Introducing this blog

Since I started training as a music therapist over four years ago, I have been nagged by my brother to start a music therapy blog. So with thanks to Robbie, I have finally decided to take the plunge into the world of blogging. Despite my four-year hesitation, I do have several reasons why I wanted to start blogging about music therapy. The main reason is to help people to understand what music therapy is and why it is so valuable. When I respond to the question, "What do you do for work?", I get a very mixed response, which happily often involves intrigue but rarely involves prior knowledge of music therapy. While there are tens of thousands of academic articles and books on music therapy, these are inaccessible unless you know where to find them or have access to specific libraries. Another reason for this blog is to champion those I work with, from whom I learn so much, being constantly humbled by their view on life and how they persevere through the struggles that they face due to their conditions.

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I currently work with children with special needs (aged 3-19) in a school and older adults living with dementia in care homes. While these two groups of people seem vastly opposed, there are some surprising similarities, as well as plenty of differences. Often, the individuals I work with either do not speak or find language challenging. That's where music comes in- a medium that we can all connect to and use to connect with other people without the need for words. In music therapy, we use both familiar songs and improvised music to interact and establish a relationship between therapist and client. Taking a person-centred approach, I closely observe the individual I am working with and attempt to join their world, whether that is related to a child's play or an older adult's mood, and use the individual's cues as a framework for the music that I play. Most of the time, the child or adult engages in the music by actively playing a percussion instrument or simply tapping along. In my work with the children, therapeutic aims are generally either to do with social development- supporting communication skills such as attention, use of the voice, turn-taking, listening and so on- or emotional development, providing a means of non-verbal expression or building self-esteem. When working with people living with dementia, I aim to identify and stimulate remaining cognitive functions, such as different types of attention and memory, and also to support the reduction of symptoms of dementia such as agitation, anxiety and aggression.

A key part of music therapy, which is often misconstrued, is that the therapeutic aims are non-musical. People are not referred to music therapy to learn an instrument or to be exposed to more music. Rather, the referrals I receive in school mostly relate to difficulties with expression or communication, and the referrals I receive in the care homes often relate to heightened symptoms of dementia. Music therapy is a non-pharmacological intervention that I have seen to make a positive difference in these areas.

Through this blog, I hope to share some of my own work as well as point to other current work or research. I hope that it will be interesting and will help to raise awareness of music therapy, and to honour those that I work with and write about. Thank you for taking the time to read.