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Vol 20 No 1 2006 Editorial - Powers and pleasures p2 - p3 Errata p4 Whose power of music? A discussion on music and power-relations in music therapy p5 - p12 Randi Rolvsjord Abstract This article considers questions concerning the ontology of music in relation to music therapy. Contemporary musicology emphasises the cultural context of music and the role of individual experience and interpretation. The concepts of musical affordance and music appropriation offer a representation of music centred around the contextually situated individual without neglecting the aesthetic qualities inherent in musical structure and performance. This article considers music as a potential health resource that can be accessed and used in multiple ways, linking this with a contextual approach to therapy. Political implications are discussed in relation to the accessibility and power of music in music therapy.
Woman to woman A music therapist's experience of working with a physicall challenged and non-verbal woman p13 - p21 Carolyn Arnason Abstract The phrase "woman to woman" implies that relationships between women have particular qualities and levels of understanding that value the female perspective (Gilbert & Scher 1999). This case study describes my experience as a female music therapist and pianist working for four years with Sarah (pseudonym), a physically challenged, intelligent woman who is non-verbal. Salient aspects of the improvisational music therapy sessions were use of self as music therapist, building a collaborative relationship, working with subtle and non-verbal responses, interpretive flexibility and musical transparency. There were also dimensions of the therapeutic process that enlarged the musical relationship such as silence, "being heard and seen", comradeship, mutuality, being in connection, ambiguity, vulnerability and inner resources. The psychology of women literature focuses on gender and its influence on women's development in regards to race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic standing, age and able-bodiedness. The analysis of 103 one-hour sessions was informed by the feminist and psychology of women perspectives of growing into relationship, movement in therapy and the power to empower (Hadley & Edwards 2004; Jordan 1997; Lawrence & Maguire 1997; Miller & Stiver 1997; Rolvsjord 2004).
The Infant's Mother: Facilitating an Experience of Infant-Directed Singing with the Mother in Mind p22 - 30
Shannon O'Gorman
Abstract
Infants admitted to the acute care context (within Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Units) are subject to continuous and intensive medical, nursing and allied health care. Within this context, the role of the mother is altered and parent-infant attachment is potentially compromised. This article focuses on the application of infant-directed singing (improvised vocalising in response to the infant's cues) as a means of supporting the mother's desire to interact with her infant. Specifically, it is suggested that Bowlby's four interrelated therapeutic tasks provide the therapist with a framework for supporting the mother in infant-directed singing and that, in turn, this impacts upon the infant's experience of its environment (understood via Winnicott's description of the 'facilitating environment' and the functions of the 'good-enough mother'). As such, the therapist provides 'reliable' and 'helpful' care to the mother, who in turn provides a similar quality of care to her infant. A theoretical understanding of this process underlines the significance of the mirror-role in both parent-infant interaction and therapeutic process.
Early Intervention Music Therapy for Adolescent Mothers and their Children p31 - 38
Vicky Abad and Kate Williams
Abstract
Adolescence is a unique and challenging period of growth, change and possible turmoil as a young person transitions towards adulthood. The capacity to provide quality parenting at this time is likely to be compromised because the teenage mother simultaneously experiences the challenges of adolescence and first time parenthood. Research suggests that teenage mothers are significantly less supportive, more detached, more intrusive and more negative/hostile, when compared to older mothers, and may be less able to provide a stimulating learning environment.
Sing & Grow is a national early intervention music therapy project provided by Playgroup Associations and funded by the Commonwealth Government of Australia. The project provides 10 weekly group music therapy sessions to parent and child (aged 0 - 3 years) dyads from families in communities identified as marginal as a result of various circumstances, including adolescent and young parenthood.
Outcomes of clinical programmes conducted to date show that the central provision of music has been successful in promoting a range of non-musical parenting outcomes for adolescent and young mothers. This includes observed increases in their repertory of skills in relating to and interacting with their child in more gentle and nurturing ways.
The Problem of Pleasure in Music Therapy p39 - 51
Brynjulf Stige
Abstract
This article explores ideas around the potential value of pleasure within music therapy processes. It sets out to review and develop theory through the use of an abductive approach whereby texts are related to clinical experience and empirical material. As an initial context for the exploration, the music therapy literature is searched for reflections on pleasure. The question of whether pleasure is worth pursuing is addressed through a brief exploration of some relevant texts in Western philosophy and psychology. These literature reviews suggest that there is need for more exploratory and reflective work on pleasure with music therapy. As a contribution to this, material from a qualitative research interview with a client is presented. This material is seen in relation to relevant theories on music, mood and emotion, and implications for music therapy theory and practice are then examined.
