Resilience, music therapy, and human adaptation: nurturing young children and families

Abstract

The purpose of this theoretical paper is to examine current literature in developmental psychology in order to discuss how music therapy can foster resilience in early childhood. Resilience is the ability to cope with stress and adversity. I review behavioral, psychosocial, and neurobiological processes of resilience from a systems thinking perspective, emphasizing the importance of socio-cultural experiences. In addition, I explore how music therapy can function as an asset-building, mediating, or risk-activated intervention, thus establishing a theoretical basis justifying music's therapeutic role in human adaptation processes. Moreover, I argue that music therapists must understand the processes involved in resilience and positive human adaptation in order to design proactive clinical approaches to (a) prepare young children and their families for handling adversity, (b) increase parental sensitivity, and (c) create multiple opportunities for families to develop adaptive interpersonal interaction patterns.