Re: A Brisbane Community Dinkum Experience
About Katrina McFerran
Biography
KATRINA McFERRAN, is Associate Professor and Head of Music Therapy at the University of Melbourne in Australia and Co-Director of the National Music Therapy Research Unit with A/Prof Felicity Baker. Katrina specialises in supporting young people to develop healthy relationships with music that promote personal growth and increased connectedness. She has been involved in a vast range of mutually empowering relationships with teenagers and children in hospitals, schools and community programs. Katrina has used music to support people as they cope with grief and loss, illness, disability and a range of challenges both at school and at home. Her work is currently focused on building strong music cultures in schools that promote connectedness and wellbeing between students, teachers and systems. This is supported by the MusicMatters Initiative, of which she is Co-Director with fellow music therapists Kate Teggelove and Lucy Bolger. http://www.musicmattersinschools.com.au/
Dr McFerran has published her research in international and interdisciplinary refereed journals and has contributed numerous case studies and practice reflections to edited books, as well as sole authoring her first text on ‘Adolescents, Music and Music Therapy in 2010 (Jessica Kingsley Publishers). Her research is essentially reflexive, frequently using qualitative methodologies to explore the unique experiences of young people in music therapy or to investigate patterns in the ways that music is appropriated for health. Dr McFerran has also contributed to a number of studies using quantitative methodologies that provide evidence for the benefits of music therapy. She coordinates three university-wide subjects that explore the affordances of music for health and wellbeing from different paradigms – Music Psychology, Music & Health and Music & Spirituality.
When I first read Gary Ansdell's (2002) contribution, Community Music Therapy: The Winds of Change, I felt a wave of relief, or perhaps it was a breath of fresh English air. As earlier discussion has indicated (Bright, 2003; Edwards, 2002), Australian music therapists have been practicing in community settings and employing community orientations for many years. However, on the international front there appeared to be no recognition of this form of therapy. Where Australian music therapists were using songs with groups of clients in the community, the literature seemed resolutely focused on individual improvisation-based work in 'safe and contained' therapeutic spaces. Where we battled with well-intentioned helpers who grasped client's wrists and helped them to shake their cabassa, the literature described potent melodic and harmonic sequences that the client felt represented their inner experience. So in many ways I agreed with Gary that this had been a secretive practice, a way of making music therapy that was not revered in the theoretical discussions. It felt good to talk about it.
Some months later, when I was lucky enough to attend the Symposium on Standards in Qualitative Research in Bergen, it became evident to me that Brynjulf Stige had been exploring this very topic for many years (Stige, 2003). In listening to his presentations and the discussion of a model of Community Music Therapy, I also felt obliged to say "but does it need a title? We've been doing this for years!". To which Brynjulf replied, in his characteristically humble way, that he found it useful.
I also find it useful. It has encouraged me to communicate about my work in a way that I was hesitant to do previously, simply because I can reference a shared concept of community music therapy. It has provided me with a vocabulary with which to discuss this community based work, whether I agree with all the tenets proposed under the concept of Culture Centered Music Therapy (Stige, 2002) or not. And I was one of the many who made reference to it at the recent conference in beautiful Brisbane, because it felt good to do so.
In addition, it has led me to a new way of investigating my work through empowering approaches that I would not previously have considered feasible for music therapy research. As Cathy Durham (2002) has pointed out, the values of action research suit community based work as both attempt to contribute to the flourishing of the community. For example, one of my experiences in applying action research methodologies is that they help to maintain a focus on the people participating in the inquiry rather than being driven by the researcher's desires. The articulation of these ideals have in turn led to dialogue with music therapists in Australia, such as Barb Daveson and Catherine Threlfall, who are overtly committed to human emancipation in their community based work. It seems that this title of Community Music Therapy has achieved its goals. It has freed the perception of music therapy from restraint of any kind, especially the inhibitions of tradition (as proposed by Reason & Bradbury, 2001) and perhaps even from itself.
From Ansdell's debate to Stige's theory to Durham's research application and finally to my own local community of music therapists. A liberating journey indeed. And more broadly, this freedom has led to a stimulating global debate about the need for a theoretical framework titled Community Music Therapy. After all, is community actually the context or is it the method (Grocke, personal communications)?
We Aussies do love a good debate. And by the way, we still believe in mateship in Australia. Good on ya mate! Keep up the awesome work!
References
Ansdell, Gary (2002). Community Music Therapy & The Winds of Change. [online] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy Vol.2(2), 2002. Available at: http://www.voices.no/mainissues/Voices2(2)ansdell.html
Bright, R. (2003). A Brisbane Community Dinkum Experience. [online] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, Vol. 3. Available at: http://www.voices.no/discussions/discm25_01.html
Delbridge, A., Bernard, J., Blair, D., Butler, S., Peters, P. & Yallop, C. (Eds.) (1997). The Macquarie Dictionary: Australia's National Dictionary (3rd ed.). Sydney, Australia: The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd.
Durham, C. (2002). Music Therapy and Adults With Learning Difficulties: An Inquiry Into The Benefits of Group Work in a Community Home. Presentation at The 10th World Congress of Music Therapy, Oxford, 27th July.
Edwards, J. (2002). Debating the Winds of Change in Community Music Therapy. [online] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy Vol.2(2), 2002. Available at http://www.voices.no/discussions/discm4_02.html
Reason, P & Bradbury, H. (Eds.) (2001). Handbook of Action Research London: SAGE Publications.
Stige, B. (2002). Culture-Centered Music Therapy. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.
Stige, Brynjulf (2003). Elaborations toward a Notion of Community Music Therapy. Oslo: Unpublished Dissertation for the Degree of Dr. art, Faculty of Arts, Department of Music and Theatre, University of Oslo.