Parallel Journeys
How a Music Therapist Can Travel with his Client
 

Author:

Henry Dunn

Abstract:
This paper explores the nature of the client-therapist relationship through the presentation of a case study. In the case study I aim to show how I was personally affected by my client, and how our processes within the therapy had strong parallels. The case study shows how I was prepared to try new techniques at the same time as my client became more experimental, and also reveals how the client’s experience was related to my own mental health history. I examine how this affected the way I worked and the way our therapeutic relationship developed. I ask the question of whether it is helpful for the therapist to be involved in the therapeutic process and how this can either aid or interfere with the work. Through reference to the work of Carl Jung in particular, I conclude that it is not only helpful, but essential, for the therapist to be prepared to travel in the therapeutic process. By examining the nature of the wounded healer archetype and its relevance for the client-therapist relationship, I show that the therapist cannot help but be involved in some way, and that being conscious of this can be a very helpful part of our work. This is especially the case in music therapy, where the therapist is usually involved in the co-creation of music, and therefore cannot stand totally outside it. It is this balance of being both outside and inside the process that is crucial to our work. Within this paper the theme of dialogue is constant – dialogue between client and therapist, between aspects of the client’s psyche, between different modes of working, between apparent opposites. Through this dialogue the aim is to transcend opposites and find a way to harmonise them.

Keywords:
Client-therapist relationship, Jung, Dialogue

Biographical details:
The author is a music therapist working in a variety of locations in the South West of England. These include an NHS Creative Therapy Team working with adults with mental health problems and/or learning disabilities, The West of England School and College for young people with little or no sight, and two other special needs schools. He trained at the University of Surrey, Roehampton, qualifying in 2002, and has given papers on Music Therapy and Spirituality (APMT/BSMT annual conference 2003) and Music Therapy in Special Education (Sound Waves South West annual conference 2006). He lives in Exeter with his wife and two daughters.