Voices ResourcesA website for the worldwide community around the journal Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy

|Introduction| |Background| |Training| |Dialogue & Debate in British Music Therapy and the Oxford World Congress| |Conclusion|

Introduction

Music Therapy in the United Kingdom has a rich and long history. From mid way through the 20th Century, it has, on the whole, grown out of the pioneering work of a small group of people, into, what is today respected and revered as a profession with around 500 music therapy practitioners; these work a wide range of client groups, within settings such as education, the National Health Service, private charities and private practise, to name but a few.

There are two music therapy organisations within the United Kingdom. These are not in competition with each other, and both offer very clear remits to their members.

The British Society for Music Therapy (BSMT) was founded in 1958 by the music therapist Juliette Alvin. It's remit is as follows:

1. The object of this organisation is to promote the use and development of music therapy within the United Kingdom.


2. Membership of this society is open to anyone with an interest in music therapy.


3. The Society organises conferences, workshops and meetings.


4. It is a centre of information.


5. It sells books and videos about music therapy all over the world.

The Association of Professional Music Therapists (APMT) was founded in 1976 with the purpose of fulfilling the needs of qualified Music Therapists in the United Kingdom. The aims of the Association are as follows:

1. To represent and protect the rights and status of professional music therapists.


2. To establish job opportunities and serve as a clearing house for job openings.


3. To establish and uphold clinical and ethical standards.


4. To provide up-to-date information for its members.


5. To maintain a constant liaison with related professionals in the United Kingdom.


6. To establish and maintain links with other Music Therapists abroad and associations throughout the world.


7. To be a source of ongoing support.

There are a number of projects that the two organisations work closely together with. The BSMT and the APMT jointly publish the British Journal of Music Therapy which members of both organisations receive twice yearly. Our joint music therapy conference takes place in February every year, which offers presentations and workshops from UK music therapists to wide ranging audiences. In recent years, all members of the APMT receive a package of 'joint membership' to both organisations which is renewed annually. The forthcoming World Music therapy Congress - Dialogue and Debate - music therapy in the 21st century - A Contemporary Force for Change - which takes place in Oxford, July 23rd 28th 2002 - is a joint venture between the two organisations in collaboration with the World Federation of Music Therapy (WFMT).

Even though the BSMT and the APMT have very separate remits, these projects, along with many others offer us opportunities and challenges to work together for the benefit of the UK music therapy profession.

Background

One of the pioneers of British music therapy, Juliette Alvin, who as already mentioned, formed the British Society for Music Therapy in 1958, was invited by the Principal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, ten years later, to set up the first music therapy post-graduate training course. This course was quickly followed in 1974 by the creation of the first Nordoff-Robbins music therapy training, based initially at a hospital in South London and moving eventually to its present site in North London as part of the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre. Courses evolved as more work developed and prospective therapists can nowadays train at six different institutions in the UK. (see below). Both Alvin and Nordoff were exceptionally gifted musicians, Alvin a concert cellist and teacher and Nordoff a pianist and composer. Their pioneering influence helped to form the very music-centred nature of much of the music therapy, with the particular emphasis on improvisation, currently practised in the UK.

Newly qualified therapists can join the APMT,(with joint membership of the BSMT) and after a period of supervision can apply for full membership. At the end of 2000 there were 402 female and 88 male members of the APMT. As in earlier surveys the pattern of work with children and adults with learning difficulties and adults with mental health problems still predominates. The range of work continues to evolve into such settings as: pre-school nurseries; centres for children and adults with physical disabilities and neurological problems, centres for older people and for people with visual or hearing impairments, hospices and the prison service. Case material and examples of research into the efficacy of music therapy with such different populations were featured in the burgeoning output of books, chapters and papers written by British authors during the 1990's.

It is clear to observe that during the last two decades of the previous century music therapy developed into a mature and well-respected profession in the UK. One highlight was in 1997 when the profession became state registered as a profession supplementary to medicine.

