THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
Faculty of Arts Law and Social Sciences Department of Music and Performing Arts
The Music of Music Therapy Friday 26 – Saturday 27 February 2010
Conference Programme www.anglia.ac.uk /musicofmusictherapy 1
THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
The Music Of Music Therapy Conference Friday 26 – Saturday 27 February 2010 • Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
Contents: Page 4
General information
Page 5
Welcome from Professor Helen Odell-Miller
Page 6
Timetable (Friday 26 February 2010)
Page 7
Timetable (Saturday 27 February 2010)
Page 8
Rachel Darnley-Smith (Keynote paper)
Page 9
Mércèdes Pavlicevic (Keynote paper)
Page 10
Katy Bell (Paper)
Page 11
Carol Chambers (Paper)
Page 12
Alison Davies & Paul Gordon (Workshop)
Page 13
Marieke Degryse (Paper)
Page 14
Philippa Derrington (Paper)
Page 15
Karen Gold (Paper)
Page 16
Angela Harrison (Paper)
Page 17
Matina Karastatira (Paper)
Page 18
Meertine MJ Laansma (Paper)
Page 19
Martin Lawes (Workshop)
Page 20
Dawn Loombe (Paper)
Page 21
Susanne Metzner (Paper)
Page 22
Liz Norman & Eddie Norman (Paper)
Page 23
Amelia Oldfield (Paper)
Page 24
Deborah Parker (Paper)
Page 25
James Robertson (Paper)
Page 26
Clare Rosscornes (Paper)
Page 27
Bethan Lee Shrubsole (Paper)
Page 28
John Strange (Paper)
Page 29
Giorgos Tsiris (Paper)
Page 30
Daisy Varewyck (Paper)
Page 31
Wai Man Ng (Paper)
Page 32
Donald Wetherick & Gail Brand (Workshop)
Page 33–35 Notes 3
THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• General information for delegates •
Reception and help desk A registration/help desk will be situated in The Street outside the refectory. This will be staffed before the conference.
Delegate badge Please wear your badge at all times for security purposes and to give you access to refreshments and meals.
Messages and notice board A board for messages and notices will be situated near the reception desk. Please check it for announcements and changes to the programme. You are also welcome to leave messages there for other delegates.
Assistance and technical support MA music therapy students will be acting as conference stewards and are available to answer questions, direct you to the conference rooms and provide general support. A technical officer will be available and a steward will be in each presentation room to help presenters.
Bookstall A bookstall run by John Smith’s Bookshop will be open in The Street for the duration of the conference, selling books specifically related to the conference themes in addition to general music therapy texts.
Venue: Anglia Ruskin University East Road Cambridge CB1 1PT www.anglia.ac.uk
Scientific Committee • • • •
Professor Helen Odell-Miller (Chair) Helen Loth (Conference manager) Eleanor Richards Dr Amelia Oldfield
Technical support • Richard Taylor
Administrative support • Karen Sturt
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Welcome •
Dear Colleagues, I have great pleasure in welcoming you to this conference The Music of Music Therapy. This is the fifth in the series of music therapy conferences organised by the academic and clinical team at Anglia Ruskin University and it will add to the existing literature and research on this important theme. The conference brings together speakers of international repute with new researchers and clinicians. Over twenty clinical, theoretical and research papers and workshops will be presented by music therapists from the UK and other European settings, and we expect lively debate and discourse. We are pleased to welcome you into the Department of Music and Performing Arts at Anglia Ruskin University. It is home to the established Music Therapy MA programme, and to a developing PhD programme in which we now have four PhD music therapy students working on new research in a range of areas. All these research activities are part of the Music for Health Research Centre and the Music Therapy Clinic at Anglia Ruskin University. The conference team of experienced clinicians, researchers and administrators has been led by Helen Loth, Conference manager. We are grateful to the team of MA Music Therapy students who are helping with the many tasks needed to keep the conference running smoothly and providing us with musical entertainment during the buffet dinner on Friday evening. The conference brochure includes the programme and full abstracts of all the papers and workshops being presented. I hope you will have a rich and diverse experience and that you will enjoy this opportunity for debate and exchange. With good wishes
Professor Helen Odell-Miller Chair Scientific Committee Deputy Head Music and Performing Arts Department
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Friday 26 February 2010 • 11.00am – 1.30pm Conference Registration tea/coffee: The Street
Refreshments available from the University refectory and coffee bars
Recital Hall
Helmore 038
Helmore 037
Helmore 217
1.30pm 1.30pm – 2pm Conference opens
Welcome addresses by: Paul Jackson, Head of Music and Performing Arts Prof. Helen Odell-Miller, Deputy Head of Music and Performing Arts
2.00pm
2.30pm
2pm – 3pm Rachel Darnley-Smith What is the music of music therapy and is it art? Keynote presentation Chair: Helen Loth
3.00pm
3.30pm
p8
3.15pm – 4pm James Robertson Whose music is it anyway? 5 p2
4.00pm
3.15pm – 4pm Giorgos Tsiris Musical Reflections – a supportive tool for expanding therapeutic insight and reflexivity 9 p2
3.15pm – 4pm Dawn Loombe Bellows, reeds, buttons and keys: being a piano accordionist and how this has influenced my work as a music therapist 0 p2
4.00pm – 4.15pm Tea/coffee break: The Street
4.30pm
5.00pm
4.15pm – 5pm Angela Harrison Where does the music come from? Digging deep to meet the needs of a diverse client group 6 p1
4.15pm – 5.45pm Donald Wetherick and Gail Brand The musical training of music therapists – is it fit for purpose? Workshop
5.30pm
2 p2
4.15pm – 5.45pm Alison Davies and Paul Gordon “An Open Conversation”… Music, words and therapy Workshop
5.15pm – 6pm Carol Chambers Edelweiss – one woman’s search for reconciliation
2 p3
1 p1
6.00pm
4.15pm – 5pm Liz Norman and Eddie Norman Engaging industrial designers with music therapy
6.30pm
7.00pm
7.30pm 6.30pm – 9pm Conference buffet dinner and entertainment
8.00pm
8.30pm
9.00pm
6
p1
2
THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Saturday 27 February 2010 • 9.00am – 9.45am Conference Registration tea/coffee: The Street
Recital Hall
Helmore 038
Helmore 251
Helmore 252
10.00am
10.30am
11.00am
11.30am
10am – 11am Mércèdes Pavlicevic Between Musics, Musicality And Musicing – Group Music Therapy Considered Keynote presentation Chair: Helen Odell-Miller
11.15am – 12pm Susanne Metzner Music – the call to that which is missing
11.15am – 12pm Wai Man Ng The exploration of Chinese music in a GIM programme ‘Harvest’ p2
12.00pm
12.30pm
p9
1
12.15am – 1pm John Strange Facility in improvisation – A mixed blessing? 8 p2
1.00pm
p3
1
12.15am – 1pm Clare Rosscornes How does the setting affect the music? A comparison of clinical work with children in a hospital, a mainstream school and a 6 p2 children’s centre
1.30pm
11.15pm – 12pm Marieke Degryse Working the trauma – creating a safe place in the midst of aggression. Music therapy in child psychiatry 3 p1
12.15am – 1pm Deborah Parker. Reading the music – Understanding the therapeutic process. Documentation, analysis and interpretation of improvisational music therapy 4 p2
11.15am – 12pm Daisy Varewyck Vocal improvisation & psychosis: The voice in resonance to the other p3
0
12.15am – 1pm Katy Bell Linking worlds – thinking about the function of pre-composed music in music therapy for adults with psychotic illness 0 p1
1pm – 2.15pm Lunch: Refectory
2.00pm
2.30pm
3.00pm
3.30pm
4.00pm
2.15am – 3pm Amelia Oldfield Why did I play that? An analysis of how and why a music therapist improvises during group playing in child and family psychiatry? 23 p
3.15am – 4pm Philippa Derrington The Sweet Escape – Hearingimpaired students in a mainstream secondary school get out of lessons to go to music therapy 4 p1
2.15pm – 3.45pm Martin Lawes Health and pathology in the dynamics of musical structure and relating: a psychoanalytically informed perspective Workshop
9 p1
2.15am – 3pm Bethan Lee Shrubsole An exploration of cultural and religious aspects of music improvised in music therapy groups in Northern Uganda, led by an 7 English music therapist p2
2.15am – 3pm Meertine MJ Laansma Music as mediator – The music in music listening: a cognitive informed approach to receptive music therapy in the treatment of depression. 8 p1
