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About Us & Music Therapy

MUSIC THERAPY

Music Therapy is a method of treatment which employs music to help patients (by convention called clients) to cope more effectively with their lives and with their difficulties. It is most widely, though not exclusively, applied in the assessment and treatment of children and adults with sensory, physical and learning disabilities, mental health problems, emotional and behavioural disturbances and neurological problems. These conditions can be very severe and significant numbers of clients suffer a combination of them.

The aims of music therapy are not musical. They are therapeutic. It is through the process of making music that significant benefits and improvements arise.

Improvements, which are sometimes dramatic, may involve the sensory and motor functions, co-ordination, orientation, attention, cognition, memory and concentration, self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-expression, self-esteem and self-confidence as well as the ability to participate in, contribute to and sustain relationships with others.

In fact, so flexible and potent is music that in therapeutic application it can be used with good effect to address almost the entire range of mental and psychological problems, from the most basic the most challenging and self-destructive.

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HISTORY

The American Influence


Major professional developments first took place in the USA. More than anything else, they were provoked by the return of veterans of the second World War. Up to this time music had been seen as no more than an extremely humane way of diverting and entertaining patients. Nevertheless anecdotal accounts of its sometimes dramatic effects were not rare, and medical authorities began to employ performing musicians and teachers on a more regular basis as part of clinical teams in hospitals.

A healthy scepticism on the part of the medical and scientific communities made it necessary for the musicians to systematise and validate their work and to familiarise themselves with the background medical and physiological issues. In these fields musicians had no knowledge or training, and they represent gaps that could only be filled by new vocational courses. The first complete music therapy course was taught at Kansas University, Texas in 1946. The first American professional body, the National Association of Music Therapy, was established in 1950.


Founders of the profession in the United Kingdom

Music therapy in the United Kingdom owes much to Juliette Alvin, the international concert cellist. Her pioneering work with children with learning disabilities and in the training of music therapists provided firm foundations for the profession in the UK. In 1958, Alvin and colleagues formed the British Society for Music Therapy, and in 1968 she was invited to set up the first post graduate training course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.

An important influence on British practice goes back to 1969 and the formation of the Music Therapy Charity whose initial purpose was to support the influential work of Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins. In 1974 a Nordoff-Robbins training course was started at Goldie Leigh Hospital in South London. This course together with its associated clinical work subsequently moved to Roehampton and later still to Kentish Town. The Nordoff-Robbins tradition places theoretical and practical emphasis on therapeutic change taking place within the musical improvisation itself.

The growth of the profession in the early years was haphazard and depended largely on the ability of therapists to convince health providers of the efficacy of their service. The Association of Professional Music Therapists (APMT) was formed in 1976, and this, the establishment of the profession's governing and representative body with membership open only to fully trained and qualified music therapists, marks the beginning of the profession as it is today.

THE PROFESSION TODAY

Music Therapists have been employed in Health, Education and Social Services since the late 1960's, and the profession gained further recognition in 1982 when the then Department of Health and Social Security awarded music therapists (along with art therapists) a career and salary structure comparable with other paramedic professions. The profession achieved state registration on June 1st 1999 with the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine (CPSM). This was supported by a number of the caring professions' institutions, including The General Medical Council, The BMA, The Royal College of Psychiatrists and The Royal College of Nursing.


The Members

There are about 300 qualified and practising therapists in Britain. The largest employer is the NHS, accounting for 90 members . Local Authority Social Services and Special Education account for around 60, with the balance employed in clinical work supported by charities, training, research and freelance work.

President:

Sir Neville Marriner CBE

Vice-Presidents:

Sir Thomas Allen CBE; Dr Peter Andry OBE OAM; Lady Badenoch; Richard Baker OBE RD;
Sir James Black OM FRS FRCP; Simon Callow CBE; Richard Crewdson;
Roy Van Gelder; Dame Beryl Grey DBE; Sir Charles Mackerras CBE; André Previn; Anne Skeggs.

Governors:

Professor John Lumley (Chairman), Carolyn Steen  (Deputy Chairman), Peter Parker (Treasurer),  Adrian Barnes,  Lady Caroline Borg,  Professor Leslie Bunt, Tony Colman, Dominic Delaforce, Dr Andrew Parmley, Professor Malcolm Troup, Professor Tony Wigram 

Secretary:

Mark Telfer

Click here to view the Reports of the Governors and the Financial Statements for the years ended 30 June 2003 - 2007 in Word Format