Music in therapy can be viewed not as a “tool” to be “used,” but as a guiding principle informing an underlying ethos and driving the work in its entirety. In this understanding, music therapy is construed through an artistic lens, in which the value of the work is understood according to such criteria as experiential depth, narrative coherence, personal meaningfulness, and expressive beauty. In this way of understanding the work, the client’s musical constitution, as well as the music therapist’s clinical musicianship, extend themselves to all corners of the therapy. This understanding extends to the targeted outcomes of the work (goals) as well. In this AMTA-Pro podcast, a group of experienced music therapy professionals – Brian Abrams, Kathleen Murphy, Noah Potvin, and Laurel Young – converse about several informed perspectives on ways in which both music therapy processes and goals can be understood in terms of music.

 

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MT Goals from Musical Perspective

June, 2016 AMTA-Pro Podcast

Brian Abrams, PhD, MT‐BC; Kathleen Murphy, PhD, LPC, LCAT, MT‐BC;

Noah Potvin, MMT, MT‐BC; and Laurel Young, PhD, MTA

AMTA-Pro MT Goals

Many in the music therapy profession understand music not as a “tool” that is “used,” but as a guiding principle that informs an underlying ethos and that drives the work in its entirety. In this understanding, music therapy is construed through an artistic lens, in which the value of the work is understood according to such criteria as experiential depth, narrative coherence, personal meaningfulness, and expressive beauty. In this way of understanding the work, the client’s musical constitution, as well as the music therapist’s clinical musicianship, extend themselves to all corners of the therapy.

This includes the outcomes (goals) of the work, which are also understood musically, as expressions of health itself – specifically, of achieving new ways of being in more broadly and deeply musical ways relevant to all domains of human functioning (i.e., the depth, coherence, meaningfulness, and beauty expressed in aesthetically integrated movement, speech, thought, feeling, communication, etc.). Yet, at the same time, music that transcends these domains, just as any health domain cannot ultimately be reduced completely to any of the others. In this way, music holds its own intrinsic legitimacy and meaningfulness as health—and it can address dimensions of a person not necessarily articulated by the referring discipline.

Contextualizing the goals of music therapy musically is one viable way of distinguishing it as fundamentally unique among other allied health professions. While other disciplines may (and do) use music, their practice does not necessarily require the competence to do so musically, nor to promote a clinical-musical relationship in the service of music-based health goals.

The speakers in this AMTA-Pro podcast converse about several informed perspectives on ways in which both music therapy processes and goals can be understood in terms of music, in contrast to the popular understanding of music therapy as the “use of music to achieve non-musical goals.”

Bibliography

Aigen, K. (2005). Music-centered music therapy. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona.

Aigen, K. (2009). Verticality and containment in song and improvisation: An application of schema theory to Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. Journal of Music Therapy, 46 (3), 238–267.

Ansdell (1995). Music for life: Aspects of Creative Music Therapy with adult clients. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Boëthius, A. M. S. (1989). Fundamentals of Music. C. V. Palisca (Ed.); C. M. Bower, (Trans.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Carpente, J. A. (2013). The Individual Music-Centered Assessment Profile for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (IMCAP-ND): A Clinical Manual. New York: Regina.

Garred, R. (2006). Music as therapy: A dialogical perspective. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona.

Lee, C. A. (2003). The architecture of Aesthetic Music Therapy. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona.

Pavlicevic, M. (2004). Learning from Thembalethu: Towards responsive and responsible practice in Community Music Therapy. In M. Pavlicevic & G. Ansdell (Eds.), Community music therapy (pp. 35-47). London: Jessica Kingsley.

Zuckerkandl, V. (1956). Sound and symbol. New York: Princeton Books.

About the AMTA-Pro podcast speakers

Brian Abrams, Ph.D., MT-BC, LPC, LCAT, Analytical Music Therapist and Fellow of the Association for Music and Imagery, has been a music therapist since 1995, with experience across a wide range of clinical contexts. Prior to his current position at Montclair State University as Associate Professor of Music (2008-present) and Coordinator of Music Therapy (2010-present), he served on the faculty at Immaculata University (2004-2008) and Utah State University (2001-2004). He has published and presented internationally on a wide range of topics such as music therapy in cancer care, music psychotherapy, humanistic music therapy, and the interdisciplinary area of Health Humanities, including his role as one of five authors of a 2015 book by that title. He has also contributed to the establishment of several medical music therapy programs. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals, such as Music Therapy Perspectives, the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, and Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. From 2005 to 2011, he served on the Board of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), including as President from 2007-2009. From 2005 through the present, he has served on the AMTA Assembly of Delegates, including as Assembly Representative on the AMTA Board of Directors from 2010-2013, and as Assembly Speaker from 2012-2013.