3.15am – 4pm Matina Karastatira An exploration of the influence of modes as used in Ancient Greek music with reference to children and adults with learning disabilities 7 p1
3.15am – 4pm Karen Gold The focus and the flow – what might we learn about the music in music therapy from seeing patients with dementia working therapeutically in both music and in art? 5 p1
4pm – 4.15pm Tea/coffee break: The Street
4.30pm 4.15pm – 5.15pm Plenary
5.00pm 5.15pm – 5.30pm Closing remarks
5.30pm –
C o n f e r e n c e
7
e n d s
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Keynote Paper • 2pm – 3pm, Friday 26 February • Recital Hall •
Rachel Darnley-Smith What is the music of music therapy and is it art? Theoretical discussion in music therapy literature in Europe and America has recently included the question of the status of music within music therapy, for example whether musical experiences in clinical contexts can be ‘continuous with non clinical musical experiences’, (Aigen, 2008). In this paper I shall provide an account of this discussion, with particular reference to improvisation, ontology and aesthetics. I shall show how a consideration of ontology is useful in making a distinction or not making a distinction between the music that is made within the clinical setting and the music that is made elsewhere. Furthermore how there may and may not be different ontologies of music ‘at work’ inside and outside the clinical setting, and that this is closely linked to the question of what values drive aesthetic considerations in music therapy music. In all I shall seek to show how such a consideration of the music that is made inside and outside the clinical setting, is of profound significance in terms of what we think music therapy might be. References K. Aigen, In Defense of Beauty: A role for the Aesthetic in Music Therapy Theory: Part II, Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 17 (1) 2008: 3–18
Biography Rachel Darnley-Smith is a coordinator of the MA in Music Therapy at Roehampton University, London. She is currently the recipient of an Arts and Humanities Research Council award and undertaking a PhD study into the aesthetics of clinical improvisation at the University of Durham. Trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1985, she worked for many years as a clinician mostly with Adults and Elderly Adults in NHS Mental Health settings. She is co-author (with Helen Patey) of Music Therapy (Sage Publications, London 2003). Her article ‘What Has Schopenhauer’s theory of music to contribute to an understanding of improvisational music therapy? recently appeared in the British Journal of Music Therapy Vol, 23, No. 1.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Keynote paper • 10am – 11am, Saturday 27 February • Recital Hall •
Mercédès Pavlicevic Between musics, musicality and musicing: Group music therapy considered Group music therapy seems to have been traditionally neglected in music therapy literature until fairly recently. This is unsurprising given the dyadic emphasis of the ‘therapist-client’ relationship in much music therapy thinking. However, a changing professional landscape is placing unprecedented demands on our practices and insists on us reconsidering the places in which we work, the work that we do, and how we think about this. A recently completed 4-year International Community Music Therapy project1 studied a range of social places in which music therapists were engaged in (mostly) group musicing. As part of the study, four music therapist researchers did in-depth observation and analysis of how group participants use ‘everyday musics’ in group musicing; and considered what disciplinary and methodological frames would enable close-up studying of music therapists’ work in these social contexts. This paper engages with three questions that emerged from detailed analysis of the socio-musical heart of group music therapy. • What happens to ‘everyday music’ in group music therapy? • How do participants negotiate group musicing? • How might music therapist-researchers generate ‘close-up’ thinking to frame such enactments? The stance of this paper is that a reflexive stance in the ‘close-up’ study of group music therapy may help us address the changing professional; landscape, convey the rigor of our practices, and most importantly perhaps, retain our imaginative impetus and creative fire. References 1 Stige,B. / Ansdell,G. / Elefant,C. / Pavlicevic,M. (2010) Where Music Helps: Community Music Therapy in Action and Reflection. (Ashgate)
Biography Prof Mércèdes Pavlicevic, PhD, is Director of Research at Nordoff-Robbins music therapy (UK). Mércèdes is also professor extraordinary at the University of Pretoria, South Africa and Hon. Reader at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. She is widely published and the author of several music therapy books.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 12.15pm – 1pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 252 •
Katy Bell Linking worlds – Thinking about the function of pre-composed music in music therapy for adults with psychotic illness This paper will look at the function of pre-composed music in music therapy for adults with psychotic illness. According to doctoral research by Odell-Miller (2007) the practice of using pre-composed music is favoured in psychiatric services throughout Europe. The purpose of this paper is to consider what it is about enduring psychotic illness that makes the use of pre-composed music potentially effective with this group of adults. An understanding of the function of pre-composed music, and of psychosis, is informed and influenced by theories taken from psychoanalysis. Based on experience from a training placement in a psychiatric hospital and as a qualified music therapist working with adults in rehabilitation and recovery within the same hospital, this paper draws on material from two patients. In individual sessions both patients have chosen to make use of pre-composed songs as a way of beginning to re-visit events and emotional states that hold significance for them as they try to come to terms with their lives. The paper concludes that the use of pre-composed music, as an additional tool to improvisation, might offer something particularly useful to patients with a chronic psychotic illness in the development of a therapeutic relationship. Biography Katy Bell trained as a music therapist at Anglia Ruskin University 2006 – 2008. Her six month first year placement was at Fulbourn Hospital; she also discussed this work in her MA dissertation. Since graduating she has been employed by the Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust at the same hospital on an honorary contract. She also works as a music therapist in a school for children with special needs.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 5.15pm – 6pm, Friday 26 February • Recital Hall •
Carol Chambers Edelweiss – One woman’s search for reconciliation Is the use of pre-composed music in music therapy a receptive method or a creatively active process? Can it be viewed from an alternative understanding of improvisation in which the therapist becomes the recipient? This presentation is approached from the philosophical framework of behaviourism and from a social constructionist perspective of the creation and enactment of self-identity, grounded in a belief that life and music become inextricably linked during the constructive process. Drawing on aspects of completed doctoral research (Chambers 2008) with women in medium-secure forensic psychiatric units, this paper proposes that pre-composed music offers a chance to recreate experiences and reconstruct an emotional narrative of life. Using clinical vignettes of one song choice, ‘Edelweiss’, (Rodgers and Hammerstein 1959) from a woman during a three-year case study as illustration, I will examine how the relationship between therapist and client is built upon cultural accessibility and acceptability. I argue that analysis of such musical repetitiveness at different levels of interpretation can offer a revelatory alternative model of musical creativity which demonstrates precomposed song as an active process. References Chambers, C. (2008) Song and metaphoric imagery in forensic music therapy [online]. PhD thesis, Nottingham University. Available at URL:http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk Rodgers, R. and Hammerstein II, O. (1959) The Sound of Music. Milwaukee: Williamson Music.
