Music Therapy Profession Research Articles

Chase, K. M. (2002). The music therapy assessment handhook. Columbus, MS: Southern Pen Publishing. 69 pages. No ISBN available. $35.00

Chase, K. M. (2002). The music therapy handbook. Columbus, MS: Southern Pen Publishing. 69 pages. No ISBN available. $35.00 The music therapy handbook is a solid resource for use in any undergraduate music therapy curriculum. The book is well-structured and provides discussion questions for undergraduate music therapy educators to utilize in the classroom. This text is divided into three sections and takes the reader through various components of music therapy assessment, beginning with the question What is Assessment?, continuing with how to conduct an assessment, and ending with two appendices outlining domain areas and music experiences for use in music therapy assessment. A foreword by Roger Smeltekop, M.M., MT-BC, states that this book may help lead music therapists to consider more closely the purposes and reasons for assessment. He also states, Because the concepts that govern our decisions regarding are seldom absolute or set in stone, the questions and assignments offered at the end of each chapter induce us to divergently ponder our personal extrapolations and interpretations to expand our understanding. These can be useful to neophyte and seasoned therapists alike (p. 5). Section 1 contains the first three chapters of the book: Defining Assessment, Reasons for Assessment, and Choosing an Assessment. In Chapter 1, Defining Assessment, Chase helps differentiate the terms formal assessment and standardized assessment and describes how each are addressed in the music therapy profession and in related professions. The author cites accountability, justification of services and credibility as rationale for music therapy in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, Choosing an Assessment, the author outlines Bruscia's four types of which can help provide the student with a focus for determining content based upon objectives the therapist needs to address. Chase does an excellent job of increasing the awareness of the connection between one's theoretical orientation and types of chosen in this chapter, but more explanation and detail in this area would be extremely valuable. Section 2 is allocated into the following chapters: Deciding on Assessment Areas, Published Assessment Tools, and Creating an Assessment. Chase's description of Pre-Assessment Information and importance of these areas are helpful for students just learning about the process. In addition, Chase links information on domain areas and sub-areas (global assessment) to the AMTA Standards of Clinical Practice (2001) to assist therapists in determining appropriate areas to address in assessment, depending upon population. She has created a useful chart based upon Boxill's Music Therapy Assessment, which addresses the primary domain areas as motor, communication, cognitive, affective, social, and music. Included are sub-areas for each domain and brief descriptions of behaviors that might be included under the umbrella of each sub-area. Chapter 4, Deciding on Assessment Areas, clearly differentiates between Music Therapy Eligibility Assessment, Client-Centered Assessment, and Specific-Needs Assessment. One of the most helpful resources listed in the book occurs in Chapter 5, Published Assessment Tools. This chapter outlines published music therapy tools, author(s), possible objectives and synopsis. An explanation of which population a particular focuses upon is also provided. In Chapter 6, Chase does include a small section about creating your own assessment, but such a task truly needs more in-depth explanation than this section is able to provide. Section 3 includes Chapter 7 and 8: Conducting an Assessment and Case Studies. Chapter 7 is brief and the author gives a short explanation about conducting an assessment. …

