The Music in Music Therapy

The contributors to this book show how it is possible to connect with important, unspoken truths in the lives of individuals, including very severely disturbed individuals, through music, and in so doing render new opportunities for expression of subjugated aspects of the self.

The Music in Music Therapy explores music and musical processes as central to music psychotherapeutic practice, primarily through case studies by clinicians from throughout Europe. With a focus on psychodynamic music therapy and the inclusion of cases with a variety of clientele, the book is a welcome addition to the growing literature addressing the role of music in music therapy. In addition to being drawn into the clinical presentations, I am excited and enriched by reading the theoretical material and perspectives on music therapy research that are included.

Anyone inclined to see music therapy approaches in binary terms- with musical and psychodynamic understandings as mutually exclusive - may find the title of this book a challenge. I hope it is a challenge they will take up and learn from, because this book offers the most thorough exposition to date of how musical and psychodynamic thinking can and do work together in music therapy... This book is a very rich meal, and readers may well find themselves in need of a digestif! There is material enough for two, or perhaps even three, shorter books. That said, however, there is much very good meat here that will nourish students, novices an more experienced music therapists alike for many years.