Biography Dr Carol Chambers qualified as a music therapist in 1982 and has worked with many client groups, both in private practice and as a former Head Music Therapist. Her doctoral research at the University of Nottingham explored the use of precomposed songs by women in forensic psychiatry. She currently works part-time for the Workers’ Educational Association in Lincolnshire.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Workshop • 4.15pm – 5pm, Friday 26 February • Hel 217 •
Alison Davies & Paul Gordon An Open Conversation – Music, words and therapy What is it about playing music together and talking in therapy that can be an ‘affirming flame’ in the face of the increasing demand for accountability through ‘knowledge’? This convivial conversation between Paul Gordon and Alison Davies will explore the idea of therapy as a form of open-ended, open-minded dialogue. Drawing on Paul’s thinking in his recent book, ‘The Hope of Therapy’ Alison will look at how his approach to psychotherapy can be related to music therapy, and in particular, to the use of music. With much emphasis at the present time in both music therapy and psychotherapy on verifiable outcomes and research, our conversation will focus on a return to therapy as a creative journey concerned with how we lead our lives and how, in the case of music especially, how we communicate our emotional selves. We intend to have a dialogue which will then be opened up to the thoughts and ideas of the company present. Biographies Paul Gordon has been working as a psychotherapist for 20 years in various settings. He currently works in private practice and as a therapist to one of the Philadelphia Association community households. He is the author of Face to Face: therapy as ethics (1989) and co-editor of Between Psychotherapy and Philosophy: essays from the Philadelphia Association (2004). He is currently Chair of the Philadelphia Association Alison Davies is both a psychotherapist and a music therapist. She works on the music therapy trainings at Anglia Ruskin University and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has written extensively about her work and has a particular interest in group music therapy. With Eleanor Richards she is co-editor of ‘Music Therapy and Groupwork: Sound Company’. She is a member of The Philadelphia Association.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 11.15am – 12pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 251 •
Marieke Degryse Working the trauma – Creating a safe place in the midst of aggression. Music therapy in child psychiatry Working as a music therapist in Fioretti, a small psychiatric unit with a specific population for children with learning disabilities between the age of 6 and 17, we are confronted with a lot of aggression. Most of these children have attachment disorders and severe behavioural problems. By which means can music exist in music therapy within this specific setting? Starting from different case studies, regarding this population, we will elaborate on the traumatic nature of free improvisation, which can be threatening and overwhelming, thereby often resulting in ‘dysregulation’. On the other hand, receptive music therapy which consists of listening to songs that clients bring to the sessions, can create a place of rest where client and therapist can co-exist in a contained and safe medium. It is often a necessary way to safeguard control for the client, to prevent loss of self and possible trauma which can arise through more free playing. These contradistinctions bring us to a dialectic which we perceive on the one hand as possibilities of playing techniques, and on the other hand the performing of pre-composed songs, leading to some form of control. Through these methods, the relationship between therapist and client can evolve into a process where the traumatic material can be digested through the music. All this lies within the focus of the socio-emotional development of the child and his aggression, underpinned by theoretical approaches of Winnicott, Dösen and Bowlby. Biography Marieke Degryse achieved her Bachelor degree in psychology and Master in Music Therapy (Belgium). In 2005–06 she worked as a music therapist with children and adults with special needs. She joined the music therapy centre ‘Musers’ in Mostar (Bosnia & Herzegovina) for 18 months, where she worked with special needs children in a post-war environment. She is currently employed in ‘Fioretti’; the child psychiatry department of the St. Ghuislain hospital in Ghent (Belgium).
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 3.15pm – 4pm, Saturday 27 February • Recital Hall •
Philippa Derrington The Sweet Escape – Hearing-impaired students in a mainstream secondary school get out of lessons to go to music therapy In September 2008, a music therapy project was set up at a mainstream secondary school in Cambridgeshire, specifically for the hearing support service. Six profoundly deaf students were offered music therapy for a year and all of them benefited to an extent that neither I nor the teaching staff ever envisaged. The key outcomes were very clear because all of the students became more motivated at school and more confident to communicate. Every year, several deaf students give up attending large class music lessons due to the obvious difficulties that they face. Trying to keep up in group musical playing without visual clues is extremely difficult, if not impossible, and is ultimately isolating. It seemed unreasonable that for deaf students, as the pressures of schoolwork increase and school life becomes evermore challenging, the amount of creative and fun lessons should decrease. The project’s resulting offer of individual music therapy sessions to these students was received with enthusiasm and, in some cases, a sense of relief and gratitude for a legitimate lesson that is time out! This paper will review the project using casework and video examples. I will illustrate how the students and I maneuvered through various musical styles, used visual activities, used pre-recorded music, experimented with sounds and together worked towards finding common grounds in music. I will look at how the music could create obstacles to our interaction, but through the process of music therapy could help us to communicate creatively. Biography Philippa Derrington studied and taught modern languages in the UK and abroad before training as a music therapist at Anglia Polytechnic University. Since qualifying in 2001, she has worked predominantly with children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural difficulties and established work at a mainstream secondary school. The Music Therapy Charity is funding her research project which is looking at the impact of music therapy on young people at risk of under-achieving or exclusion. She has presented at conferences in the UK and abroad, taught at Anglia Ruskin University and been guest lecturer at the Arts Therapies Department at Girona University, Spain. Email: pderrington@cvcweb.net
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 3.15pm – 4pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 252 •
Karen Gold The focus and the flow – What might we learn about the music in music therapy from seeing patients with dementia working therapeutically in both music and in art? This paper describes the process of art therapy and music therapy being offered jointly, by an art therapy student and a music therapy student, during each session of a slow open group of elderly patients with dementia on a short-stay hospital assessment ward. Although there were many similarities in patient-therapist interaction, and in the therapists’ understanding of patients, patients also appeared to respond in certain different ways to the two therapeutic media. These differences were observable by both therapists in the dynamics of the group, and in levels of patient arousal. Two patients also appeared to use the different therapies to express different aspects of themselves. The sequence of therapies in sessions appeared to impact strongly on patients’ engagement. These differing uses by patients of the two therapies suggests that some of the character and strengths of music in music therapy for this patient population may lie in the area of emotional arousal – the flow of feelings – and in the area of group cohesiveness, both at the level of social interaction and of unconscious resonance. The clinical implications of this will be explored. It is hoped that examples of patients’ music and artwork can be played and shown. Biography Karen Gold is a music therapist based in Cambridge. She collaborated on this work with Eveline Scheele, a 4th year art therapy student at HAN, Nimjegen, The Netherlands, in 2008 whilst on the Anglia Ruskin University MA course.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 4.15pm – 5pm, Friday 26 February • Recital Hall •
Angela Harrison Where does the music come from? Digging deep to meet the needs of a diverse client group This paper will examine and demonstrate the need for music therapists to be flexible and creative in their musical responses. It is not always in the gift of a music therapist to work with one single client group and certainly in a community-based service, it is essential to have a wide range of musical resources to respond to the needs of our clients. Before leaving an internationally acclaimed orchestral career, I came to realise that music therapy was concerned with process rather than performance. It was important to consider the potential effect on my musical sensibilities of the music created in sessions being broken down into its most basic components. In work with people aged 14 months up to 98 years with a variety of conditions, there are considered decisions to be made each day as to the music improvised in sessions. I present my approach by referring directly to work with a child with acquired brain injury, with an adult disabled by traumatic background and with residents in a dementia care home. I will provide video footage of progress in sessions and discuss the demands on my musical flexibility. There will be evidence of references reflecting my own musical background but also some demonstration of my efforts to assimilate new and unfamiliar genres. There are times when the music which is required is completely beyond definition, as it is an intuitive vocalisation or improvisation to match the dynamic movement of the client or a series of sounds to represent the affect sensed in the room. Music therapy is nothing without music and yet the accepted understanding of the nature of music is constantly challenged in sessions. In this paper I will encourage therapists to consider their contributions within sessions and the role of their musical background. References Daniel M Stern (2004) The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life. WW Norton and Co Preface xvi Ed Thomas Wosch and Tony Wigram (2007) Microanalysis in Music Therapy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers Chapter 6
