Music as an agent for transformation: its place in contemporary health and social care

Leslie BuntDepartment of Allied Health Professions, Faculty

of Health and Life Sciences, UWEMusic Therapies and Interventions for Health

Workshop, International Health Humanities NetworkUniversity of Nottingham, March 9 2012

Open Listening

1) First listening to the first two minutes of the Adagio from Schubert’s Quintet in C 2) Second listening choosing a different perspective + sight of score if required

Recording: Alban Berg Quintet with Heinrich Schiff (EMI: Great Recordings of the Century)

Quintet No 2: ‘The Wednesday Group’

Improvisation from ‘The Wednesday Group’ - track 19 of the CD accompanying: Ansdell, G. (1995) Music for Life: Aspects of Creative Music Therapy with Adult Clients. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers (also available as a download from the JKP website)

Opening premise

‘…Creative music therapy works in the way music itself works, and its ‘results’ are essentially of the same kind as music achieves for all of us.’

(Ansdell, 1995, p.5)

Individual improvisation

First section of a video example of a patient improvising with a music therapist

+ A sequence of the patient’s words in relation to

the improvisation

Transformation in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM)

‘All phenomena are in a never-ending process of transformation from one thing into another, becoming this or that and then perishing, changing in relation to one person and another, or to the same person at different times. Nothing in this world is, because everything is always in a state of becoming something else.’ (Tarnas, 1991, p.9)

K’s pattern in GIM (Bunt, 2002)

Transition

‘The role of music in individual and social transformation and the ways in which beliefs about its potentials are translated into collective and/or individual human actions is of interest to music therapists.’ (Edwards, 2011, p.94)

Emerging Themes• Agency (e.g. DeNora, 2000; Ruud, 1998, 2010)• Empowerment (e.g. Rolvsgord, 2010)• Musical/Creative Identity (e.g. MacDonald et

al., 2002)• Sense of well-being (e.g. Stige, 2002,

MacDonald et al., 2012)• Social capital (e.g. Daykin, 2007; Ruud, 2010)

The different ‘hats’ of the music therapist

Music in Health continuum (healthcare music practitioners?)

On range of evidence

Reference:Rawlins, M. D. (2008) De testimonio: On the evidence for decisions about the use of therapeutic interventions. The Harveian Oration of 2008. Royal College of Physicians, London.

Towards an integral music-centred approach

• Wilber – 4 quadrants (Wilber, 1996, 2000)• Bruscia –’Six dynamic models of music therapy’

(Bruscia, 1998, p. 133) • Abrams – ‘Four epistemological domains of evidence

(Abrams, 2010, p. 354)• Bonde – ‘Health musicing: A theoretical model’ –

inspired by Ansdell and Wilber (Bonde, 2011, p.125 and see Bonde, 2001)

Risks• participants’ previous relationship to music (e.g. Daykin et al.

2007)• ‘aesthetic value’ (e.g. Daykin et al. 2007)• music’s inherent ‘goodness’ (Edwards, 2011)• music as ‘commodity’ / contemporary uses (e.g. Joss, 2008) • ‘musical/creative identity’ – notions of ‘competence’ and

‘talent’ (e.g. Daykin et al. 2007) • support and supervision for musicians working in healthcare

settings

Song

To conclude:

a song composed by C. with music therapist Bob Heath

(see: www.soulsandshadowsfoundation.org)

ReferencesAbrams, B. (2010) ‘Evidence-Based Music Therapy Practice: An Integral Understanding,’ Journal of Music Therapy, 47, 4: 351-379. Ansdell, G. (1995) Music for Life: Aspects of Creative Music Therapy with Adult Clients, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Bonde, L.O. (2001) ‘Steps towards a Meta-theory of Music Therapy?’ Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 10, 2:176-187. Bonde, L.O. (2011) ‘Health Musicing – Music Therapy or Music and Health? A model, empirical examples and personal reflections,’ Music and Arts in Action, 3, 2:121-140.Bunt, L. (2002) ‘Transformation, Ovid and Guided Imagery and Music (GIM).’ In: Bunt, L & Hoskyns, S. (eds.) The Handbook of Music Therapy, London: Routledge.Bruscia, K. (1998) Defining Music Therapy, Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers. Daykin, N. (2007) ‘Context, Culture and Risk: Towards an Understanding of the Impact of Music in Health Care Settings,’ In: Edwards, J. (ed.) (2007) Music: Promoting Health and Creating Community in Healthcare Contexts, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Daykin, N., McClean, S. & Bunt, L. (2007) ‘Creativity, identity and healing: participants’ accounts of music therapy in cancer care’, Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 11, 3: 349-370. De Nora, T. (2000) Music in Everyday Life, Cambridge University Press. De Nora, T. (2005) ‘The Pebble in the Pond: Musicing, Therapy, Community,’ Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 14, 1: 57-66.Edwards, J. (2011) ‘A music and health perspective on music’s perceived “goodness”, Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 20, 1: 90-101.Joss, T. (2008) New Flow: A better future for artists, citizens and the state. Available as a download from http://www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk/sites/default/files/23974669-New-Flow-A-Better-Future-for-Artists-Citizens-and-the-State-Tim-Joss-2008_0.pdf (accessed February 4th 2012).MacDonald, R A.R., Hargreaves, D. J., & Miell, D. (2002) Musical identities, Oxford: Oxford University PressMacDonald, R.A.R., Kreutz, G. & Mitchell, L. (2012) Music, Health and Wellbeing, Oxford: Oxford University Press

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References (cont.)Pavlicevic, M. & Ansdell, G. (eds.) (2004) Community Music Therapy, London: Jessica Kingsley. Rawlins, M. D. (2008) De testimonio: On the evidence for decisions about the use of therapeutic interventions. The Harveian Oration of 2008. Royal College of Physicians, London.Rolvsjord, R. (2010) Resource-Orientated Music Therapy in Mental Health Care, Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers. Ruud, E. (1998) Music Therapy: Improvisation, Communication and Culture, Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Ruud, E. (2010) Music Therapy: A perspective from the humanities, Gilsum, NH: Barcelona. Small, C. (1998) Musicking, Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press. Spingte, R. & Droh, (1992) MusicMedicine: International Society for Music in Medicine, 1992, MMB Music.Staricoff, R. & Clift, S. (2011) Art and Music in Health Care: An overview of the medical literature: 2004-2011. Chelsea and Westminster Health Charity (available from IXIA – public_art on line.org.uk – accessed March 8 th 2012)Stige, B. (2002) Culture-Centred Music Therapy, Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers. Stige, B. & Aarø, E. (2012) Invitation to Community Music Therapy, New York/London: Routledge.Tarnas, R. (1991) The Passion of the Western Mind, London: Pimlico.Wilber, K. (1996) A Brief History of Everything, Boston: Shambhala. Wilber, K. (2000) Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy, Boston: Shambhala.Woodward, A. (2012) An interview with Nigel Osborne, www. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 12, 1 (2012).

Leslie.bunt@uwe.ac.ukwww.lesliebunt.com

Thank You for listening