AJMT Volume 17, 2006

Posted on 20 February 2009 by lornasherwin

Lesta, B. & Petocz, P.

Familiar group singing: Addressing mood and social behaviour of residents with dementia displaying sundowning
This study examines the effects of a Music Therapy (MT) intervention adopting familiar group singing during sundowning, a period of disorientation and/or agitation in the evening hours (Cohen-Mansfield, Garfinkel, & Lipson, 2000), to address the negative mood and non-social behaviour observed in residents diagnosed with dementia. A music therapist, over four consecutive days in the late afternoon, engaged four female residents with dementia, aged 80 to 97, in a small-group singing MT session. Two observers, using a mood-behavioural checklist, assessed the residents,
(a) during a 15-min pre-test session, (b) a 30-min MT session, and (c) a 15- min post-test session. Data analysis reflected a marked improvement in mood and social behaviour and a significant decrease in non-social behaviour. The study outcomes demonstrate that familiar group singing positively affects the mood and social behaviour of residents with dementia experiencing sundowning, affirming the valuable role music therapists play in facilitating quality aged care. Full Text
Roberts, M. “I Want to Play and Sing My Story”: Home-Based Songwriting for Bereaved Children and Adolescents
The therapist’s role in bereavement support is to encourage clients to “tell their story”. This process, considered to facilitate loss processing and acceptance, assists the individual to move on with his or her life. Studies reveal that bereaved children and teenagers require familiar, enjoyable, and age-relevant supports. This paper describes a home-based music therapy program for bereaved children and adolescents. Literature, concerning bereavement, creative arts therapy, and music therapy, is included to highlight the interventions and needs of grieving youngsters. This paper also describes four styles of songwriting together with case vignettes to demonstrate the efficacy of songwriting for this population. In this context, songwriting has enabled bereaved children and teenagers to explore and express grief by singing their stories.
Van der Walt, M. & Baron, A. The Role of Music Therapy in the Treatment of a Girl with Pervasive Refusal Syndrome: Exploring Approaches to Empowerment
Pervasive Refusal Syndrome (PRS) is a life threatening psychiatric disorder which is characterized by a refusal to eat, drink, talk, walk or maintain any
level of self-care. In this article it is suggested that music therapy may provide a unique role that is supportive, validating and empowering for patients with PRS. The rare condition of PRS predominantly affects girls between 8 – 16 years of age who, if managed well, are expected to recover completely (Lask, 2004). Literature has linked PRS to the theory of learned helplessness and as such, has highlighted the need for patients to control the pace of recovery (Nunn & Thompson, 1996). The value of music therapy interventions to provide opportunities for choice and control, and thus empowerment, is well documented. Similarly music therapy theory and
practice supports the use of improvisation to provide affirmation, validation, and support. This article examines the role of music therapy in the treatment of an 11 year old girl with PRS in an acute medical setting. It explores how choice provision and improvisation may foster empowerment through the promotion of opportunities for control, validation, and affirmation. Clinical vignettes illustrate how these interventions may establish a therapeutic relationship, provide acknowledgement, containment, and offer a nonverbal form of support for a patient with PRS.
Invited papers:
Bright, R. Coping with change: the supportive role of the music therapist
Music therapy provides support for clients and families as they deal with difficult life changes, whether these changes result from of illness, disability, or social change. The interventions facilitate both the resolution of painful emotional aspects of change, and the adaptation to the new circumstances. Clients and families are thus better able to cope with the present, and then to move into the future with greater confidence.
Krout, R. E. The Music Runs Through It – Notes from a Music Therapy Journey
Contemporary music therapy has been influencing positive and dynamic change in the lives of persons with special needs world-wide for over 55 years. The diversity of music therapy practices, theories, models, research, and education in various countries is plenteous. A shared thread which runs through this diversity is the creative and expressive mode of music. Music has been described as a universal medium of expression and communication. However, the music which runs through each of us personally as therapists and clients is unique, and is part of an intrapersonal and on-going developmental process. This article reflects the theme of the evolving music that has accompanied this music therapist’s journey via lyrics to five original songs. Woven between them are reflections on some of the author’s meaningful and formative music and music therapy experiences during this 25-year journey.
Pavlicevic, H. Worksongs, playsongs: Communication, collaboration, culture and community.
This paper considers community music therapy discourse and practice by engaging with discourses on communication, collaboration, culture and community. Community music therapy and social worlds are presented as reflexively creating one another, suggesting that music therapists and clients listen to, and together engage with, musical and social resources in the local social context. This is understood as providing resources for community music therapy to become an agent for social health and social change.
Shoemark, H.

Infant-directed singing as a vehicle for regulation rehearsal in the medically fragile full-term infant.
A significant step in the full-term infant’s development is the achievement of self and mutual regulation. The invasive nature of care on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit can undermine the medically fragile full-term infant’s efforts to control his experiences through regulation of stimuli. During active music therapy, the therapist provides a contingent relationship in which improvised infant-directed singing serves as a vehicle for rehearsal of self and mutual regulation.
Book reviews:
Hedigan, J. Aldridge, D. & Fachner, J. (Eds.). (2006). Music and altered states: Consciousness, transcendence, therapy and addictions. London: Jessica Kingsley. US $29.95, 208 pages, ISBN 1-84310-373-7.
Magee, W. Aldridge, D. (Ed.). (2005). Music therapy and neurological rehabilitation. London: Jessica Kingsley. US$34.95, 304 pages, ISBN- 10: 1-84310-302-8.
Miles, L. Pavlicevic, M. (Ed.). (2005). Music Therapy in Children’s Hospices – Jessie’s Fund in Action. London: Jessica Kingsley. US$27.95, 192 pages, ISBN-10: 1-84310-254-4.
Shoemark, H. Wheeler, B. Wheeler, B. (Ed.) (2005). Music Therapy Research. Second edition. Gilsum NH: Barcelona Publishers. ISBN: 1-891278-26-6 Hard-back: US$72.
Thompson, S. Perret. D. (2005). Roots of Musicality. Music Therapy and Personal Development. London: Jessica Kingsley. US$27.95, 191 pages, ISBN: 1-84310-336-2.
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