Biography Angela Harrison is Lead Therapist for the North Yorkshire Music Therapy Centre, a charity dedicated to providing a high quality service in a range of community-based settings and to promoting the use of music therapy. Angela has recently presented papers for conferences in London, Edinburgh, The Netherlands, Canada and Argentina. Her clinical focus is on children with developmental delay and those with attachment problems. Angela lectures at the Universities of Leeds, York and Huddersfield and engages the local community in the provision of her team’s service. Angela has recently been appointed as joint Public Relations Officer for the APMT executive.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 3.15pm – 4pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 251 •
Matina Karastatira An exploration of the influence of modes as used in ancient Greek music with reference to children and adults with learning disabilities This article is a summary of my master thesis. It explores the use of modes in Music Therapy, viewed from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. It is partly based on a literature review, firstly with regard to the use of modes in ancient Greek music and secondly exploring the modes as they are used nowadays in Music Therapy. I have also drawn on my own case studies and findings on the use of the modes. From the literature review one can conclude that there is not enough research on this subject. In ancient Greece the effects of the modes on the emotions and the human psyche was referred to extensively. They believed that each mode had a distinct quality which could influence and change a person’s emotions. Some music therapists also believe this to be the case and base some of their work on these principles. However, as this study shows, there is a common misconception amongst music therapists that the ancient Greek modes are the same as the current modes used in Music Therapy, which is not the case. As regards the practical aspect of this article, the case studies used are the author’s and are based on sessions involving a child and an adult with learning disabilities. Video and audio analysis was used to illustrate the use of the modes in each session. The modes can be a useful tool for the therapist to explain some of the behaviours of his/her clients, but as with every tool it is necessary to find the right time and place to use it. Biography I qualified as a Music Therapist in July 2008 from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. My work experience involves working with children with learning and emotional difficulties, with adults in an acute mental health ward and in a learning disabilities team providing individual and group music therapy. Previous to that I did a BA in Science and Art of Music at the Ionian University in Corfu (Greece). I play the piano, recorders, guitar and I also sing. While I was in high school I got a Certificate in Counterpoint, a Diploma in Byzantine Music and a Certificate in Music Harmony. I speak Greek (Mother Tongue), English and French.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 2.15pm – 3pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 252 •
Meertine MJ Laansma Music as mediator – The music in music listening: a cognitive informed approach to receptive music therapy in the treatment of depression In receptive music therapy in the treatment of depression, music listening facilitates the expression of feelings and thoughts (Smeijsters, 2006). Music itself is a mediator between words, thoughts, images, emotions and feelings and the reflection on and expression of these. As cognitive therapy is identified as a preferred treatment of depressive orders, there is limited application of cognitive therapy within a music therapy context. Based on recent literature regarding music therapy and cognitive therapy like Luce (2001) and Hilliard (2001), I developed a music therapy model in which cognitive techniques as mental imagery and cognitive reconstruction can be used in the treatment of depression. In selecting the cognitive interventions to be used, I came to reconsider the musics to use. In listening to music, expectations about the direction the music is going will be made. (Honing, 2009) Where contemporary music irregulates frozen thoughts it opens path for other ways of thinking, like taking distance or irony. As research showed that where the character of the music is to be determined for mood, other stimulations are necessary for a cognitive evaluation, by which the effect of the music is increased. As in an increasingly visual culture, images and pictures seem to be more accessible than words, and can be as rich and complex. (Smelik, 2006). In this paper I will argue that a combination of images and contemporary music, used as a cognitive reframing intervention, is an extra stimulus to identify dysfunctional thoughts, emotions, express feelings, facilitate communication and provide reflection.
References Hilliard. R (2001): The Use of Cognitive Behavioural Music Therapy in the Treatment of Woman with Eating Disorders, Music Therapy Perspectives (2001),vol 19 Honing. H, (2009): Iedereen is muzikaal, wat we weten over het luisteren naar muziek, Nieuw Amsterdam Uitgevers. Luce. D.W.(2001): Cognitive Therapy and Music Therapy. Music Therapy Perspective, vol 19. Smeijsters. H. (2006): Handboek Muziektherapie, Bohn Stafleu van Lochum, Houten. Smelik. A. (2006): Op het eerste gezicht, de glijdende schaal tussen echt en onecht, Jong Holland, 2006–2.
Biography Meertine MJ Laansma, BM, SRMTh, senior music therapist, lecturer music therapy, musician. Studied music-pedagogy, music therapy and piano, and at the Royal Conservatory of Music, The Hague and the Rotterdam Conservatory. She continued her studies at the Banff Centre of Arts, Canada. Received the Eucrea Award and the Marga Klompe Award for initiating experimental theatre productions in the 90th’s. She is co-author of the chapter on mood disorders in the Handboek Muziektherapie, ed. by H Smeijsters, 2006. Presently she works for the Department of Mood Disorders in The Hague.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Workshop • 2.15pm – 4pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 038 •
Martin Lawes Health and pathology in the dynamics of musical structure and relating: A psychoanalytically informed perspective This workshop will introduce a model through which we can understand health and pathology as manifest in the dynamic structure of musical form. A brief outline of the theoretical background will be given, drawing on the work of psychoanalyst Thomas Ogden, who follows in the tradition of Klein and Bion. Ogden proposes that our ongoing psychological experience results from the interplay of three different modes of organizing experience (1989, 1994). Ogden’s work has a particularly useful application to music therapy, as it can be suggested that we experience the interplay of these three through the way they are directly sounded in music. Firstly, there are the elements of music that generate a sense of going-on-being (Ogden’s autistic-contiguous mode). Secondly is the emergence of spontaneous vitality that enlivens the music but when uncontained threatens to disrupt its continuity, harmoniousness and coherence (Ogden’s paranoid-schizoid mode). Thirdly is the creative force through which containment and integration occurs (Ogden’s depressive mode). These three exist in a creative tension with one another, pathology being defined as a collapse in their interplay, with one of the three modalities becoming over dominant. We will explore the way this helps us understand and work with the dynamics of musical form in clinical work. Case material will be presented before we explore the theme for ourselves through group improvisation. We will also take a look at Ogden’s work on intersubjectivity and the analytic third (1994; Brown, 1999) to develop a specific understanding of health and pathology in relation to the dynamics of the musical relationship. This will be in terms of the creative tension between being ‘one’ in the music and being separate. We will discuss together the ways in which pathology manifests musically in our work and what the therapeutic task entails. This will have application to diverse clinical populations. References Brown, S. (1999). Some thoughts on music, therapy, and music therapy. British Journal of Music Therapy, 13(2), p.63–71. Ogden, T. H. (1989). The primitive edge of experience. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. Ogden, T. H. (1994). Subjects of analysis. London: Karnac Books.
Biography Martin qualified in music therapy in 1999 and in GIM in 2006. His clinical work is in special needs education and in palliative care. He also has 5 years experience in adult mental health. Martin has been visiting lecturer on 3 of the UK music therapy MA courses and is involved in GIM training as assistant trainer. He has presented at music therapy and GIM conferences nationally and internationally since 2001. Martin is an approved supervisor with the APMT and has published in the British Journal of Music Therapy.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 3.15pm – 4pm, Friday 26 February • Hel 037 •
Dawn Loombe Bellows, reeds, buttons and keys: Being a piano accordionist and how this has influenced my work as a music therapist The accordion is a portable instrument of great dynamic range and it uniquely combines the attributes of single-line instruments with those of harmonic instruments. The accordion has also been an object of reminiscence with older people, which has often provided a useful access to music therapy work with this population. In addition, in culture-centred music therapy practice (Forrest, 2002) the accordion is often associated with particular styles of music and specific cultures which can provide new possibilities in certain therapeutic situations. I have played the piano accordion for more than 30 years and it has always been an important part of my life. With experience of being an accordionist and community musician, I came to study music therapy later in life and particularly chose the course at Anglia Ruskin University, as it enabled and encouraged me to develop my use of the accordion; an unusual instrument in music therapy. The main reason I use my accordion in music therapy is because it is my first instrument and therefore, the one with which I communicate most effectively. However, in the course of my work I have come to realise that there are a number of unique features of this instrument that make it particularly useful in music therapy; for example, the use of the bellows to ‘breathe’ with clients, its visual characteristics which seem to have particular appeal for children with autism, and its distinctive sound. This presentation will examine various case examples of work with children and the elderly to demonstrate the use of the accordion in music therapy.
