Volume 15 No 1 2001

Editorial - Music Therapist's Dilemma  p2 -p4

Gary Ansdell

Editorial Notes  p4

10th World Congress of Music Therapy  p6 - p8

Historical Perspectives Interview Series  p8 - p14

Helen Odell-Miller - Interviewed by Rachel Darnley-Smith

A Child in Time and Health:  Guiding Images in Music Therapy    p14 - p21

Mercédès Pavlicevic

Abstract

Music therapists often speak of working with the 'whole' child, and of music therapy addressing the multiple needs of children with disabilities, disorders or 'in crisis'.  Since many music therapists work in settings that think of childhood within the developmental framework, and of pathology as distinct from health, how do practitioners fit their experience of the 'whole' with the developmental, educational or medical images of the child?  In reporting our work to other professionals, how is the 'wholeness' portrayed - and conveyed?  This paper explores 'childhood' and 'pathology' from various perspectives without aligning itself with any one at the expense of another.  Rather, it offers various convergences to help conceptualise and describe the whole child in music therapy.  Although the notion of the 'whole' applies not only to children but to all persons in music therapy, this paper focuses on childhood, which is especially susceptible to being viewed as a 'developmental' stage in life.

Aesthetic Experience and the Healing Process:  The story of a therapist's rediscovery of music    p22 - p26

Martin Lawes

Abstract

Music therapists are now required to have personal therapy as part of their training.  In many cases, as in mine, this is likely to be psychotherapy rather than music therapy.  This paper gives an account of my own therapeutic journey which began quite a few years before I trained, but focuses on the place of music in that journey.  I explore how composition and improvisation helped me to contain and process my emotional experience in a unique way.

'Mummy can play too...' Short-term music therapy with mothers and young children     p27 - p36

Amelia Oldfield and Lucy Bunce

Abstract

This article describes two short-term music therapy groups with mothers and young children at the Croft Unit for Child and Family Psychiatry.  As there is very little documented music therapy work with this client group, the authors examine literature that describes other therapeutic interventions and that looks at the links between mothers and young children's behaviour.  This literature review suggests that early intervention with parents who are experiencing difficulties with their children is both important and useful.  This article goes on to hypothesise why music therapy is a particularly effective way of working with mothers and young children and to examine the small amount of other documented work by music therapists with this client group.  The two treatment groups with parents and young children at the Croft are then described and analysed in some detail.  The authors reflect on the particular role music therapy plays in the treatment packages offered at the Croft.

Book and Video reviews  p37 - p40

Music Therapy:  Intimate Notes by Mercédès Pavlicevic/Reviewed by Rowan Williams

Music Therapy for Children on the Autistic Spectrum, written and produced by Amelia Oldfield /Reviewed by J Z Robarts

Volume 15 No 2 2001

Editorial - The Listeners - Julie Sutton  p42 - p43

Historical Perspectives Interview Series  p44 - p50

Auriel Warwick - Interviewed by Mary Simmons

Clinical improvisation within neurological disease p51 - p60

Exploring the effect of structured clinical improvisation on the expressive and interactive responses of a patient with Huntington's Disease

Graeme Davis and Wendy Magee

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how clinical improvisation techniques influence the structure of a Huntington's Disease (HD) patient's expressive responses.  the paper reviews the literature pertaining to music therapy in the treatment of HD, highlighting that there has been no anecdotal or empirical link made between the specific use of clinical improvisation and the degree of structure in the patient's expressive responses.  A case study is then used to illustrate the influence that musical structures have in the organisation of a HD patient's musically expressive and interactive responses.  Given the lack of intervention available to meet the expressive and interactive needs of a non-verbal HD patient, this paper argues that music therapy has an important role to play.

Visible through an audible Voice  - A music therapy study with a female adolescent who had ceased talking  p61 - p68

Gro Trondalen

Abstract

This article describes a music therapy process with a 14 year old girl I will call Sara, who had ceased talking for some years. Sara was an in-patient at a Centre for Child and Adolescent psychiatry.  During nine months of individual music therapy, Sara presented herself through improvised music and eventually an audible voice.  in this article I argue that what I term relating experiences through music has contributed to strengthening Sara's 'self-in-relation' and given her space for increased autonomy.  This allowed Sara to perceive herself in new ways, which led to a more permanent sense of her identity.

An Introduction of Vibroacoustic Therapy and an Examination of its Place in Music Therapy Practice p69 - p77

Jeff Hooper

Abstract

Vibroacoustic (VA) therapy transmits to the body pre-recorded music, or pre-recorded music combined with sinusoidal low frequency sound, through loud speakers built into a chair, table or bed unit.  The development of VA therapy has not been confined to one country or one product and, after examining the theoretical background to VA therapy, the author describes four VA systems.

In Europe, music therapy is traditionally seen as a process which develops from an 'active' musical relationship.  In contrast VA therapy is a 'receptive' intervention.  The author discusses completed and on-going research with VA equipment, and concludes by asking - is VA therapy music therapy?  He suggests that the principles of VA therapy can inform active music-making.

Book Reviews  p78 - p82

Music Therapy in Dementia Care by David Aldridge/Reviewed by Rachel Darnley Smith

Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies, A Practical Guide by Gary Ansdell and Mercédès Pavlicevic/Reviewed by Brynjulf Stige