British music therapists have been very ready to explore ways of underpinning their work within different therapeutic frames. Nordoff and Alvin were prolific writers and theorists. UK therapists have also benefited by the writings and teaching of such leading practitioners as Mary Priestley who brought the theoretical constructs of analytical psychotherapy to inform her practice. This theoretical underpinning has been the focus of earlier conferences, including the first European Music Therapy Congress held in Cambridge in 1992. We are hoping the kind of creative debate and dialogue created by these various frames of reference will be a major feature of the 10th World Congress which, ten years later, we are basing in another of our very ancient university settings in Oxford.

Training

The training courses in the UK grew from those initiated by the pioneers of the British models of music therapy. Juliette Alvin taught the first music therapy course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1968, whilst Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins began training in 1974 at Goldie Leigh Hospital in South London.

There are now six trainings in the UK, offering full or part-time trainings - all at postgraduate level (awarding either a Diploma or Masters level qualification):

• Guildhall Postgraduate Diploma Course - at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (validated by University of York)
  
• Nordoff-Robbins Master of Music Therapy Degree (validated by City University)
  
• MA/Graduate Diploma - University of Surrey Roehampton
  
• MA in Music Therapy - Anglia Polytechnic University
  
• Music Therapy Diploma Course - University of Bristol
  
• Advanced Diploma in Music Therapy - Welsh College of Music and Drama
  

For information on any of the above consult the Association of Professional Music Therapists website section 'A Career in Music Therapy' at www.apmt.org.uk

Professional registration of British music therapists by the government body The Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine follows completion of a recognised training course.

Dialogue & Debate in British Music Therapy and the Oxford World Congress.

Perhaps rather like the British character there is a healthy diversity within its music therapy - but within an overall unity. The unity lies in the emphasis on active music-making based on improvisation, and a focus on the inter-musical and interpersonal relationship of therapist and client. The diversity comes in how the different training traditions have appropriated varying bodies of theory to help describe and explain their work. These can be seen more as dialects of the same language rather than different languages. The present situation in the UK is one of healthy dialogue and debate on the question of what music therapy is, and can be in the future.

It is around this dialogue and debate that we organised the forthcoming World Congress of Music Therapy in Oxford - which is perhaps a good place to characterise British Music Therapy. Each day in Oxford a plenary session will be organised around a themed Dialogue and Debate. Each of these expresses how British Music Therapy engages with other discourses and disciplines - but from a strong confidence in its own forms of practice.

The first plenary - Music, Culture and Social Action - stages a dialogue and debate between music therapy, community music and the latest sociological thinking within academic musicology. This reflects British music therapy's strong tradition of music-centredness and concern to link music therapy to contemporary musical and social developments.

The second plenary - Music, Meaning and Relationship - stages a dialogue and debate between music therapy and psychoanalysis. This is a second characteristic strand of British music therapy - its appropriation of theory from the influential British School of psychoanalysis (Winnicott, Bion and Klein) along with the later developmentally-informed psycho-biological theory of Stern and Trevarthen.

The third plenary - Music, Spirituality, Healing - stages a dialogue and debate between music therapy and spiritual perspectives, which are seen within the pioneering work of British music therapists working in palliative care settings.

There is of course not always a separation between these three strands - together they weave the rich texture of British music therapy.

Conclusion

The 10th World Congress of Music Therapy is therefore a timely event for the United Kingdom Music therapy profession. As we begin to 'Dialogue and Debate' around many of the issues that effect music therapists world-wide, we realise we are at a very exciting time in the history of this remarkable profession.

We hope very much that many music therapists, and those interested in the discipline, will join us at this time, in order to move forward into the future with courage and determination.

Music Therapy is, undoubtedly a 'Contemporary Force for Change'. We are very honoured to be hosting the 10th World Congress of Music therapy, and open our doors to the rest of the World. We hope that many people will be interested to find out about Music therapy within the United Kingdom at the Congress, and we are very proud to invite people in and share with them our music therapy history, the present situation, and our hopes for the future.

We look forward to meeting with as many of you as possible in July 2002.

How to cite this page

Ansdell, Gary, Leslie Bunt & Nigel Hartley (2002). Music Therapy in the United Kingdom. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 15, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=country-of-the-month/2002-music-therapy-united-kingdom