References Forrest, L. C., 2002. Addressing issues of ethnicity and identity in palliative care through music therapy practice. In C. Kenny & B. Stige (Eds.), Contemporary voices in music therapy: Communication, culture, and community (pp. 67–82). Oslo, Norway: Unipub forlag. Powell, H., 2004a. Light on my feet – music therapy with the accordion. Nordoff-Robbins...and no piano. Musicing, the newsletter of Nordoff-Robbins music therapists, December 2004 (online). www.therebeccacenter.org/library/Musicing2004.pdf (accessed February 19, 2009).
Biography Dawn Loombe studied at Anglia Ruskin University and qualified as a music therapist in 2005. She recently completed her MA qualification with her dissertation on the use of the accordion in music therapy. Dawn works as a music therapist at the Child Development Centre, Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge; with Cambridgeshire Music in various mainstream schools, special schools and Children’s Centres and also in private practice with older people with Dementia and adults with Profound and Multiple learning Disabilities.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 11.15pm – 12pm, Saturday 27 February • Recital Hall •
Susanne Metzner Music – the call to that which is missing With the help of biographically relevant music pieces that are used in Germany especially in the therapy with older persons (reproductive and receptive), it is possible to make connections to important life events and significant earlier relationships and to activate resources. However, the individual meaning of music pieces or songs is intertwined with their historical and socio-cultural context. For example, in Germany, National Socialist songs or pieces of music that were instrumentalised for specific purposes during the Third Reich belong to culturally tabooed areas. They can suddenly become virulent in a music therapeutic relationship and produce an unconscious dynamic without this even being noticed, due to trans-generational defence collusion. As it is demonstrated in a case study, a specific music-therapeutic issue can develop with all its ideological, ethical, and gender-specific implications. In the case being presented here, the music acquired several functions: On the one side compositions that triggered memories and shared fantasies; on the other side songs that were hints pointing to hidden, in part conflictive meanings. In contrast, the improvisations were a reverberation of life narratives and material with an own meaning; they were also indications of things that were concealed and a vehicle for random expression and impulses; and finally, symbol for what has been lost and the mutual point of reference for both women, patient and therapist. Although there is nothing generally objectionable about one single case study, I would like to draw attention to music as the ‘call to that which is missing’ (Ernst Bloch): Especially in music therapy with depressive, elderly patients music offers something to withstand the obligation to communicate. Because with music it is possible to maintain the boundaries of discretion while allowing the expression of the effects of this concealment. Biography Prof. Dr. sc.mus. Susanne Metzner, 1958, music therapist, social-pedagogue, musician, psychotherapist, supervisor; broad clinical experiences with different populations; 1991–2002 teaching experience as part-time professor at Hamburg University of Music and Theater, since 2001 professor at the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal; guest professor, member of several the scientific boards, numerous presentations at national and international congresses, publications in books and journals; theoretical background in psychoanalysis and aesthetic theory, specialised clinical knowledge in psychiatry, in pain management; special interest in improvisation skills and in sociological aspects to music therapy. Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal (FH), Germany http://www.hs-magdeburg.de/fachbereiche/f-sgw/master/musiktherapie/ Susanne.Metzner@hs-magdeburg.de
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 4.15pm – 5pm, Friday 26 February • Hel 037 •
Liz Norman & Eddie Norman Engaging Industrial designers with music therapy Generally, music therapists use found objects in their work, such as existing musical instruments and toys. This can be an effective strategy and music therapists are very creative in their practice. The few instruments designed and marketed for use in music therapy tend to be expensive as the market for these products is small. Designers employ their creativity in response to opportunities presented or which they seek out. Some designing has been carried out to provide specialist equipment for music therapists (e.g. the NordoffRobbins reed horns and Midicreator), but music therapy provides a rich design context with many opportunities from which both design researchers and music therapists could benefit. Finalist undergraduate designers at Loughborough University have made a start in 2008/9 with exploratory projects targeted at supporting music therapy practice. Research Questions: • Are there mutual benefits to be obtained through engaging industrial designers with music therapy? • If so, how can this be achieved?
Method: • Website and briefing document prepared (http://www.musical-research.org.uk) • Initial meetings held with interested students • Feedback given as ideas developed and as students accessed other sources of information (e.g. Nordoff Robbins centre and the National Autistic Society) • Designs completed and prototypes made • Feedback obtained from music therapists via website • Designs shown at Loughborough University Degree Show • Designs followed up to see where they develop
Outcomes: • 5 designs and their strengths and weaknesses • Feedback from design participants about the process • Project follow-up
Discussion: what was the point? • What role might bespoke design offer music therapy? •Is it worth pursuing with professional designers?
