Community Music Therapy

Music therapists from around the world working in conventional and unconventional settings have offered their contributions to this exciting new book, presenting spirited discussion and practical examples of the ways music therapy can reflect and encourage social change. From working with traumatized refugees in Berlin, care-workers and HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa, to adults with neurological disabilities in south-east England and children in paediatric hospitals in Norway, the contributors present their global perspectives on finding new ways forward in music therapy. Reflecting on traditional approaches in addition to these newer practices, the writers offer fresh perceptions on their identity and role as music therapists, their assumptions and attitudes about how music, people and context interact, the sites and boundaries to their work, and the new possibilities for music therapy in the 21st century. As the first book on the emerging area of Community Music Therapy, this book should be an essential and exciting read for music therapists, specialists and community musicians.

'Community Music Therapy' presents a new way of considering music therapy in more culturally, socially and politically sensitive ways. It suggests new practices and new thinking for music therapy in the 21st century, and offers a critique of some older methods.

Invitation to Community Music Therapy presents the main perspectives and principles of community music therapy as it is practiced around the world. A relatively recent development within the broader field of music therapy, community music therapy emphasizes human connectedness, health promotion, and social change. This textbook surveys the history, theory, and current practice of community music therapy to develop a comprehensive picture of the field. Along the way it takes full measure of the diverse and vibrant ways community music therapy is practiced around the globe. Including dozens of photographs and pedagogical tools such as chapter questions, textboxes, figures, key terms, and discussion topics, Invitation to Community Music Therapy is the ideal introduction to a growing area of music therapy.

This book explores how people may use music in ways that are helpful for them, especially in relation to a sense of wellbeing, belonging and participation. The central premise for the study is that help is not a decontextualized effect that music produces. The book contributes to the current discourse on music, culture and society and it is developed in dialogue with related areas of study, such as music sociology, ethnomusicology, community psychology and health promotion. Where Music Helps describes the emerging movement that has been labelled Community Music Therapy, and it presents ethnographically informed case studies of eight music projects (localized in England, Israel, Norway, and South Africa). The various chapters of the book portray "music's help" in action within a broad range of contexts; with individuals, groups and communities - all of whom have been challenged by illness or disability, social and cultural disadvantage or injustice. Music and musicing has helped these people find their voice (literally and metaphorically); to be welcomed and to welcome, to be accepted and to accept, to be together in different and better ways, to project alternative messages about themselves or their community and to connect with others beyond their immediate environment. The overriding theme that is explored is how music comes to afford things in concert with its environments, which may suggest a way of accounting for the role of music in music therapy without reducing music to a secondary role in relation to the "therapeutic," that is, being "just" a symbol of psychological states, a stimulus, or a text reflecting socio-cultural content.

The last few years the term Community Music Therapy increasingly has come into circulation, and with it, fresh debates about the relevance and meaning of the term and of the practices it refers to. How could Community Music Therapy be described and defined? What characteristics of human nature and late modern culture indicate the relevance of Community Music Therapy? What preliminary descriptors could be developed for Community Music Therapy practice? What are the implications for the discipline and profession of music therapy? These are the questions addressed in this study, which is characterised as a qualitative inquiry with a strong theoretical component. Available literature resources in four countries -- Germany, Norway, Britain, and the US -- are examined as a foundation for the elaboration of a metatheoretical platform from which the history, importance, and significance of Community Music Therapy can be accounted for. The casework presented and analysed in Chapters 6 and 7 is chosen as part of the ongoing narrative and accompanied by extensive commentary on methodological implications. Analysis is given to the empirical material from several interlocking perspectives, each time adding up to a further step in the overall theoretical project of the dissertation. A context-inclusive Model of Music Therapy Processes, which challenges conventional music therapy theories and practices, is developed in Chapter 8, before the final Chapters 9 and 10 synthesise the various perspectives and material taken in pursuit of provisional answers to the four research questions.

"Music triggered a healing process from within me. I started singing for the joy of singing myself and it helped me carry my recovery beyond the state I was in before I fell ill nine years ago to a level of well-being that I haven't had perhaps for thirty years." This book explores the experiences of people who took part in a vibrant musical community for people experiencing mental health difficulties, SMART (St Mary Abbotts Rehabilitation and Training). Ansdell (a music therapist/researcher) and DeNora (a music sociologist) describe their long-term ethnographic work with this group, charting the creation and development of a unique music project that won the 2008 Royal Society for Public Health Arts and Health Award. Ansdell and DeNora track the 'musical pathways' of a series of key people within SMART, focusing on changes in health and social status over time in relation to their musical activity. The book includes the voices and perspectives of project members and develops with them a new understanding of how music promotes their health and wellbeing. A contemporary ecological understanding of 'music and change' is outlined, drawing on and further developing theory from music sociology and Community Music Therapy. This innovative book will be of interest to anyone working in the mental health field, but also music therapists, sociologists, musicologists, music educators and ethnomusicologists. This volume completes a three part 'triptych', alongside the other volumes, Music Asylums: Wellbeing Through Music in Everyday Life, and How Music Helps: In Music Therapy and Everyday Life.

The Handbook of Music Therapy takes the reader on a journey through the historical and contemporary landscape of the field of music therapy, updated with the latest practical, sociocultural and theoretical perspectives and developments in music therapy. The second edition is divided into four parts: foundation and context; music therapy practice; learning and teaching; and professional life. This includes the trajectory of music therapy as a health, social and community-based discipline in the 21st century with an evolving evidence base that also acknowledges the growing edges in the field, such as perspectives around equity, inclusion and diversity. The editors have included practice-based chapters including contributions from music therapy specialists in the fields of autism, adult learning disability, forensic psychiatry, neurology, immigration and dementia. The second edition is thoroughly updated to showcase a series of new interviews with Elders in the music therapy field, a thoroughly revised first section of the book with new materials on values and principles, updated chapters on music therapy practice, online and print resources supporting music therapy practice including musical illustrations with new and revised examples, and an extensively revised final section with new chapters on professional life and research. Illustrated with rich case studies and practical examples throughout, The Handbook of Music Therapy covers a variety of different theoretical and philosophical perspectives. It will be invaluable to music therapists (novices, students, professionals), other arts therapists and practitioners such as speech and language therapists, psychotherapists, teachers, community musicians, psychiatrists and social workers.