аÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û2023

Music therapists often speak of working with the 'whole' child, and of music therapy addressing the multiple needs of children with disabilities, disorders or 'in crisis'. Since many music therapists work in settings that think of childhood within the developmental framework, and of pathology as distinct from health, how do practitioners fit their experience of the 'whole' with the developmental, educational or medical images of the child? In reporting our work to other professionals, how is the 'wholeness' portrayed - and conveyed? This paper explores 'childhood' and 'pathology' from various perspectives without aligning itself with any one at the expense of another. Rather, it offers various convergences to help conceptualise and describe the whole child in music therapy. Although the notion of the 'whole' applies not only to children but to all persons in music therapy, this paper focuses on childhood, which is especially susceptible to being viewed as a 'developmental' stage in life.

Music therapists are now required to have personal therapy as part of their training. In many cases, as in mine, this is likely to be psychotherapy rather than music therapy. This paper gives an account of my own therapeutic journey which began quite a few years before I trained, but focuses on the place of music in that journey. I explore how composition and improvisation helped me to contain and process my emotional experience in a unique way.

This article describes two short-term music therapy groups with mothers and young children at the Croft Unit for Child and Family Psychiatry. As there is very little documented music therapy work with this client group, the authors examine literature that describes other therapeutic interventions and that looks at the links between mothers and young children's behaviour. This literature review suggests that early intervention with parents who are experiencing difficulties with their children is both important and useful. This article goes on to hypothesise why music therapy is a particularly effective way of working with mothers and young children and to examine the small amount of other documented work by music therapists with this client group. The two treatment groups with parents and young children at the Croft are then described and analysed in some detail. The authors reflect on the particular role music therapy plays in the treatment packages offered at the Croft.