The paper will note current practice and give detailed accounts of the methods and outcomes before concluding by reflecting on the potential benefits for music therapy from such engagement with design. Biography Eddie Norman is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Design and Technology at Loughborough University and Leader of the Design Education Research Group. He is the Editor of the UK Design and Technology Association’s international research conference and journal, and an R&D consultant for Cool Acoustics (a Loughborough University venture developing polymer acoustic guitars.) He contributes to the teaching of materials, design contexts, design education and design practice. In 2009 Eddie Norman was given the honour of receiving the Design and Technology Association’s ‘Outstanding Contribution to Design and Technology Education Award’ for his lifetime’s achievements. Liz Norman is a music therapist, working in Leicestershire and around the East Midlands. She completed her post-graduate music therapy training at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, in 2007. She is working on her MA project based on the role of music therapists in schools. She also recently completed a Diploma in Systemic Thinking & Practice at the University of Derby. She works in a variety of clinical settings including: a special school for children with severe learning disabilities, a school for young people with atypical autism & challenging behaviour, a pre-school nursery for children with special needs and an adult learning disability service.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 2.15pm – 3pm, Saturday 27 February • Recital Hall •
Amelia Oldfield Why did I play that? An analysis of how and why a music therapist improvises during group playing in child and family psychiatry In child and family psychiatry, one of the most important aspects of the music therapist’s work is to enable children and families who usually struggle to communicate verbally, to interact and engage through non verbal improvised music making. The music therapist will affect and influence these improvisations through her own playing, and the way in which she plays is crucial to the therapeutic process. At times the music therapist will make clear and definite musical decisions, at others she may react intuitively. After working for a few years, most music therapists become fluent at improvising in this way and develop specific styles and techniques. They may no longer always be conscious of exactly how they improvise, or why they react musically in the ways that they do. This paper will use videos excerpts of group improvisations from a music therapy group with five children and two adults, and from a family music therapy session with a mother and a child. The music therapist’s improvisations will first be described with particular attention to musical elements such as: structure, style, mood, volume. The musical contributions of the clients will also be considered and in particular how these influence the music therapist’s improvisations. Other important factors which affect the music therapist’s improvisation will then be examined. These include: the clinical needs of individual clients, the general needs of the group, the musical needs, strengths and limitations of the individual clients, the group and the therapist. The paper will conclude by drawing out the key points that influence and affect the music therapist’s improvisation during group playing in child and family psychiatry. Biography Amelia Oldfield has worked as a music therapist with children for nearly 30 years. She currently works at a Child Development Centre and at the Croft Unit for Child and Family Psychiatry. She also lectures at Anglia Ruskin University where she co-initiated the MA Music Therapy Training in 1994. She has presented papers and run workshops at Conferences and Universities all over the world. She has completed four music therapy research investigations and a PhD. She has published four books, numerous chapters in textbooks and articles in referred journals. She has also produced six music therapy training videos.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 12.15pm – 1pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 251 •
Deborah Parker Reading the music – Understanding the therapeutic process. Documentation, analysis and interpretation of improvisational music therapy The paper presents one of the principal aspects addressed in the author’s thesis ‘In Search of a Secure Base’ (March 2009), which demonstrates how music therapy can support the construction of a secure attachment relationship between therapist and client, in order to promote ‘constructive personality change’ (C. Rogers). It represents a first phase of research into efficacious methods of documenting musical material for analysis and interpretation. Within the context of a case study involving a 26 year old, high functioning, autistic woman, significant extracts of improvisations, recorded audio-visually, during therapy sessions over a period of 14 months are transcribed in musical score form and presented in a ‘double system’, with analysis and interpretation running simultaneously with the score. The notation employed in the musical transcriptions is necessarily augmented with respect to traditional notation, in order to include as many indicators of ‘vitality forms’ (D. Stern) as possible, including those non-sounding (gestures, expressions, etc). The therapist’s interpretation of the process, whilst clearly subjective, is informed not only by her recollections and notes of the sessions, but also by the analysis of her own musical behaviour in relation to that of the client. Thus presented, the documentation reveals clearly how the therapeutic process is profoundly embedded in the music, unravelling itself within the form and contents of the improvisations, which sustain analysis both from a musical and a psycho-dynamic viewpoint. The author welcomes reflection and discussion as to the efficacy of such documentation for the purposes of detailed study of how music works in music therapy. References Anzieu D. 1985. Le Moi-peau, Bordas, Paris / Bowlby J. 1988, A Secure Base, Routledge, London / Damasio A. 1994, Descarte’s Error; emotion, reason and the human brain, Penguin USA / Damasio A. 2003, Looking for Spinoza; joy, sorrow and the feeling brain, Harcourt, USA / De Backer J. 2004, Music and Psychosis (doctoral dissertation), Institute of Music and Music Therapy, Aalborg University / Gaita D. 1991, Il Pensiero del Cuore: musica, simbolo, inconscio, Bompiani, Milano / Karkoschka E. 1966, Notation in New Music, UE London / Kirschenbaum H. and Henderson V. (editors) 1990, The Carl Rogers Reader, Constable, London / Langer S. 1942, Philosophy in a New Key, Harvard University Press USA / Malloch S and Trevarthen C. (editors) 2009, Communicative Musicality, exploring the basis of human companionship, OUP Oxford / Mithen S. 2005, The Singing Neanderthals, the origins of music, language, mind and body, Phoenix, Orion books London / Stern D. N. 1985, The Interpersonal World of the Infant, Basic Books, New York / Stern D. N. 2004, The Presente Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life / Storr A. 1992, Music and the Mind, Harper Collins, London / Winnicott D. W. 1971, Playing and Reality, Tavistock London / Zuckerkandl V. 1956, Sound and Symbol, music and the external world, Princeton University Press N.J. Biography Deborah Parker graduated in Music from York University in 1981 and obtained her ‘cello diploma from the Musikhochschule, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 2 years later. She then moved to Italy, working for 20 years as a concert artist and music education specialist. Constant contact with handicapped and disturbed pupils within the education environment led her to a music therapy training in Assisi, which she completed with distinction in March 2009. She now works full-time as a music therapist, and has 4 years of clinical experience in collaboration with the local health services in Tuscany, working with a wide client population from paediatric neurology to psychiatry and geriatrics.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 3.15 – 4pm, Friday 26 February • Recital Hall •
James Robertson Whose music is it anyway? This presentation will consider a specific element of music therapy when used within a forensic psychiatry setting: the ownership of the music itself. When discussing a music-centred perspective to music therapy, Aigen1 (2005) writes: ‘…the client’s primary motivation is to participate in music, not to achieve some non-musical clinical goal’. (p. 92). In a group music therapy context, the process of ‘musicing’ (Elliott3 1995) involves the simultaneous exchange of musical contributions from the therapist and the clients. This is often manifested as a creative form of interaction based largely on free improvisation. Because of its non-verbal nature, music allows this unique mode of dialogue to take place. Yet this opportunity potentially affords a dilemma for the music therapist. Who is leading the group – the therapist, the clients, or the music itself? Likewise, is this a fixed or fluid arrangement? By listening to audio examples of group work with adults in music therapy, the opportunity is given to focus on directive and non-directive forms of interaction and how ownership of the music needs to be shared. In so doing, negotiations are taking place within the musical moment that may be generalised to other settings. Part of this debate involves reflecting on just how free is free improvisation and how this may compare and contrast to the notion of a piece of music as discussed by Cook2 (1998). When considering this within a musical context, the author will argue that structure and free improvisation are necessary companions rather then opposing forces. References 1
Aigen, K. (2005) Music-Centred Music Therapy Gilsum NH: Barcelona Publishers.
2
Cook, N. (1998) Music: A Very Short Introduction Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3
Elliott, D. (1995) Music Matters Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Biography James Robertson is Programme Leader for the MSc Music Therapy (Nordoff-Robbins) at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. He has been a music therapist for over 25 years and has worked in a wide range of clinical settings. He has also worked as a music educator and has researched closely the overlap between music therapy and music education culminating in the prospective concept of educational music therapy. More recently his clinical work has been based in adult learning disability, palliative care and forensic psychiatry.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 12.15pm – 1pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 038 •
