Resources & references

This article explores and develops a critical notion of participation within the context of music therapy and blind/visually impaired children through a community music therapy and disability studies lens. Theoretical ideas that are relevant for practice, research, and further theoretical discussion are also included.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a major transformation in the delivery of music therapy services worldwide as they moved online. Parents and their children with visual impairment participated in online music therapy sessions. Parents indicated that the programme was a valuable family resource that supported bonding and interaction. A discussion of the findings is followed by implications for practice.

Read an article exploring the use of the Differentiated Didactic Approach to Teaching the Arts (D.D.A.T.A) framework to bridge the gap between clinical music therapy and social inclusion, particularly in using community music therapy approaches to facilitate inclusion of disabled individuals in cultural arts experiences.

This article examines two cases of military service members treated with music therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury, and other psychological issues, highlighting how music performance can support personal growth, rehabilitation, and community change.

Read an article exploring the paralells and contrasts between Western music therapy and the Senegalese Ndëpp healing ritual. The author further explores the role, approach, and limits of music therapists in an increasingly globalized world, including the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue when supporting individuals from different cultures.

This scoping review explores Bruscia’s (1987) clinical techniques for improvisational music therapy as they relate to music therapy in autism research to determine the most commonly used clinical techniques in music therapy with clients with autism. The work was undertaken as a preliminary step in a pilot study to explore how the techniques can be represented in terms of individual ways of playing, musical relationships; and how the use of the techniques impacts the participant’s experience of musical connection, influence, and expression.

Read an article exploring the neural changes observed in dementia patients following a music therapy program targeting cognitive function. Results suggest that music therapy may increase the connectivity of compensatory neural networks used to improve and maintain cognitive performance.

Read an article exploring the ways that a music therapist uses music therapy sessions to support families to engage with music-making with their multiply disabled preschool children outside of the music therapy space. Specific characteristics of the resources and tools provided are discussed.

Click here to read another study on the same research project by the same author.

This study aimed to investigate clinical effectiveness of a structured eight-week mindfulness-based music therapy (MBMT) program on improving mood regulation in older women with blindness. 

Read an article on the collaboration between nursing staff and music therapists in a hospital setting. Analysis of music therapy protocols and procedures at a specific health care center, and how they have facilitated both staff understanding of and patient access to music therapy are included. 

Read an article exploring two case studies of the interdisciplinary collaboration between music therapists and medical social workers in end-of-life periods for patients in intensive care units (ICUs). The ways that each professional complements the other are highlighted. 

This qualitative study explores the lived experience of inter-active listening (IAL), an individualized music therapy experience in which the therapist plays music or sings while the patient engages through listening. The study found that a receptive music therapy referred to as IAL was associated, in cancer patients in an acute palliative care unit, with increased emotional and spiritual well-being and a greater sense of connection to self and others.