Music therapy has for a long time been associated with humanistic values, both among music therapists but more and more also among people outside the field. Do we all have a common understanding of what humanistic music therapy is? The point of departure in this paper is the development of a new Norwegian residential care unit for adolescents in child welfare services. Those responsible for this unit have included a music therapist, because they want to base the enterprise and its activities upon the values they associate with music therapy. This paper asks: What is “humanistic music therapy” and how might its perspectives correlate with the visions and ideas of the leaders of a child welfare institution? A literature review will assess the critical understanding of the concept of humanistic music therapy, in order to understand its unbiased and foundational values. Semi-structured interviews with the unit’s initiators will describe their visions and hopes for the development of the care unit with regard to humanistic music therapy. By correlating the findings from the literature review and the interviews, the paper describes aspects that might contribute to a common ground of understanding for the music therapist and the workers in the unit, which in turn might contribute to personal growth and health promotion among the adolescents and their community.
The link between notions of
One of the authors of this paper, Ingeborg Nebelung, has recently been hired as a music
therapist of a new child welfare unit in Norway. She is also working on a PhD project
that aims to look at what music therapy as a discipline and methodical approach can
provide this particular unit in the planning, start-up, and early years. The project
seeks to explore how the adolescents’ participation in music therapy may affect them and
the institution as a whole.
When the leaders of the unit in question requested music therapy, we felt that they
expected it to influence the community and the environment in certain ways. In the
initial talks of the unit development the music therapist asked the leaders: “What was
it that made you go for the idea of including a music therapist on the
staff?”
We will first present a background of the topics in the paper. Then follows a presentation of the methodology, before we present the review of the literature and our analyses of the interviews. In the discussion, we will merge the findings from the literature search and the interviews. Before the conclusion, we will summarize the main findings.
In this section, we will first introduce the core term humanism. Because Ruud’s extensive theoretical elaboration on humanistic music therapy has influenced our school of thought and pre-understanding, we will give a short description of his ideas after that. Then follows a short presentation of adolescents in the child welfare and music therapy work with them.
The word “humanism” is ultimately derived from the Latin concept of
The meaning of humanism, however, has fluctuated since the Renaissance, particularly
in relation to the successive intellectual movements that have been identified with it.
In this short presentation of humanism, many music therapists will recognise aspects
that are salient to music therapy: the
Norwegian music therapy pioneer Even Ruud has long been a leading spokesman for the
humanistic perspective in music therapy. His theories (
Ruud (
Ruud’s five principles can also be seen as a historical development of the humanistic
perspectives on music therapy. Already in 1978, Ruud presented a critique of
humanistic music therapy in his book
A child welfare unit provides daily care for children and adolescents who, for some
period of time, need a place to stay which is not their home (
Some of these adolescents might struggle with drug abuse, and some might have
behavioural issues. Adolescents in child welfare often experience a lack of
engagement and trust from the staff. They feel that these adults do not see them or
understand their needs. They also say that they want to be around playful adults, but
they need their support to experience mastery of what they do (
There is a growing interest in the child welfare to include music therapy, and the
unit to which this paper refers is one example of that. Slowly, the amount of
research on music therapy in the child welfare is growing, also. The anthology
The project called
Research on music therapy in child welfare shows that taking part in music activities
provides unique opportunities for the adolescents to be with adults and peers, which
is something they miss the most (
In this paper, we seek to understand a phenomenon (humanistic music therapy) in depth
from the perspective of the local populations (music therapy theorists and the leaders
of a child welfare unit who want to include music therapy in their institution). To do
so, we have found it suiting to use qualitative research methods. Our approach is
explorative rather the confirmatory. Typically for exploratory research, we have
included secondary research (reviewing available literature) and in-depth interviews (of
the leaders of the child welfare unit). The approach is also exploratory in the sense
that we try to conduct the research in a transparent, honest, and strongly
self-reflexive way while also following the dialectical principle of achieving something
positive by means of negation (
Our approach is also hermeneutical in that it stresses interpretation and insight, where
our preunderstanding and intuition based in our long experiences as music therapists is
given an important role. Alvesson and Skölberg (
The point of reflection is rather to break away from consistency and a narrow focus on a particular aspect, to question weaknesses inherent in the mode of thought one embraces (and is easily imprisoned within), to break up and change a particular language game rather than expanding it.
