Collaboration and Assistance in Music Therapy Practice: Roles, Relationships, Challenges

by John Strange (Editor), Helen Odell-Miller (Editor), Eleanor Richards (Editor), Catherine Warner (Contribution by), Anthi Agrotou (Contribution by)

Overview

Relating the innovative ways in which assistants and collaborators can become an integral part of a course of music therapy, this book explores how the involvement of a diverse range of individuals, such as family members, learning support assistants, caregivers and medical staff, can contribute to successful sessions. Illustrated by clinical examples, the book will help music therapists and students to make the most of opportunities to collaborate with individuals other than the client who may be present during therapy sessions. The book also takes into account the challenges that can arise in music therapy collaboration, and explores the relationships that can develop between music therapists, clients and collaborators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784502232
Publisher:	Kingsley, Jessica Publishers
Publication date:	12/21/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

John Strange chaired the UK Association of Professional Music Therapists from 1995 to 1998, also representing Britain on the European Music Therapy Committee (now Confederation). From 2002 to 2004 he was external assessor of improvisation on the Masters in Music Therapy programme at Aalborg University, Denmark. Since 1995, John has provided expert evidence on music therapy in almost thirty High Court cases of medical negligence. He has contributed chapters to two previous Jessica Kingsley publications and book reviews to the British Journal of Music Therapy. John is also a prolific composer, mainly of church music. Helen Odell-Miller OBE is a full time Professor of Music Therapy at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and worked previously for many years as a therapist researcher and manager specialising in adult mental health in the NHS. She has published and lectured internationally and led research projects looking at clinical outcomes in dementia, and arts therapies in the adult mental health field. She is a board member of the International Centre for Research in the Arts Therapies, the Council for Allied Health Professions Research, and The Music Therapy Charity. She sings in Cambridge Voices, and is also a violinist and pianist. Eleanor Richards is a Senior Lecturer in Music Therapy at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Until 2013 she was a senior music therapist in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. She has a particular interest in group work, and is a team member at the Group Therapy Centre, Cambridge. She is also a psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice. She has published widely and contributed to national and international conferences. She is a member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Music Therapy.
Helen Odell-Miller is Professor of Music Therapy at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and an honorary music therapist in the Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust. She has worked as a clinician, researcher and manager specialising in adult mental health. She has published and lectured internationally and led research projects looking at clinical outcomes in dementia, and arts therapies in the adult mental health field. She is a board member of the International Centre for Research in the Arts Therapies, the Professional Advisory Board for Allied Health Professions and The Music Therapy Charity.
Eleanor Richards is a senior music therapist in the Service for Adults with Learning Disabilities, Lifespan NHS Trust, Cambridge. She is currently training as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Both authors have been involved in introducing music therapy into the St Columba Group Therapy Centre in Cambridge.
Jörg Fachner finished his doctoral thesis on cannabis and music perception in an EEG investigation at the Chair for Qualitative Research in Medicine in 2001. Jörg's research interests, publications and scientific memberships focus on qualitative research aspects of music, therapy and medicine, music physiology, and psychology, youth and pop culture, altered states of consciousness, transcultural psychiatry and anthropology of the body.

