Pavlicevik, M. & Ansdell, G. (Eds.). (2004). Community Music Therapy. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 320 pages. ISBN 1-84310-124-6

Abstract

Pavlicevik, M. & Ansdell, G. (Eds.). (2004). Community Music Therapy. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 320 pages. ISBN 1-84310-124-6. Community Music Therapy, edited by Mercedes Ravlicevik and Gary Ansdell, an essential book for our time. As the music therapy profession continues to grow in awareness and acceptance, more and more persons are interested in music as therapeutic modality. As result, music therapists are often called upon to facilitate events such as drum circles for corporate team-building, active music-making for community outreach, healing music for support groups, and so on. These events take place outside the framework of traditional clinical context and thus leave us to question what my role in this situation and is this music therapy, and if not, then what? This book illuminates the current climate of Community Music Therapy (CoMT), providing the reader with thorough background of its evolution as well as provoking critical thought about professional implications. In dividing Community Music Therapy into six equally proportionate parts, Ravlicevik and Ansdell have deftly anticipated the needs of the reader who grapples with the questions posed above. Titles for parts I through Vl are in question form (as will be delineated throughout this review) and mirror the editors' claim that the reader of this text will not find authoritative definitions but a wide and colourful range of examples, alongside stimulating thinking, discussion and speculation (p. 17). Community Music Therapy delivers on this promise. An engaging foreword by Even Ruud, entitled Reclaiming Music, provides the reader with encouragement to explore music therapy's potential to bridge the gap between individuals and communities, thereby reclaiming some of the original functions of music in our (p. 12). challenge here to examine the philosophies which underpin our music therapy practice. The Ripple Effect, an introduction by Ravlicevik and Ansdell, begins the dialogue necessary for such exploration to occur and provides cogent foundation for synthesis with the divisionary parts and accompanying chapters. In order to strengthen this connection, suggestion would be to order the parts of the book in the same order they are addressed in the introduction, or vice versa. Part I titled New Name, Old Game?, takes the reader on journey into the world of CoMT through vibrant vignettes. Chapter 1 chronicles Mercedes Ravliceviks work in South Africa with the women of Thembalethu, training facility for home-based care workers. South African women, raised in culture where musical self-expression integral, need no encouragement and/or facilitation for music-making. This creates discomfort and insecurity for Pavlicevik, whose purpose in traveling to Thembalethu to share ways in which art therapies can contribute to their work. As she questions her role and professional abilities in light of the cultural context, Pavlicevik makes it easy to relate to her struggle with role shifts, session interruptions, and levels of leadership. While the sentence structure of the chapter can at times be confusing, the chapter an enlightening attempt to raise awareness of the cultural context of music therapy, something to which North American music therapists may need to become more sensitive. idea of equal opportunities for musical participation for all persons permeates chapter 2, From Therapy to Community: Making Music in Neurological Rehabilitation, authored by Stuart Wood, Rachel Verney, and Jessica Atkinson. Thoughtprovoking, the chapter seeks to provide rationale for utilizing music therapy to assist patients in rejoining their community upon discharge from hospital. Following threestage program, the participants move from individual music therapy to group music therapy and workshops to workshops, concerts, and learning opportunities. …