Clare Rosscornes How does the setting affect the music? A comparison of clinical work with children in a hospital, a mainstream school and a children’s centre In looking at my clinical work I am aware of similarities and differences between the different places I work. In this paper I will draw on my current research for my MA dissertation which looks at how the setting affects the music therapy. I will look specifically at how the setting affects the music that I play and the effect that this has on the setting. In the children’s centre and the school the sessions are private and therefore can not be easily overheard. However in the hospital it is very difficult to have a private session due to the nature of the setting and therefore it is often overheard by others. How does this affect the music that we play? What effect does it have on the child and the family and on others who can hear the session? I will refer to relevant literature including music therapy in these settings and issues of boundaries within music therapy. I will also use some video examples of the sessions where possible. Biography Clare Rosscornes qualified as a music therapist from ARU in February 2006. She has wide experience of working with children and families having worked as a primary teacher in mainstream and special schools for ten years before training as a music therapist. She currently works as a music therapist in schools, a children’s centre and on the children’s wards of Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Clare is also currently completing her MA dissertation: How does the setting affect music therapy with children? Clinical work with children in a hospital, a mainstream school and a children’s centre.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 2.15pm – 3pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 251 •
Bethan Lee Shrubsole An exploration of cultural and religious aspects of music improvised in music therapy groups in Northern Uganda, led by an English therapist Theme: What happens in the music when a classically-trained music therapist runs music therapy groups in Uganda with victims of the North Ugandan rebel war? Setting: In July 2008 I set up a music therapy service in post-conflict Northern Uganda, currently servicing four schools and two orphanages with a peripatetic music therapist once or twice a week each. I started the work and was the main therapist for six months, then trained a Ugandan teacher to become a music counsellor and continue the work in my absence. Music therapy groups are run with around six children in each group, referred to me in a variety of ways depending on the setting (i.e. school or orphanage). No individual work is done. I worked in Uganda with a qualified Dutch co-therapist, and the proceeding Ugandan music counsellor worked on her own, with the occasional qualified music therapist volunteer. Clinical population: Drawing on clinical examples of work done in music therapy groups by an English therapist (and some comparison with the same work done with a Uganda music counsellor), in Northern Uganda. The children are between 4 and 18 years old and have all been affected by the civil war in North Uganda. Some present with PTSD symptoms, some with trauma symptoms and some with severe attachment problems. The music therapy groups run for a term each (10–12 weeks) with six children in each group. Some are mixed groups and some single sex. They are arranged by 4–11 and 12–18 years old. Intervention and outcomes: After client-therapist evaluations, the outcomes of the work have been staggering, showing that music therapy is extremely beneficial to the children in helping them to come out of isolation and to manage their thoughts and flashbacks. The groups help them to socialise again and to find their lost creativity and ability to play, amongst other outcomes. In terms of the music used in the sessions, I intend to elaborate on the following questions in my paper: • As a music therapist working in Uganda, does it matter that I was brought up with Chopin and Kylie Minogue? • Can pre-composed songs and improvisation be used together, and what will they be like, considering the cultural differences between the therapist and the clients? • Does a shared faith help in therapy, or hinder? • What type of music can an English therapist improvise with an ‘adungu’ (African harp)?! • Is the language barrier an impossible factor in therapy between people of two different languages, or can it be beneficial? • Should a therapist share songs from her own culture as part of the therapeutic process? • Can songs be composed in therapy groups, encompassing the cultural and religious aspects of the clients and the therapist? Biography Bethan Lee Shrubsole graduated as a music therapist from Anglia Ruskin University in 2008 and went on to Northern Uganda with plans to set up a music therapy service for traumatised ex-child soldiers. The project was very successful and ‘Music for Peaceful Minds’ (MPM) was founded as a community-based organisation (CBO) in Gulu, Northern Uganda, in January 2009. She is now UK-based but continues to direct MPM, which employs a Ugandan music counsellor and takes qualified music therapy volunteers to work in Uganda. Back in the UK, Bethan works at The MacIntyre School, a 52-week residential special needs school in Buckinghamshire, and is an ABA therapist working with a pre-school boy with autism. 27
THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 12.15pm – 2.15pm, Saturday 27 February • Recital Hall •
John Strange Facility in improvision – a mixed blessing Comparisons between psychotherapies often conclude that therapist personality is more potent than theoretical orientation. Psychotherapy training provides a conceptual framework and boundaries within which to practise and interpret, and a repertoire of practical tools of the trade. It builds on and channels interpersonal understanding and skills acquired over a lifetime, enabling the therapist to use his/her personality and life experience most helpfully. Probably the music therapist's single most characteristic tool is improvisation. Wigram1 expounds the multi-faceted complexity of the practical skills of clinical improvisation to meet the whole range of client needs. Then, beyond consciously formulated clinical aims, the therapist's improvised music also inevitably reflects his/her counter-transference, as Streeter2 points out. Two other factors require consideration. The first is the range of styles and genres of non-improvised music with which the therapist feels familiar and at home, including her/his musical mother culture. If this range does not include the musical mother culture of the client, this can pose problems as discussed by Bright3. The second, main focus of this paper, is the therapist’s facility in non-clinical improvisation, for example as jazz musician or church organist. Is it an asset, freeing the therapist from performance anxiety to focus on clinical matters, or a liability, risking the therapist’s music taking on a life of its own and losing touch with the client’s music and needs? After analysing responses to a small survey of APMT full members, these questions will be explored with reference to the author’s own clinical experiences, with some recorded illustrations. References 1
Wigram, A. (2004) Improvisation: Methods and Techniques for Music Therapy Clinicians, Educators, and Students London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
2
Streeter, E. (1999) ‘Definition and use of the musical transference relationship’ in Wigram, T. & De Backer, J. (eds) Clinical Applications of Music Therapy in Psychiatry London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
3
Bright, R. (2005) ‘Cultural Competence and Music Therapy’ (paper presented at World Congress of Music Therapy, Brisbane).
Biography John Strange has worked as a music therapist for twenty three years, mainly in the field of learning disability. He is a ‘partner’ for the HPC, and acts as a music therapy expert witness in medical negligence cases. He is a church organist and choir-trainer and a composer of instrumental and choral music, including musical comedies.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 3.15pm – 4pm, Friday 26 February • Hel 038 •
Giorgos Tsiris Musical Reflections: a supportive tool for expanding therapeutic insight and reflexivity Music and music-making is at the core of our practice as music therapists. However, our ways of reflecting and analyzing the therapeutic process, out of the time-context of sessions (e.g. immediately after the completion of a session or in supervision), are mainly focused on verbal and written modes of communication. But what is the potential role of active music-making in this process? In this presentation I will bring this issue to the foreground by introducing the idea of ‘Musical Reflections’ which refers to the use of music improvisation by the therapist, out of the time-context of the sessions, as a supportive musical tool for expanding his insight of the therapeutic process. In this framework, the presentation aims at exploring the use of Musical Reflections as a tool that facilitates the therapist’s development as a reflexive practitioner. It focuses on the potential role of Musical Reflections in facilitating the therapist in the process of i) generating new understandings of the contextual and personal aspects of his practice, ii) exploring and identifying areas of personal/musical ‘comfort’ and ‘discomfort’, and iii) inspiring new insights about the intra- and inter-personal dimensions of the therapeutic process. The concept of Musical Reflections, as a specifically music-based concept of music therapy practice, will be contextualized within the wider theoretical framework of music-centered music therapy (Aigen1 2005) and phenomenological approaches to music therapy (Forinash4 1992). Connections will also be made with other practical, theoretical and research attempts which aim to enhance our practice as reflexive practitioners in different ways (e.g. Barry & O’Callaghan2 2008; Bergstrom-Nielsen3 1993). Further potential uses of Musical Reflections, as well as their possibilities and limitations, will be discussed on the basis of practical examples. References 1
Aigen, K. (2005). Music-Centered Music Therapy. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.
2
Barry, P. & O’Callaghan, C. (2008). ‘Reflexive journal writing: A tool for music therapy student clinical practice development’ Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 17(1): 55–66.
3
Bergstrom-Nielsen, C. (1993). ‘Graphic notation as a tool in describing and analyzing music therapy improvisation’ Music Therapy, 12(1): 40–58.
4
Forinash, M. (1992). ‘A phenomenological analysis of Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy: The lived experience of clinical improvisation’ Music Therapy, 11(1): 120–141.