Table of Contents

Introduction. A Well-Trodden Territory in Need of a Map. John Strange, freelance music therapist, London, Helen Odell-Miller, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and Eleanor Richards, Lifespan NHS Trust, Cambridge. 1. Assistants as Interaction Partners. John Strange. 2. Music Therapists' Experiences of Working with Staff in Sessions. Hannah Munro, Nordoff Robbins Scotland. 3. Student Perspectives on Working with Assistants on Placement During Vocational Music Therapy Training. Catherine Warner, University of the West of England. 4. Involving Family Members who are Primary Carers in Music Therapy Sessions with Children with Special Needs. Pornpan Kaenampornpan, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. 5. Exploring the Significance of the Role of Assistants in Music Therapy Groups in Adult and Older People's Mental Health Settings. Helen Odell-Miller. 6. 'Let Them Bring Their Own Song': A Qualitative Study of Developing Relationships Between Care Staff and Nursing Home Residents with Dementia Through Music Therapy and Dance Movement Therapy Groups. Ruth Melhuish, NHS Music Therapist, Bradford on Avon. 7. Caregivers' Dual Role in Music Therapy to Manage Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Dementia. Ming Hung Hsu, MHA Homes and Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. 8. Psychodynamic Group Music Therapy Facilitates Carers to Become Auxiliary Music Therapists: A Case-Study and Methodological Analysis. Anthi Agrotou, Arte Musical Academy, Nicosia, Cyprus. 9. Supporting the Unplanned Journey: Music Therapy as a Developmental Resource with People with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities and Their Carers and Staff. Tessa Watson, Roehampton University. 10. From Assistance to Co-Therapy: On the Role of the Co-Therapist in Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. Jörg Fachner, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. 11. Music and Attuned Movement Therapy: How the Facilitator Mediates Between Client and Therapist. John Strange, Mary-Clare Fearn, music therapist in health and special education, Dorset and Rebecca O'Connor, National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dublin. 12. Music and Movement: Integrated Music Therapy and Physiotherapy for People with Severe Physical Disabilities at Risk of Developing Fixed Deformities. John Strange and Lyn Weekes, physiotherapy manager and special education teacher (retired). 13. Improvised Music to Support Client-Assistant Interaction: The Perceptions of Music Therapists. John Strange. 14. Who Knows Me Best? Exploring the Collaborative Roles of Transient Practitioners and Constant Practitioners in Music Therapy. Sarah Hadley, Oxleas NHS Trust and Music as Therapy International. 15. An Inclusion Group for Primary School Pupils With and Without Profound Learning Disability. Motoko Hayata, formerly Soundscape, Newham Music Trust, and John Strange. 16. Building Musical Bridges in Paediatric Hospital Departments. Tone Leinebø, Oslo University Hospital and Trygve Aasgaard, Norwegian Academy of Music. 17. Someone Else in the Room: Welcome or Unwelcome? An Attachment Perspective. Eleanor Richards. 18. Valuing Human Resources. Training, Service Development, Research - The Way Forward. John Strange, Helen Odell-Miller and Eleanor Richards.

Editorial Reviews

This thoughtful and elegantly researched volume demonstrates the rich benefits to be gained by all from collaborative and integrated cross-disciplinary work. International in authorship, with far reaching content, it will surely emerge as a go-to reference of music therapy practice for many years to come.

Rachel Darnley-Smith

This is a fascinating book and the first to explore the context of the use of collaborators and assistants in developing relationships with clients, enabling them to gain as much as possible from their music therapy sessions. John Strange sees collaborators and assistants participating fully as group members, something that has a significant impact on their music therapy. This book is especially interesting for music therapists who work with clients who are not able to participate in a physically or psychologically active way.
Experienced authors write from a clinical and theoretical perspective, intended to help both practitioners and trainees. All the contributions are written in a very clear and authentic way. I believe it is good that the material in this book is available for use in different therapeutic situations.

Professor Dr. Jos De Backer LUCA

[This book] addresses a myriad of impacts of assistants and collaborators in the music therapy room. The authors write from a clinical, narrative and/or research perspective, while exploring both the roles of different professions co-working on an equal basis with music therapists, and those of parents or other family members present in the therapy room. A historical reflection on assistants and co-therapists in music therapy groups in adult mental health is included, as well as suggested ways forward in training, service development and research. The volume is a valuable resource as it documents a wide variety of possible ways of involving assistants and collaborators to gain as much as possible from the music therapy group or individual session. Whatever roles the assistants and collaborators in music therapy perform, they will always influence the session. As the book clearly states, 'it is not possible to simply be a fly on the wall.'

from the foreword by Gro Trondalen

Much has been written about the theory and practice of music therapy, yet an area of practice not addressed often is the role of carers, staff, assistants, students, volunteers and family members as collaborators and "skill sharers" in music therapy sessions. This book, edited by three very experienced therapists and researchers, fills a large gap in our knowledge of how music therapy works, and is a very welcome addition to the music therapy literature.

Emeritus Professor Denise Grocke