Oldfield, Amelia & Flower, Claire (Ed.)(2008). Music Therapy with Children and their Families. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 206 pages.
This book describes how different music therapists in the UK work with children and their families in various clinical settings and with various populations including schools, hospices, psychiatric units, child development centres and in the community. It is the first music therapy book to concentrate entirely on direct work with families, and yet reveals that music therapists in the UK have actually developed and creatively adapted their work with families throughout the last decade.
More and more music therapists all over the world work with families in some form and this book offers descriptions of different approaches more or less theoretically rooted together with very illustrative and lively case studies and stories.
The book consists of an introduction followed by ten chapters reporting on various clinical settings and approaches. The introduction, written by Kay Sobey, plays an important role in giving a theoretical framework for working with families, and links the individual clinicians work together.
She refers to early child development aspects such as attachment and play, as well as early nonverbal mother-infant interactions with its well reported connection to interactions and relationships in music therapy. The broader context of a new field developing is shortly addressed as this also is a common theme in the book.
In chapter one Oldfield tells her own history of working with families in the UK, which seems to be the proper starting point for the following nine chapters, as over the last decade she has contributed much to the literature within this particular area. Her clinical work is still the main focus for the chapter and revolves around two boys with special needs and their mothers being together in music therapy, mainly addressing the individual needs of the children. Oldfield’s chapter doesn’t have a theoretical focus, but has good clinical descriptions of the development of partnership between music therapist and parent.
The clinical work described in chapter three to five also revolves around children with special needs, including learning disability and autistic spectrum disorders. There seem to be some common features in the populations also reported in chapters two and seven where there is no obvious illness and where family dynamics and relationships are the main focus for the clinical work. In chapters eight and nine, the clinical work particularly addresses the theme of establishing attachment between adopted children and their carer and working with looked-after teenagers and their carers.
Chapter six focuses on a traumatized child and her mother and highlights both the special needs of the child and the relationship between mother and daughter.
Discussing the content of the different chapters more specifically, in chapter two Tiffany Drake provides both good clinical descriptions and integrates theoretical foundations for working with vulnerable young children and their parents. Her focus is on how music therapy can contribute to reworking attachment patterns and on how to engage parents.
In chapter three, Helen Loth presents a theoretical foundation for her work with several groups of learning disabled pre-schoolers and their carers or parents. This includes explanations of the used methods, together with descriptions of settings and clinical cases. These are then integrated into her reflections on relevant themes including the importance of music, and different roles in participating as parent.
Rachel Bull presents her work with groups of children with autism and their mothers in chapter four by giving a theoretical understanding of attachment and the context of families dealing with autism. Her focus is on the benefits of working with groups and reflections of how to do so. The chapter also has five case vignettes with good clinical descriptions.
In chapter five, Jasenka Horvat and Nicky O’Neill contribute two case stories woven together in joint exploration and seeking to provide arguments for including parents in sessions. The cases here are two very different children with special needs and their parents/grandmother, and the authors track down common themes including changing roles and foci.
Sarah Howden very illustratively describes how individual music therapy progressed to family music therapy in working with a traumatised six-year-old girl and her mother at a mainstream school. The case study has few theoretical reflections but is very strong in explaining the methods used in working with this family.
In chapter seven Emma Davies presents her work with children and families at a psychiatric unit and how she particularly works with difficulties within the families. She has good explanations and discussions of her approach that is further illustrated by two case examples.
Music therapy after adoption is the theme for chapter eight, where Colette E. Salkeld gives a well grounded theoretical base for her work in developing secure attachment in adoption families. Her reflections of her particular approach are supported and illustrated by a well-described case example and themes such as assessment and referral are also addressed.
In chapter nine Joy Hasler presents a model for music therapy with looked-after teenagers that includes their carers. She provides a contextual understanding of corporate care, considering it in relation to music therapy theory. Her particular approach is well-described and the chapter is further illustrated with examples from different stages in the therapy process.
In the final chapter, Claire Flower very movingly describes her clinical work with dying children and their families. She provides a theoretical understanding of her work with four key elements; the child, the family, the therapist, and the music. The chapter ends the book in a very symbolic way leaving the reader totally convinced that music therapy contributes immensely and plays an important role in working with children and their families.
In spite of the carefully thought-out diversity in the presented clinical work with children and families, as you read the book, certain common features in working with families become evident. For example, all contributors to the book focus on building strong working alliances with parents and offer them much support and encouragement. Many also use questionnaires as part of their clinical method. Even though these common features aren’t explicit in the book it is what unites the ten chapters and helps build a foundation for further development of the field.
It is difficult to write on a topic when there isn’t much prior research or clinical work published. This book doesn’t intend to be a comprehensive guide to working with families in music therapy but intends to illustrate and present how ten different clinicians work within the field. The ten chapters each have their own focus, structure, and personal style which bring the individual clinician’s work fully alive. This type of text is inspirational for other music therapy clinicians and students interested in the growing area. As Sobey states in the introduction the ten chapters stand strongest together in terms of establishing a basic theoretical understanding of working with children and their families. Separately the chapters have their strengths in telling the story of how working with families came to happen, in describing clinical applications for particular populations and addressed problems.
Working with families at a family care centre in Denmark this book was very useful and inspirational for my own clinical work. The book is an important contribution to music therapy literature and to the creation of a well established field of working with families. I would have welcomed a more international perspective alongside this very illuminative and interesting picture of music therapy with children and their families in England.
This book describes how different music therapists in the UK work with children and their families in various clinical settings and with various populations including schools, hospices, psychiatric units, child development centres and in the community. It is the first music therapy book to concentrate entirely on direct work with families, and yet reveals that music therapists in the UK have actually developed and creatively adapted their work with families throughout the last decade.
This book offers descriptions of different approaches more or less theoretically rooted together with very illustrative and lively case studies and stories.
The ten chapters each have their own focus, structure, and personal style which bring the individual clinician’s work fully alive. This type of text is inspirational for other music therapy clinicians and students interested in the growing area. The chapters stand strongest together in terms of establishing a basic theoretical understanding of working with children and their families. Separately the chapters have their strengths in telling the story of how working with families came to happen, in describing clinical applications for particular populations and addressed problems.
Working with families at a family care centre in Denmark this book was very useful and inspirational for my own clinical work. The book is an important contribution to music therapy literature and to the creation of a well established field of working with families. I would have welcomed a more international perspective alongside this illuminative picture of music therapy with children and their families in England.