Biography Giorgos Tsiris is a research assistant at the Nordoff-Robbins Research Department and he also works as a music therapist at St. Christopher’s Hospice, London. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed e-journal Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education (http://approaches.primarymusic.gr), as well as a joint coordinator (together with Julie Sutton) of the APMT Research Network. His primary research interests include: spirituality and music therapy; aesthetics; music and health; music therapy and special education; transdisciplinary teamwork in music therapy.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 11.15am – 12pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 252 •
Daisy Varewyck Vocal improvisation & psychosis: the voice in resonance to the other The voice is generally seen as the carrier of language, but what makes the voice fascinating, is so much more than language alone. Within speech, dynamic, rhythmic and timbre elements play their important role, both consciously and unconsciously. We can state that the form of the voice is situated at a musical level and thus has an immediate character. Moreover the voice – and this is what makes it so specific – represents the verbal and preverbal nature. In this way the voice presents itself as an expression of emotions, even before it subscribes itself at the service of language. In some cases of psychosis, words are without significance and the words are experienced as pure sound objects. Psychotic patients often use their voices in music therapy to reflect their outward actions. When psychotic patients use their voices in music improvisations the ‘jouissance’ (Lacan), with its libidinous origin, is prominently present. In music therapy the use of the voice takes a rather uncontrollable shape and can be situated at the level of trauma, of the Real. It is the task of the music therapist to contain this music, to resonate with the patients’ experience and to represent the symbolic order. The author will clarify her theoretical approach with different case examples and listening fragments where the patient’s voice as well as the therapist’s voice will be analysed. During the discussion the attention will be turned to the voice of the music therapist. In music improvisations the therapist uses his voice/music in an intuitive manner, but does the therapist’s voice respond to the appeal coming from the patient? Is the patient affected by the voice of the therapist or vice versa? Or is the therapist’s ‘voice’ sometimes too intrusive? References Billiet, L. (2008–3) De woorden zijn alleen maar dood in woordenboeken. sKRIPtA, bulletin van de Kring voor Psychoanalyse van de New Lacanian School De Backer, J. (2004) Music and psychosis. The transition from sensorial play to musical form by psychotic patients in a music therapy process. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Aalborg University, Denmark. Poizat, M (1986) L’opéra ou le cri de l’ange: Essai sur la jouissance de l’amateur de l’opéra. Paris: A.A.Métalié. Schokker, J., Schokker, T. (2000) Extimiteit, Jacques Lacans terugkeer naar Freud. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Boom. Vives, J.M. (2002) Pour introduire la question de la pulsion invocante. In : Vives, J.M. (red.), Les enjeux de la voix en psychanalyse dans et hors la cure. Grenoble: Presses Universitaires De Grenoble, p. 5–20. Wigram, T. (2004) Improvisation, Methods and techniques for music therapy clinicians, educators and students. London and New York: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Biography Daisy Varewyck qualified as a music therapist at the College of Science and Art, Campus Lemmensinstituut (Leuven, Belgium). Since 2005, she has worked as a music therapist in a psychiatric hospital treating psychotic patients. She is also a member of the board of the Belgian Music Therapy Professional Group BMT (Beroepsvereniging voor Muziektherapeuten). Since 2009 she is pursuing her postgraduate training in psychoanalysis at the University College of Ghent. Besides her work as a music therapist, she gives music workshops in Bozar and piano courses in a music school. Furthermore she is the pianist of two improvisation theatres.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Paper • 11.15am – 12pm, Saturday 27 February • Hel 038 •
Wai Man Ng The exploration of Chinese music in a GIM music programme ‘Harvest’ Classical music has been traditionally using in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) for many years because the music programme designers mainly belong to Western culture or classical music background. However, GIM is spreading around the world and the Asian GIM therapists are increasing such as Korean, Japanese and Chinese therapists. Therefore, Asian music is necessary to be developed for GIM music programme. The creation of the first Chinese GIM music programme ‘Harvest’ was done in 2008 which includes six music extracts lasting for 31 minutes. The project of programme creation aimed to explore the style of Chinese music (traditional, contemporary, Chinese instruments or Western instruments), the process of creating the music programme, the rationale of the music programme, the imagery of six participants, the using guideline of the music programme. The result of project showed the significant relationship between music, client’s imagery and client’s emotions during the GIM sessions. It also demonstrated the benefit of music for clients by using their cultural music. References AMI Website, (2007). www.ami-bonnymethod.org The Association for Music and Imagery / Bonny, H. L. (2002). Music Consciousness: The Evolution of Guided Imagery and Music. NH: Barcelona Publishers / Booth, J. M. (1999). The Paradise Program: A New Music Program for Guided Imagery and Music. Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery. WA: AMI Publications. Vol. 6, P.15 / Chan, M. C. (2004). Because of You, Chinese Music will be more Attractive. Hong Kong: The United Press / Grocke, D. E. (2002). The Bonny Music Programs. In K. Bruscia and D. Grocke (Eds.) Guided Imagery and Music: The Bonny Method and Beyond. Gilsum, NH. Barcelona Publishers / Kompfner, Paul (2007). Interactive Randomized Music: Simple Parametrization of Musical Intensity. www.princeton.edu, Princeton University Website / Summer, L. (1988). Guided Imagery and Music in the Institutional Setting. MO: MMB Music, Inc / Thondup, T. (1998). The Healing Power of Mind. Taiwan: Living Psychology Publish Company / Yu, S. W. (2001). Out of Chaos and Coincidence: Hong Kong Music Culture. China: Oxford University Press (China) Ltd / Ventre, M. (2002). The Individual Form of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music / (BMGIM). In K. Bruscia and D. Grocke (Eds.) Guided Imagery and Music: The Bonny Method and Beyond. Gilsum, NH. Barcelona Publishers.
Biography Wai Man Ng (MA, PG Dip, Grad Dip, BSc, BMus, Registered Music Therapist, Registered GIM Therapist) is the only therapist obtained both the qualifications of Registered Music Therapist and Registered GIM Therapist in the Chinese regions. He graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, majoring in Chinese Music. Afterwards, he obtained the BMus (First Class Honors, Kingston), BSc in Psychology & Professional Studies (Gloucestershire), PG Diploma in Music Therapy (Roehampton), Graduate Diploma in Guided Imagery and Music (Melbourne) and MA in Psychology of Music (Sheffield). Mr. Ng was the Chairperson of Hong Kong Music Therapy Association. He is currently the director of the Professional Music Therapy Centre in Hong Kong, and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Part-time Lecturer, Clinical Supervisor for the local and overseas universities. Email Address: hkmusictherapist@yahoo.com.hk
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
• Workshop • 4.15pm – 6pm, Friday 26 February • Hel 038 •
Donald Wetherick & Gail Brand The musical training of music therapists – is it fit for purpose Training in musical skills is one of the five core areas of music therapy training common to all trainings in the UK. Traditionally this has focused on developing listening and improvisation skills on a range of instruments, including voice and keyboard, as well as repertoire and music facilitation skills. Developments in the practice of music therapy such as growth of new fields of work (e.g. neurorehabilitation, hospices) and new models of work (e.g. community music therapy) have implications for the training of music therapists, potentially increasing the range and kind of musical (and other) skills required of music therapists. This has led some practitioners reasonably to question whether current music therapy trainings are fit for purpose (e.g. Hartley 2008). This workshop aims to address this question in relation to the musical training of music therapists. The presenters are tutors on the GSMD Music therapy training and will present an overview of the content of musical training on this programme, and their approach to teaching. This will then lead on to an open discussion with all participants on what is, or should be, current ‘best practice’ in the teaching of musical skills on music therapy programmes in the UK. The experience of practitioners and teachers alike will be considered, including both recent and more experienced therapists. Was the training they received adequate to their needs? What are the priorities in training? Is improvisation still central to music therapy practice and training in the UK? The presenters will welcome the participation of teachers on other music therapy programmes, as well as practitioners, in presenting this workshop. References Hartley, N. 2008 ‘Is music therapy fit for purpose?’ BJMT 2008/2
Biography Donald Wetherick is a tutor in music therapy at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He also works as a music therapist and tutor at the Nordoff Robbins London Centre. He has worked in special and mainstream education and with adults affected by HIV or other long term illnesses and has a special interest in the teaching of musical improvisation. He has written and presented regularly on music therapy in the UK. Gail Brand is a professional trombonist, music therapist and lecturer. A former student at Middlesex University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she is a commissioned composer and has performed and recorded on the international jazz and improvised music scene since the early 1990s. As a music therapist, Gail works in special needs education and has previously worked in the areas of adult mental health, learning difficulties and older adults services. Gail is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on the Music Therapy MA course, and is mentor to undergraduate 1st year music students for the ‘Performance Matters’ programme.
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
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THE MUSIC OF MUSIC THERAPY CONFERENCE | 2010
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