Book Reviews
Clinical Training Guide for the Student Music Therapist Barbara L Wheeler, Carol L Shultis and Donna W Polen Reviewed by Amelia Oldfield p52
Song-writing: methods, techniques and clinical applications for music therapy clinicians, educators and students Edited by Tony Wigram and Felicity Baker Reviewed by Harriet Powell p53
Improvisation - Methods and Techniques for Music Therapy Clinicians, Educators and Students Edited by Tony Wigram Reviewed by John Strange p54
Music Therapy Research Second Edition Edited by Barbara L Wheeler Reviewed by Wendy Magee p57
A Guide to Writing and Presenting in Music Therapy By Kenneth Aigen Reviewed by Rachel Darnley-Smith p58
Music-Centred Music Therapy By Kenneth Aigen Reviewed by Leslie Bunt p60
Video Review
The Croft: A Unit for Child and Family Psychiatry in Cambridge Written and directed by Amelia Oldfield Filmed by Joy Nudds and Rod Macdonald Reviewed by Claire Molyneux p64
Text Watch p66
Journal Watch p69
Vol 20 No 2 2006 Editorial - Whose Evidence? Simon Procter p74 Interview - Professor Peter Tyrer p76 Peter Tyrer is the former Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine in the division of Neuroscience and Mental Health at Imperial College, London and also Professor of Community Psychiatry. He is Co-Chair of the Personality Disorders Section of the World Psychiatric Association, Founder President of the British & Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorders and Editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry. He has written musicals which have been rehearsed and performed as music therapy projects by staff and patients in psychiatric settings in the UK and abroad.
Evidence and effectiveness in music therapy p81 - p99 Tia DeNora, with responses from Tony Wigram and Gary Ansdell Abstract Adopting a knowledge-based controversy perspective, this article considers critically the 'fit' or appropriateness of the so-called 'gold standard' of assessment - the Randomised Controlled Trial. It sets the growing dominance of this method within music therapy in the contexts of medical work and the changing social relations of medical expertise, the importance of local practice in music therapy (and healthcare more widely), and the politics of representation as they apply to medical modes of accounting and measurement. I then consider what is overlooked when experimental models are used as the prime mode of perceiving the music therapeutic process and suggest that they may not provide a good or appropriate way of observing, accounting for and assessing music therapy. I suggest that they are not amenable to the observation and documentation of temporal and local craft practices and that these practices provide the active ingredients of music therapy's effectiveness. I conclude that music therapy is poised to highlight the radical performative and social features of health status and that these features have far-reaching implications for our concepts of illness and the aetiology of illness and, most importantly, for the ways in which we conceptualise and implement therapeutic procedures of all kinds.
Music therapy for people with schizophrenia or other psychoses: a systematic review and meta-analysis p100 - 108 Christian Gold, Trond Dahle, Tor Olav Heldal and Tony Wigram This article is an abbreviated and slightly edited version of a review that first appeared in the Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Library (including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CDSR, as its central product) is a database for information about the effects of a health care. While "health care" is understood in a very broad way (in fact including any type of "intervention" from surgery to intercessory prayer), the term "effects" is understood in a narrow sense. The CDSR aims at including the most "reliable" information, which in practice means systematic reviews and meta-analyses including exclusively or almost exclusively randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The authors of this review share with the Cochrane Collaboration the understanding that this type of research can, if carried out properly, in fact provide the "most reliable" information (in terms of what psychological researchers call internal validity). We also share with the more sensible proponents of the Cochrane Collaboration and understanding that internal validity is not the only criterion to be applied when appraising and evaluating research. In other words, many other types of research have their strengths as well - but these are different ones.
The voice of experience: evaluation of music therapy with older people, including those with dementia, in community locations p109 - 120 Harriet Powell Abstract This article offers a simple model of generating locally relevant evidence within a study designed to suit the local context. In describing the social inclusion of older people in group music therapy and in the evaluation of a six-month pilot, it aims to show the importance of user-centred evaluation as an enabling and empowering process (Procter 2002). The successful project resulted in further funding from an inner-city social services community care section to continue and develop the work. The service-users (clients) in the study (which also involved music therapists, managers and care staff) are a multi-ethnic group of older people with physical and mental health problems, including dementia, living within the community in Supported Living Schemes and attending Day Centres. This is a conventionally socially excluded and marginalised group, who often live extremely isolated lives because of social, psychological, mental or physical difficulties (Davidson 2004). A summary of the findings, conclusions and outcome of the study demonstrates how participants have gained more control over their lives by having their voices and experience heard.
Invited Dialogue - Music therapy in special education: do we need more evidence? p121 - 128 Katrina McFerran & Jennifer Stephenson Abstract The evidence-based framework underpins the field of special education research. Many educational researchers and administrators accept this model, and expectations of research are rapidly changing as it gains prominence. This dialogue explores the impact of the evidence-based model through a debate between two researchers in the field - a special education academic with a positivist agenda and a music therapy researcher with qualitative inclinations. Through a series of questions designed to illustrate their complementary perspectives, the authors provide opinions on what constitutes evidence in special education and consider the music therapy literature from these perspectives. Ultimately, they propose a research study that pragmatically accepts the evidence-based framework as one valid approach to research. This research project is seen as one step in a series of studies that have international collaborations as their basis.
Book Reviews Sounding the Self: Analogy in Improvisational Music Therapy By Henk Smeijsters Reviewed by Kenneth Aigen p129
Music as Therapy: A Dialogical Perspective By Rudy Garred Reviewed by Gary Andsell p133
Case Study Designs in Music Therapy Edited by David Aldridge Reviewed by Brian Abrams p136
Roots of Musicality: Music Therapy and Personal Development Daniel Perret Reviewed by Mercédès Pavlicevic p138
Text Watch p140
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