In order to find further descriptions of humanistic music therapy, we carried out a literature search via six databases: Google Scholar, JSTOR, RILM, NJMT, and the Norwegian University databases Oria and Brage. Our search was pragmatic rather than thorough or strict, because we mainly wanted to uncover useful descriptions of humanistic music therapy. We used the phrase “humanistic music therapy” and/or the truncated “humanis*.”
We have included peer-reviewed full-text articles in our data, as well as master’s
and PhD theses, both in the Scandinavian languages and English. All of them have been
published after 1995. The year limit was set for several reasons. First of all, the
data after this year was rich enough as well as manageable for us for this article.
Although, we were aware that humanistic music therapy was practiced before 1995, both
in the 1970s and the 1980s, we found out that humanistic music therapy was more
articulated as a theme from the mid 1990s. Going through the references of the
collected literature, we found that Ruud’s books (
Using the search function in the electronic documents available, we were able to find
the paragraphs that had the term “humanistic music therapy” (or a variation) in it.
From there we found the words that were used to describe and explain the term. For
example: one of the references in our literature search, Dunlap (
After that Dunlap (
In the same way, we placed descriptive terms like “holistic,” “bio-psycho-social,” “multi-dimential,” and “socio-cultural-historical” in the category that we called “holistic perspectives of the individual.”
Interviews with two of the leaders (and initiators) of the child welfare institution were carried out to identify their visions and hopes for the development of the care unit, especially with regard to music therapy. One is the leader of the organisation. She is also a special education teacher. She has extensive experience working with adolescents, both in school settings and from child welfare units. The other one is the leader of human resources. He has extensive experience working in units for adolescents as well as from working in a high security post for young adults in psychiatric care in a hospital. Both of them gave us permission to publish the results from the interviews.
In the interviews, we followed the model of the semi-structured interview. This model
provided us some structure based on an interview guide, but it also allowed us to
work flexibly and provide room for the respondent’s spontaneous descriptions and
narratives as well (
The analysis of the interviews was inspired by Malterud’s (
We found a substantial number of texts (329) in which the authors claim to have a
humanistic perspective on music therapy. However, out of 149 hits that fit with the
inclusion criteria, the term was defined and/or elaborated upon in only 68 of them.
We will refer to these 68 in the following.
We have placed the words collected from these descriptions where humanistic music
therapy gas been defined into four categories:
the relationship between therapist and client;
the holistic perspectives on the individual;
the therapist’s skills and virtues;
the client and his goals and aims in therapy.
The relationship between the client and the therapist is something the literature
often as the most important aspect of a humanistic perspective (
Several authors, when describing humanistic music therapy, evoked a view of the
human being as
The aforementioned Carl Rogers’s client-centred (or person-centred) approach is mirrored in music therapy by the therapist’s approach to the client. The literature suggests that the humanistically informed music therapist approaches the client in a certain way. They
see the client (person) as
unique (
meet the client with virtues
like empathy, warmth and trust (
show acceptance of the
client’s expressions (
offer respect and
unconditional positive regard (
offer genuineness (
show love (
The last one, love, requires recognition and acknowledgment from the therapist
towards the client (
In humanistic music therapy, the client is considered to have inherent
Two topics stood out as the main categories to be derived from the interview: (a)
The leaders said that the relationship was the key to success in their
work.
We believe that every person, including an adolescent who is fragile and/or vulnerable, has inherent answers to what is right and important. As leaders, we do not have any answers. Instead, we are tools they can use in their search for their own answers [condensed citation].
When working with the adolescents, the leaders found it important not to push
their own understanding of what was right and wrong. They emphasised the need for
adults who work with adolescents to be open and to listen carefully to what the
adolescents are trying to say.
Every human being is so complex. Our goal is to be able to acknowledge every adolescent and accept him as he is, there and then. We must always look at every adolescent as a whole in order to understand and explain why he reacts as he does [condensed citation].