Contemporary voices in music therapy: Communication, culture, and community

Kenny, Carolyn & Stige, Brynjulf. (2002). Contemporary voices in music therapy: Communication, culture, and community. Unipub forlag: Oslo, Norway. This book is an excellent and timely anthology that reflects the growing awareness within the profession of music therapy of the critical importance of cultural factors as they directly affect virtually every aspect of music therapy theory and practice. We have long passed the time when national borders implied populations of cultural homogeneity. Rather, due to a variety of factors, societies are becoming more diverse. Incorporating new cultural elements as a result of the influx of increasingly mobile immigrant populations, heterogeneity has become the norm of the 21st century. Just how music therapists can adequately respond to this global mix without holding on to established models of practice that may be confining rather than liberating is the basic theme of this stimulating volume. Part I (Essays On Communication, Culture and Community) features articles by an international group of authors who reflect upon different issues and approaches related to music therapy and multiculturalism. Part II (International Reports On Music Therapy) presents a series of shorter contributions related to the status of music therapy and cultural considerations in eight countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and North and South America. Part III (Introducing Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy) provides an introduction to this online journal as a vital global medium for exchange in the field. All of the chapters in Parts I and II grew out of selected articles from previous issues of Voices. Editors Kenny and Stige begin by defining culture, not an easy task. As they point out, while each of us is shaped by our cultural experiences, at the same time, we may not fully recognize the extent of these influences since cultural assimilation is not a conscious process. To a large degree we may take our own cultural context and its related assumptions for granted even though our individual and group identities are largely defined by it. This does not minimize the impact of the more-often cited role of family and the narrower social context in determining who we become, but familial and other social experiences themselves are also largely shaped by their cultural setting. Finally, from the perspective of music culture is a significant factor that colors each person's musical preferences as well as ways of responding to illness, attitudes and expectations towards health care services. As the editors point out, many music therapists have stated that they believe they are able to . .go beyond culture when they work with music in or as therapy, seeing music simply as a sound stimulus without cultural reference. Certainly cultural concerns in music therapy have been raised in the past by a number of scholars and practitioners including Bright, Bunt, Gaston, Kenny, Moreno, Ruud, Sekeles and Schwabe. However, today a broader community of music therapists is committed to confronting this issue with a greater sense of urgency. The editors suggest that to realize a truly client-centered perspective in music therapy a generic form of empathy is not adequate. Rather, what is needed is for the therapist to develop a more specific kind of cultural empathy which must be consciously cultivated. In comparing music therapy with indigenous healing rituals, Pavlicevic in Chapter 10 raises a question posed to her by an African master drummer and music ethnologist who asked if music therapy isn't some kind of colonial import, how it is different from music-making, and why it is calling itself this in South Africa instead of imbibing African music and healing traditions. These are indeed very pertinent questions, especially when we consider what kind of role music therapy can play in the developing world which is still 80% of the planet. In these parts of the world traditional healing practices are often the norm, whereas modern professional music therapy may be unknown. …

Music Therapy References Relating to Cancer and Palliative Care

Hospitals and clinics worldwide have incorporated music therapy in their work with cancer patients and in palliative care. As the music therapy profession has developed internationally, so has its role in palliative care. The arts and creative arts therapies are being seen as a form of spiritual care in healthcare settings, particularly where individuals are confronting life-threatening illnesses. By offering opportunities to engage in the arts and develop creative expression, people with cancer can be enabled to mourn, grieve, celebrate life, be empowered to endure their situation, and find healing and meaning. In many studies we find that music therapy is not simply used with the identified patients but also with their families and carers. As well as noting the importance of work with patients and their families, music therapists also emphasise the importance of music for their own healing. This is necessary to meet personal needs when working with the dying and in the context of a broader hospital milieu of colleagues and friends. The World Health Organisation's recommendations for cancer relief and palliative care are to affirm life and regard dying as a normal process, to provide relief from pain and distressing symptoms, to integrate the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care, to offer a support system to help patients as actively as possible until death, and to offer a support system to help the family cope during the illness and in their own bereavement. Music therapy has the potential to meet all of these recommendations.

Marking Her 30 Years of Work for the UK Music Therapy Profession, Denize Christophers is Interviewed

Denize Christophers has been closely involved with the British Society for Music Therapy for 30 years. She began to work as secretary to Juliette Alvin in 1972, and took over the administration of the society after Alvin's death. Denize runs the BSMT office from her home in Barnet, dealing with thousands of enquiries from the general public, organising conferences and workshops in conjunction with the APMT, distributing the BJMT, and supplying books and information about music therapy to students and music therapists worldwide.

Music therapy in palliative care: current perspectives.

As the music therapy profession has developed internationally over the last 25 years, so has its role in palliative care. Music is a highly versatile and dynamic therapeutic modality, lending itself to a variety of music therapy techniques used to benefit both those living with life-threatening illnesses and their family members and caregivers. This article will give a broad overview of the historical roots of music therapy and introduce the techniques that are employed in current practice. By combining a review of mainstream music therapy practice involving musical improvisation, song-writing and receptive/recreational techniques with case material from my own experience, this article aims to highlight the potential music therapy holds as an effective holistic practice for palliative care, whatever the care setting.