Brian Abrams, Ph.D., MT-BC, LPC, LCAT
Analytical Music Therapist
Fellow of the Association for Music and Imagery
Associate Professor of Music
Coordinator, Music Therapy Studies
John J. Cali School of Music
Montclair State University

Kathleen M. Murphy, PhD, LCAT, MT-BC, is the Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Music Therapy at Loyola University. She completed her undergraduate music therapy education at Duquesne University. Both her master’s and doctoral degree are in music therapy from Temple University. She is an active clinician, supervisor, and researcher with over 30 years of clinical experience. Kathleen has authored book chapters, and journal articles. Additionally, she is the Associate Editor of Music Therapy Research, (3rd ed.) Kathleen has presented nationally and internationally on a variety of topics related to music therapy clinical practice and issues related to music therapy education and professional well-being. Kathleen’s research interests are focused on music therapy in substance dependence across the lifespan and in short-term mental health treatment.

Laurel Young, Ph.D., MTA is an accredited music therapist (MTA) and a certified practitioner in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (FAMI). Prior to joining the Department of Creative Arts Therapies, she was the Professional Leader of Creative Arts Therapies at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Toronto). She has taught music therapy courses at Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo) and Temple University (Philadelphia) and received awards from both institutions for her outstanding contributions to the field of music therapy. She has over 22 years of clinical experience in various areas including geriatrics/dementia, cancer, HIV, palliative care, community mental health, and developmental disabilities. Dr. Young has published in several peer-reviewed journals and books, and served as Editor in Chief in 2012 and 2013 for Barcelona Publishers’ Qualitative Inquiries in Music Therapy Monograph Series. In 2014, Dr. Young received the Research & Publications award at the Canadian Association for Music Therapy (CAMT) 40th national conference and was a Spotlight Speaker at the World Congress of Music Therapy held in Krems, Austria. In 2015, Dr. Young was an invited keynote “Focus on Canada” speaker at the CAMT’s 41st conference. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Music Therapy Trust Fund and the CAMT. She currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Music Therapy (US) and is a member of Concordia’s University Research Ethics Committee. She is a member of the research team at the Centre for Arts in Human Development at Concordia, as well as a member of the research team at the Centre for Research and Expertise in Social Gerontology (CREGÉS; http://www.creges.ca/en/).  She is a Co-Investigator and Sub-theme Leader of Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS) – a major collaborative research initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Laurel Young, Ph.D., MTA
Music Therapy, Psychothérapeute (Nde permis 61453-15)
Fellow, Association for Music & Imagery (FAMI)
Associate Professor of Music Therapy
& Music Therapy Graduate Coordinator (2016-17)
Creative Arts Therapies Department
Faculty of Fine Arts
Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve O
Montréal, Québec

Canada H3G 1M8
Chercheur, Centre de recherche et d’expertise en gérontologie sociale (CREGÉS)

Noah Potvin, MMT, LPC, MT-BC, is a doctoral candidate in creative arts therapies at Drexel University and has worked as a music therapist in end-of-life settings for over six years. He is currently completing his doctoral dissertation exploring the role of music therapy for familial hospice caregivers during pre-bereavement, and in Fall 2016 will begin a full-time lecturer position of music therapy at University of Dayton. Noah has published and presented on multiple topics related to the theoretical and clinical development of medical music therapy, including the spiritual components of hospice work, the boundaries of symptom manage in oncologic care, and clinical trends in cardiac care. Noah presently serves as the Associate Editor-Communications for Music Therapy Perspectives, and past professional service to music therapy includes the Certification Board for Music Therapists Exam Committee, the American Music Therapy Association’s (AMTA) Affiliate Relations Committee, and AMTA’s Assembly of Delegates.