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Vol 23 No 1 2009

Editorial - Unexpected learning  p2

Simon Procter

 

Music therapy with children and adolescents in mainstream schools: a systematic review  p3 - p18

 

Catherine Carr and Tony Wigram

Abstract

This article identifies existing research and clinical activity utilising music therapy with mainstream children, as well as a potential  need for music therapy with this client group.  A systematic review was undertaken of music therapy literature relating to work with children in mainstream schools: 60 papers were identified, 12 of which were outcome studies.  Statistical and government data provide a background to the current status and needs of children in the UK.

The emotional and social wellbeing needs of children have been identified as a priority to be addressed by the UK government.  However, further research, service-planning and reorganisation is required.  There is evidence that music therapy is used with children in mainstream schools both in the UK and abroad.  Current literature suggests that music therapy is an effective intervention.  The review demonstrates that further research is required if music therapy is to be considered an effective intervention to address the needs of mainstream schoolchildren. 

 

Beyond the therapy room: women's experiences of 'going public' with song creations p19 - p26

Toni Day, Felicity Baker and Yvonne Darlington  

Abstract

This paper describes the experiences of five women relating to the public performance of their work created in music therapy.  Performance within this project included the recording of their work and a subsequent live performance at the launch of a CD created within the project.  Programme participants were interviewed and asked to describe their experiences of the song writing process, including painful memories.  The women reported many different feelings during the recording and performance process.  Overall, all participants found this process to be worthwhile.  Case vignettes present the experiences of the women involved in the programme.  The paper concludes with considerations for music therapy practitioners.

 

Adding humour to the music therapist's tool-kit: reflections on its role in child psychiatry  p27 - p34

Nicky Haire and Amelia Oldfield

Abstract

In this article we reflect on the use of humour in music therapy on a children's psychiatric unit.  We review the current literature and, by providing detailed case vignettes, identify four characteristics of humour in music therapy in this context as well as listing the main functions of humour here.  We find that humour is a highly subjective experience and that due consideration of the intention behind any use of humour by the music therapist is crucial.  Awareness and attunement to one's client are considered vital when dealing with such a powerful multi-faceted phenomenon.

 

What has Schopenhauer's theory of music to contribute to an understanding if improvisional music therapy? p35 - p43

Rachel Darnley-Smith

Abstract

Schopenhauer has been described as the 'musician's philosopher' for the detailed attention he pays to music, assigning the medium a 'pride of place in the arts' (Budd 1985: 76).  Whilst his theory has received ample criticism (Han 1997) on the grounds of conceptual inconsistencies, what is of significance for music therapy is the way in which Schopenhauer cites music as the inner essence of man.  Unlike the other arts which form representations of the world, music is not a representation; music therefore has the capacity to say the unsayable, revealing aspects of the world that verbal language is unable to reveal (Bowie 2003).  It is of further significance that Schopenhauer has frequently been cited as a precursor to Freud, in particular upon comparing Schopenhauer's theory of man's inner essence or Will with Freud's theory of the unconscious.

This article explores the relevance of these theoretical links to the work of some pioneering theories of the modern western improvisational music therapy practices developed in the 1970s by Paul Nordoff, Clive Robbins and Mary Priestley.  Schopenhauer's theory of music is shown not only to have had broad influence as a philosophy of music (Goehr 1966), but also to have contributed inadvertently to conceptual thinking in music therapy.

 

Response

A response to Nigel Hartley's article "The arts in health and social care - is music therapy fit for purpose?"  p44 - 45

Donald Wetherick

 

Book Reviews

Music for children and young people with complex needs

Adam Ockelford

Reviewed by Reviewed by Donald Wetherick  p 46

 

The theory and practice of vocal psychotherapy: songs of the self

Diane Austin

Reviewed by Sanne Storm  p47

 

 

 

Journal Watch  p48

 

 

Vol 23 No 2 2009

Editorial - Together, apart  p2

Simon Procter

 

Songwriting via Skype.  An online music therapy intervention to enhance social skills in an adolescent diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome  p3 - p14

 

Felicity Baker and Robert Krout

Abstract

The provision of therapy to clients is gaining strong recognition as effective in medicine, psychiatry, and other allied health fields.  However, music therapists are yet to engage with this therapy context.  Working with an adolescent with Asperger's Syndrome, we trialled an online songwriting intervention via video conferencing software (in this case Skype Ltd)  and compared the adolescent's participation with participation in a face-to-face context.  A microanalysis of video footage combined with interview reflections form the treating therapist and adolescent were analysed to build a picture of engagement and skills in social interaction.  Our investigation showed that the adolescent was highly engaged in the Skype session, offered more eye contact, was more creative in his lyric creations and was more confident to offer disagreeing statements.  Further trials using online approaches are needed to ensure that music therapy approaches are aligning with practices occurring in other health disciplines and that therapy services can be accessed by those unable to attend music therapy clinics.

Keywords: Asperger's Syndrome, telehealth, music therapy, songwriting, social interaction 

 

Including the Excluded.  Music therapy with adolescents with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties   p15 - p24

Steve Cobbett  

Abstract

This paper describes the use of music therapy in supporting adolescents from a deprived, inner-city background with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) and draws on the author's work with adolescents in SEBD schools and pupil referral units (PRUs).  The complex needs of this client group are outlined in terms of social, cultural, developmental and organic factors.  The difficulties they face in accessing traditional National Health Service-based psychotherapy are described and ways of providing a more inclusive therapy service are suggested including the use of music therapy, providing therapy in schools rather that in mental health clinics and thinking about the nature of the therapeutic relationship being offered.  The need to ensure that music therapy practice adapts to the cultural needs of such clients is also explored with a focus on the use of music technology and rap.  A case study is used to illustrate the approach used by the author.

Keywords: adolescents, music therapy, grime, exclusion, social, emotional behavioural

 

Quietening the Voices.  Making a space for music in individual music therapy with an elderly refugee  p25 - p31

Nicola Dunbar

Abstract

The article presents a case study of individual music therapy with an elderly Iraqi refugee in a day hospital for the elderly mentally ill.  It highlights themes that arise from working with a traumatised client of a different culture and different generation, and the range of ways which music was used.  It draws on psychological theories to shed light on the developing relationship between therapist and client.

Keywords: case study; music therapy; elderly; psychiatry; refugee; culture

 

In search of a theory.  Reflections on music therapy and psychodynamics    p32 - p40

Donald Wetherick

Abstract

This paper is a version of a talk originally given and the 3rd International Symposium of Nordoff Robbins Music Therapists in 2006.  It is a personal account of my own development as a music therapist over more than 15 years working with children and adults.  It describes how I became interested in psychodynamic music therapy and how my understanding of the relationship between music therapy and psychodynamic theory has changed over that time.

The paper also relates my own ideas to those of other music therapy writers over the pas 15 years, in particular Ansdell (1995), Pavlicevic (1996) and Streeter (1999).  It is not intended as a full critique of these writers, and moreover some other relevant texts (e.g. Aigen 2005 and Malloch and Trevarthen 2009) are not referred to in depth.  It does, however, present a preliminary model of the possible relationships between improvisational music therapy in general (as practised in the UK) and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and in particular the relationship between musical interaction in music therapy and psychodynamic theory.

Keywords: psychodynamic, music therapy, psychotherapy, theory

 

Response   p41 

Nigel Hartley

 

Erratum   p42

 

Text Watch  p43