The leaders saw all adolescent behaviour as a natural outcome of their previous experiences. By saying “I understand that this makes sense to you right now” to the adolescent who is not behaving desirably, the adult can work with the adolescent within the relationship they are developing to find other ways of behaving that make more sense in future situations.
To be a good tool for an adolescent—or any other human being—we must first recognise our own weaknesses and strengths. We must also realise that the other human being is in a completely different ‘place’ than us and that he has a very good reason for it [condensed citation].
When asked directly what they would associate with a
When they were asked this question, the leaders started to reflect upon the term by switching to their praxis. They talked about the development of a humanistic mindset in their job with the adolescents. This required certain skills and self-awareness, they said. First of all, they needed to “look in the mirror,” which is a phrase they used several times. “We must be very confident and know who we are and what we are stepping into. We must see ourselves in the mirror—all the time—to be able to be there for them (the adolescents) [condensed citation].”
When we asked them about music therapy and why they thought it could be a good
match for the institution’s values, they talked about music’s value for people and
for the adolescents in particular: “We think it’s a recognised truth that music
does something to people. You can use music in so many ways”, they
said.
an amplifier of positive emotions,
a catalyst in getting rid of negative emotions, and
a companion in hard times.
The leaders described many uses of music as valuable for the adolescents. They
talked about active and creative music making, and songwriting in particular, but
they also pointed to music
“We can all pour our hearts out through music. So many adolescents do that, especially through songwriting [condensed citation].” The leaders were rather specific about the point with the lyrics. They added:
They make a song lyric about anger towards society or anger towards their parents. This way they can get that feeling out. This way they can process their feelings just by singing them or rapping them. Or they can process them by experiencing the mood in the music.
The leaders concluded that therapy with music as a tool has advantages that psychotherapy does not: “It [the music] does not get personal and hurtful in the way it might be to sit looking someone in the eye [and] talk about problems.”
We think that many adolescents have never actually experienced that others have listened to them. Nobody at home has the time or the interest to listen. The few friends they have are interested in doing funny things and not talking about feelings. But then they use the music! They use it a lot without thinking about what they are using it for. But that’s what they do.
In the discussion, we will correlate the findings from the literature review with the interviews with the unit’s leaders, followed by the paper’s research question, which is: What is humanistic music therapy and how might this perspective correlate with the visions and ideas of the leaders of a child welfare institution?
We found two aspects to be the most coincidental in the literature review and the interview:
a
These aspects are in a sense symbiotic: a holistic perspective sees the human being in context, which means interrelated with others, in the world, in time, and in a certain place. Our treatment of the two aspects will reflect their familiarity, although we view the holistic perspective as a more overriding theme than relationships.
In the literature review and the interview, we found complementary views on the
human being. First of all, both sets of results describe the importance of a
holistic stance. In our elaboration, the term
The literature,
I have to look at the whole person in order to help and search for explanations for why he reacts as he does. It makes sense for you [the adolescent] to stand there, based on your previous experiences and what you’ve told me about yourself. I understand that it makes sense to you to shout and scream. That’s the only thing that worked at home for you. I understand that because of your previous experiences, this expression makes sense for you right now.
“Relationships” is the biggest topic in the literature review and the interview.
Building relationships is indicated in both as the most important key to success
in any work or other situation with adolescents in child welfare. As a topic,
relationships encompass subcategories such as “integrity” and “acknowledgment,”
but also “communication,” “mutuality,” “togethernesss,” and “intersubjectivity.”
The adolescent is portrayed as a
Sometimes the descriptions of relationships included
The value of relationships is described more explicitly when they were connected to a clinical setting (such as a music therapy session or an adult–adolescent conversation in child welfare), especially in the interview with the leaders of the unit. The leaders also pointed to the initial phase of the relationship as being crucial. They stressed that the adult must always recognise the adolescent’s presence in the here-and-now. This, to them, was the premise for everything else; the adult might approach that first step by attuning to and empathising with the adolescent’s actions, words, mood, and so on. This way, the adolescent might feel enough trust in the adult to take the next step, which is when the adult might challenge the adolescent by asking the following:
Do you want to experience something new and different? Do you want to try out something different from the things that have always worked for you—and do you want to try things that have not worked for you before?