Helen Odell-Miller — Interviewed by Rachel Darnley-Smith

Helen Odell-Miller trained as a music therapist in 1976 with Juliette Alvin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and subsequently completed an MPhil in music therapy research with elderly mentally ill people at City University in 1988. She was largely responsible for developing the now extensive music therapy service in Cambridge during the 1980s and, together with Amelia Oldfield, set up the music therapy training course at Anglia Polytechnic University (APU) in Cambridge, which began in 1994. She has been involved with the development of the music therapy profession since her training and was chair of the APMT during the early 1980s. In addition, she was a founder member of the APMT Post-diploma Supervision Scheme. Today, alongside her clinical and research work at Addenbrooke's NHS Mental Health Trust, she is Head of the first UK MA Music Therapy Training, at Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge, and Music Therapy Advisor to the Department of Health. Rachel Darnley-Smith is Head Music Therapist for Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust at St. Ann's Hospital in North London and Clinical Tutor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She was chair of the APMT, 1990–92.

Voices: World Forum for Music Therapy - A new avenue for communication among music therapy communities

Welcome to the inaugural issue of a new international music therapy journal, electronically published and with free access. We're sure you have noticed the growing interest in the field of music therapy. The number of music therapists around the world is increasing every year. Diverse contexts for music therapy work grow too. Though music has been practiced as a healing art in Indigenous societies for hundreds of years, contemporary professional music therapy has grown from a Western enterprise to one with a very broad foundation of approaches internationally.

The State of the UK Music Therapy Profession

This paper outlines the findings from a self-administered postal questionnaire to the UK music therapy profession carried out in June 1997. It details the background to the study, its design and methodology, the results and their implications. The survey gathered data on the personal qualities used in practice, working models, support networks and job satisfaction among UK music therapists. Taken together, these responses were deemed an indication of the overall ‘state of the profession’. Further, an attempt was made to ascertain a correlation between job satisfaction and other variables as a way of delineating a profile of a ‘job-satisfied music therapist’. Key results indicated a profession of diverse individuals, more likely to be balancing part-time music therapy work than to be employed in a full-time post. They indicated a profession with cohesive personal qualities underlying its practice, and more definitive priorities for working models. They revealed a profession more likely to describe itself as ‘supported’ and ‘satisfied’ than either ‘very supported/satisfied’, ‘quite supported/mixed feelings’, ‘unsupported/dissatisfied’ or ‘very unsupported/dissatisfied’. They identified clinical supervision and communication with colleagues and carers as the two most significant support networks among the sample. A statistically significant correlation was established between the level of professional support experienced and job satisfaction.

Singing as a Therapeutic Agent, inThe Etude, 1891-1949.

The Etude music magazine, founded by Theodore Presser, was one of a number of popular music magazines published in the years prior to the establishment of the music therapy profession in 1950. During its publication run from 1883 to 1957, over 100 music therapy related articles appeared, including 13 on the health benefits of singing published between 1891 and 1949. Written by authors with diverse backgrounds, such as the famous Battle Creek, Michigan physician John Harvey Kellogg and Boston music critic Louis C. Elson, the articles contained consistent and adamant support regarding the health benefits of singing. The advantages described were both physical and psychological, and were recommended prophylactically for well persons and therapeutically for ill persons. Although the articles varied in perspective, from philosophical to theoretical to pedagogical, there is a consistent holistic medicine theme that appeared almost ahead of its time and no doubt linked to the push for vocal music education in that era. The importance of The Etude in promulgating ideas that helped shape the early practice of music therapy should not be underestimated. For much of its publication run The Etude was the largest music periodical in print, reaching its peak circulation of 250,000 copies per month in 1924.

An Overview of Sound Healing Practices: Implications for the Profession of Music Therapy

An Overview of Sound Healing Practices: Implications for the Profession of Music Therapy

CCC Music Therapy Center and the Current Tenor of the Music Therapy Profession: The Logistics of Establishing and Maintaining a Music Therapy Practice

CCC Music Therapy Center and the Current Tenor of the Music Therapy Profession: The Logistics of Establishing and Maintaining a Music Therapy Practice

Utilization of Motor Skill Assessments in Clinical Practice

Careful assessment procedures are commonly accepted as being instrumental to the delivery of quality music therapy services. In many clinical settings, motor skill development has been delineated as the focus for treatment. Knowledge of available standardized motor skill assessments is crucial for professional documentation within this area of service. This article presents a brief rationale for the use of standardized instruments, and descriptions of twelve selected tests. As the profession of music therapy expands its theoretical and empirical foundation, widespread utilization of such materials will assist in the documentation of treatment effectiveness.