The 18 essays in this volume describe how learning support assistants, family members, caregivers, and medical staff can contribute to music therapy sessions, as well as the benefit of this assistance and collaboration for clients. Music therapists from Europe and Thailand discuss work with profoundly learning-disabled teens, the role of assistants, how music therapy students construct their experiences of working with assistants on training placements, the involvement of family members who are primary carers, assistants and co-therapists in music therapy groups in adult mental health, and nursing home staff who participated in therapy in a care home for people with dementia. Other essays address a group music therapy project in a state institution for profoundly learning-disabled people, music therapy and sensory interaction for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, the role of the co-therapist in the Nordoff Robbins approach, the role of the hands-on facilitator in music and attuned movement therapy for children with profound physical disabilities, collaboration between music therapy and physiotherapy in a mental handicap hospital, improvisational music therapy, interactive music making in a community music service for children, an inclusion group for primary school students with and without profound learning disability, joint music therapy activities and interventions in a university hospital pediatric department, the role of attachment therapy, and the most effective use of assistance and collaboration in music therapy. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
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.
Looking at the challenges and benefits of including collaborators in a course of music therapy, this edited volume offers ways for music therapists to make the most of family members, medical staff, and others who may be present, but not recipients, in music therapy sessions.