The stories and reflections in this book describe powerful encounters between nine music therapists and their clients. These clients include four-year-old Giorgios, who is terminally ill; Wendy, a passionate, battered child who has been rejected by her mother; Olive, suffering from senile dementia; Martha, whose successful life is in crisis; and Steve, who is living with HIV/AIDS. Through music therapy the clients - and therapists - discover their creativity, and, in the process, come to terms with suffering. The stories reveal the passion and integrity of nine music therapists who themselves undergo profound changes as a result of their work. Music Therapy - Intimate Notes is a practical and inspiring introduction to music therapy, showing its range of possibilities in various settings. The book provides a lively and informal theoretical foundation, and connects music to our intimate lives.

Literature to analyse, guide and further the practice of group music therapy is long overdue, so in this book Mercedes Pavlicevic develops a discourse for the music therapists, musicians and teachers who use music groups. By drawing on her own extensive experience, she provides a broad-based understanding of how groups function when music is introduced. With each chapter illustrated by clinical vignettes taken from a wide range of settings such as education, community work and health, Music and Group Resonances provides a solid but varied framework from which to reflect on the experience and dynamic of group music therapy that will prove essential to all those involved in its practice.

Music therapists from around the world working in conventional and unconventional settings have offered their contributions to this exciting new book, presenting spirited discussion and practical examples of the ways music therapy can reflect and encourage social change. From working with traumatized refugees in Berlin, care-workers and HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa, to adults with neurological disabilities in south-east England and children in paediatric hospitals in Norway, the contributors present their global perspectives on finding new ways forward in music therapy. Reflecting on traditional approaches in addition to these newer practices, the writers offer fresh perceptions on their identity and role as music therapists, their assumptions and attitudes about how music, people and context interact, the sites and boundaries to their work, and the new possibilities for music therapy in the 21st century. As the first book on the emerging area of Community Music Therapy, this book should be an essential and exciting read for music therapists, specialists and community musicians.

* Are you about to write a dissertation for an MA in an arts therapy? * Is your workplace pressuring you to do research on your practice? * Do you fancy trying your hand at a bit of research without any pressure from anyone? * Are you bewitched, bothered and bewildered? A mystique about research usually comes from reading a) writers who launch into philosophical dialectics about research and avoid the basics; b) poorly written research papers full of undecipherable formulae; and c) smug, unfriendly research texts. This book begins at the beginning. Ansdell and Pavlicevic hold your hand and give you plenty of hints and tips while you prepare your funding proposal or research project. They help you think about your title, structure your research questions and aims, and prepare to collect, organize and analyze your research data. Moreover, you're not alone! Franz and Suzie have their own projects which you're invited to follow with opportunities to learn about the nitty-gritty of tables, pie-charts, data transcription, data presentation - and supervisors who toss off clever, useless bits of advice. `Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies' puts the zap into arts therapies research, making it fun and serious, exasperating and utterly absorbing. Miss this book and you'll deprive yourself of a sympathetic ear, firm advice and a sensible and imaginative combustion of theory, debate and determination. `Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies' is recommended to all arts therapies practitioners: students, researchers, and those clinicians who simply want to `keep up' with research literature without `doing it for themselves'.

This practical guide aims to inspire ethically-aware practitioners to become ethically-aware researchers, evaluators and participants. Conducting a research project, whatever the setting, requires not only knowledge of research methods but also an in-depth understanding of research ethics. Embedded in 'real life' experiences of research ethics applications, this guide navigates the reader through research ethics procedures, drawing from legislation and a range of research ethics committee regulations. Although the emphasis is on research, ethical considerations presented in this guide are equally relevant and applicable to other types of enquiry, including monitoring and evaluation projects. Whether leading a research project, being part of a research team or taking part as a research participant, this book is essential reading for all arts & health practitioners and arts therapists.

Evaluation is crucial to the development and sustainability of Arts Therapy and Arts & Health practices. This guide supports practitioners in their quest to integrate thorough evaluation procedures in their everyday practices by providing practical guidance for designing, planning and implementing bespoke evaluation projects. Based on the authors' experience of designing and realising evaluation projects and running training workshops, a range of suggestions are offered for developing appropriate timelines and collection tools, ensuring organisational diplomacy, and managing what can be a delicate balance of truth, fact and perception. This guide will help practitioners to evaluate their services and projects by taking into consideration the unique profile of the practice, the workplace, clients, project participants, and sectors.

Making a significant contribution to a theory of music therapy, this book addresses current music therapy debates to do with meaning: are words necessary in creative music therapy? How is clinical improvisation distinct from 'pure' music improvisation? If so, what is the nature of the distinction? How do music therapists address culture-specific nuances in music, and in concepts of healing rituals? The book is in three parts. The first explores concepts and theories developed by music theorists and music psychologists, in order to explore meaning in music as artform, in contrast to music as therapy, concluding with an exploration of the similarities and distinctions between music improvisation whose emphasis is musical, and clinical improvisation whose emphasis is inter-personal, thus addressing the particular acuity that music therapists develop through training and practice. The second part explores the relationship between music and human emotion, in order to establish why, and on what basis, music is used as a therapeutic agent. The third part draws concepts from psychodynamic theory into the music therapy sphere in order to explore meaning, and verbal meaning in music therapy. By drawing extensively from current literature on music and developmental psychology, music therapy, psychotherapy and music theory, this book encourages music therapists not to compromise the musical process at the heart of their practice, not simply to `borrow' concepts from allied theories, but to use these with authority - the authority that this book seeks to provide.