“It’s a Family Affair;” - Interactive Music Therapy with Children and their Families

Author:

Emma Davies, UK
 

Abstract:
This paper will explore the use of music therapy with children and their families attending an inpatient psychiatric unit. The approach of the unit is to understand the child within the context of the family, thus gaining a global view of the difficulties they face. This ethos has clear implications for the role of music therapy which forms an integral part of the work.

The aim of this paper is to show how benficial music therapy intervention with families can be and to discuss the ways of working that have developed over the last few years. The author is interested in investigating how and why music therapy can help children with complex emotional and behavioural disorders to communicate and play with their families, even at very stressful times. What is it therefore about the nature of music that enables this process to happen? How do we, as therapists, need to adapt our practice in order to meet families’ needs?

When families have reached the point where they can no longer communicate or have lost the motivation to interact meaningfully with one another, music therapy can play a vital part in the repairing of this process. In some cases music therapy can provide the first positive experience that a family has had in a long time. In other cases children have actually used the opportunity to express their feelings to their parents through musical story-telling or songs.

Case examples, including video extracts, will be used to illustrate this work.
 

Biographical details:
Emma Davies (nee Carter) has worked as a music therapist in Cambridge since 2000. She is currently based at the Croft Unit for Child and Family Psychiatry and at the Paediatric Department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. She also works at a Child Development Centre and has set up a variety of family music therapy projects within Early Years settings and in the community. She has a particular interest in working with children and families and has written and lectured on the subject.

The Croft Children’s Unit Children’s Services
Ida Darwin Addenbrooke’s Hospital
Cambridge Cambridge