Full Description
Music therapy is an internationally recognised field of professional evidence-based practice. Qualified music therapists use the engaging, non-verbal aspects of music to create relationships in which therapeutic goals can be pursued and needs of clients addressed.
This is the first book to focus specifically on the ways that music therapists provide support for the development of the special and necessary bond between parents and their infants, where some vulnerability is experienced. In the book, music therapists from four countries, Australia, Ireland, the UK and the US describe their practices with reference to contemporary theory and research. Throughout, the chapters are illustrated with engaging case material. Many of the authors are the world leaders in the area of music therapy to promote parent and infant bonding. Others are having their first opportunity to describe their work publicly in print. The focus in each chapter is on the need for this work, the theoretical underpinnings of the practice, and the music therapy practice itself.
The book is arranged in 3 sections. The first section covers work in therapy sessions with children and their parents. The second section describes programmes where the music therapist leads a group of parents with their infants, such as the renowned Sing & Grow in Australia. The final section presents work with medical patients and their families including in the neonatal intensive care unit, and for cancer patients.
The book will be valuable for music therapy practitioners and students, and more broadly for all those in the field of infant mental health.
Contents
Introduction ; 1. Music therapy and parent infant bonding ; 2. Becoming in tune: The use of music therapy to assist the developing bond between traumatised children and their new adoptive parents ; 3. 'The first time ever I saw your face...': Music therapy for depressed mothers and their infants ; 4. Parents' perceptions of being in music therapy sessions with their children: What is our role as music therapists with parents? ; 5. Evaluating parent-child group music therapy programmes: Challenges and successes for Sing & Grow ; 6. The benefits of music sessions for very young children with their parent or carers through the eyes of a music therapist ; 7. Supporting attachments in vulnerable families through an early intervention school-based group music therapy programme ; 8. Music therapy to promote attachment between mother and baby in marginalised communities ; 9. Extending group music therapy to families in schools: A reflection on practical and professional aspects ; 10. Music therapy to support mothers who have experienced abuse in childhood ; 11. Translating 'infant-directed singing' into a strategy for the hospitalised family ; 12. Music therapy for hospitalized infants and their parents ; 13. Music therapy supports parent-infant attachments: In families affected by life threatening cancer
