Music as Therapy
A Dialogical Perspective
Description:... "There has for some years now been a debate within the field of music therapy on the issue of music-centered therapy. This book relates to this discussion and presents a contribution. The thesis that is put forward is that a dialogical perspective may serve to frame such therapy. Or, rather, for music as therapy, which is the term that is used here. Some might want to claim that there is no such thing as music as therapy, that the only real therapy there is, is some already established mode of therapy in which music plays a subordinate part, music in therapy. In this book, the attempt is to show a different picture, one which includes also the possibility of music as therapy, that is to say, therapy based on qualities of the medium itself. A particularly much-debated issue has been whether verbal processing is necessary for actual therapy to take place. This book presents and discusses some of the crucial issues involved, and develops a theory to bring out potentials of an experiential, transformative music therapy, in which verbal processing, talking cure style, is not necessarily incorporated. The models related to, and exemplified through vignettes from practice, are mostly improvisational, but the perspective drawn is applied to some extent also to other modalities, such as community-oriented practices and receptive, listening-based music therapy."--Publisher's website.
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