Clinical Applications of Music Therapy in Psychiatry provides valuable insight into the work of professional music therapists in their clinical practice. The contributors, who are all internationally-renowned music therapists, discuss work with a diverse range of clients, including those suffering from Alzheimer’s, anorexia nervosa, schizophrenia, psychosis, personality disorder, anxiety and psychosomatic disorder. Their chapters develop psychotherapeutic theory alongside music therapy practice, and are intended to be read by the psychiatric professions as well as music therapists, reflecting the medical establishment’s growing receptivity to music therapy.
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Reviews
`The contributions of this book are very important for us as health carers to increase our knowledge of this form of therapy, so that we can understand its power and limits. It is a book about music therapy where clinical applications are successfully documented in a very professional and clear way. The quality of the contributions proves that music therapy has a legitimate and due place in the spectrum of psychotherapeutic interventions in psychiatric clinical practice.'
`provides an articulate discussion surrounding the components and the quality of the therapeutic relationship involving the patient, the music, and the music therapist. The writers lead the reader through a hallway of psychiatric terms such as transference, release, and containment, all within the context of the music therapist's perspective. They emphasize the importance of music therapists' personal expertise in the musical instruments they choose for use with patients. They highlight a respect for one's limitations and fears in stressing that "music therapists be able to analyze and work through personal fears of loss of control in order to deal in a therapeutic way with psychiatric patients" (p. 20). They state that the musical experience is necessary in helping the patients acquire the insight needed to work through conflict.
Through the variety of clinical presentations offered by this international forum of music therapy professionals, the reader has witnessed a rich balance and blending of psychotherapeutic theory and clinical music therapy in action. The range of contributions, although at times perhaps more reflective of the international approach to music therapy with its emphasis on music improvistaion, nonetheless makes a serious contribution to the annals of muscia therapy literature in the psychiatric setting. The benefits of reading this anthology to those serving the needs of the psychiatric client will endure long after the settling of first reflections.'