and observational frame for musical improvisation.
• Clinical as well as neuro-biological interpretation of the results.
• Theoretical modelisation opening tracks for future research.

We explore the mode of action of multimodal arts psychotherapy through a longitudinal study with 56 adolescents suffering from conduct disorders and treated by means of arts psychotherapies, based on literary and musical production.Original rating scales for the literary production as well as observational frames for active music therapy, allow us going from qualitative analysis to quantification and the use of inferential and multidimensional statistics.The pretest–posttest analysis of the data of the rating scales and the observational frames has shown significant changes in form and contents of the literary productions, as well as in style and communication mode during musical production. A correlational study on Delta values has given further insight into the psychological meaning of changes. A detailed investigation of the psychotherapeutic process, has allowed us to distinguish different recurring phases that we will illustrate through the presentation of typical literary productions.The discussion is about the differences between this combined treatment methodology and traditional active or receptive music therapy, about the contribution to the psychological diagnosis of stories written under musical mood induction as well as about more fundamental epistemological considerations regarding the construction of knowledge in arts psychotherapies.Our clinical and experimental data led to a modelling of the mode of functioning of multimodal arts psychotherapy in the treatment of conduct disorders in adolescence. Possibilities of tertiary prevention can be derived from this, as well as approaches for future research.