The process of (the adult) attuning to and then challenging the other (the
adolescent) is also described as important in the music therapy literature. In
music therapy (and especially in Nordoff-Robbins–oriented music therapy) this
phase is often done musically (that is, by meeting the client musically) (
Underlying relationships, which were emphasized in the literature and by the
leaders in the interview, the idea is that the individual
A humanistic perspective, as described by the music therapy literature, postulates that the individual makes their own decisions, overcomes obstacles, creates their own goals, and uses their free will to reach their fullest potential. In short, it prescribes self-determination and self-actualisation (e.g., Ruud and Maslow). Personal choice, free will, responsibility, autonomy, and intentionality are described as important virtues when one is privileging integrity and acknowledging the individual.
The leaders of the unit stressed the importance of indicating one’s acceptance of the adolescent’s modes of expression whatever these are: “We must care for and protect the adolescent’s integrity! Each individual has his own inherent answers.” They said, “the adolescent knows from deep within what is right and important for him.”
The leaders described their role and responsibilities in supporting the adolescent
in finding their own answers or ways of living: “As adults we are just tools for
the adolescents’ search for answers.” (This recalls the humanist Rousseau’s flower
metaphor, which we found relevant to music therapy as well). The leaders suggested
that
The leaders also emphasised the importance of adults’ awareness of the boundaries of their relationships with the adolescents. They stressed the danger involved with being the (too) helpful adult. One must not “become the relationship,” they said. Then the adult and the adolescent can no longer be individuals with separate integrities. The adolescent might conclude from this that they do not need other relationships. If this happens, the adult has failed in being a tool for the adolescents. “How close should the adult be?” they questioned and the responded: “Be personal, but never private. It is a question of striking the proper balance here.”
Having gone through the results, we realized that we have not found much information
about challenges. First, the literature spoke very little about technology. The
authors refer mainly to the human and to human relationships. Today’s adolescents
(both within and outside child welfare) are a part of the digital generation, experts
of technology, and large music consumers. In the literature, as well as in the
interviews, we have mostly read or listened to descriptions of music as merely a
romantic means in humanistic music therapy. The adolescents’ broad use of music seems
to be missing. We think that their excessive availability of music questions whether
the adolesecents always use the music as health promoting participation? We therefore
ask if there exists sufficient knowledge concerning the negative social roles of the
use of music. Probably there is a need to take into account that because music is a
strong medium, it is used to engage people in unhealthy participation too (
Recently, Ansdell and Stige (
Most important, to create a common ground of understanding between the music
therapist and the workers and users in the development of a particular unit, such as
the one that we have dealt with in this paper, we think it is crucial to talk about
differences and similarities with regards to competencies as well as personal
strengths and weaknesses. We also think that it would be meaningful to do so
Interestingly, we realize that the leaders (more than most of the literature) pick up
on Ruud’s (
In our elaboration of the two main findings (a
Elaborating further on this, we find that the descriptions of humanistic music
therapy refer to two modes. One mode connects to philosophical and ontological
questions, to
The other mode, which is not described so much in the literature, includes
perspectives on the
The results show that both types of data complement
each other with regards to visions, theories, and the adult stance. Both seem to be
in compliance with the view of the client/ adolescent as a unique and sovereign
individual, an acting, personal, creative and musical human being (i.e. humanism; see
our descriptions of before). Yet, when the literature refers to
The results do not show the many challenges and the potential negative outcomes on the use of music in humanistic music therapy.
Our research question in this paper was: What is ‘humanistic music therapy’ and how might its perspectives correlate with the visions and ideas of the leaders of a child welfare institution?
On the basis of the results described in this paper, we find that the correlating view
on a humanistic music therapy in the literature and among the leaders of a child welfare
institution, is based on
We think that when reflected upon and talked about, a common understanding of a
humanistic perspective might inspire and influence interdisciplinary collaboration in
the child welfare in ways that are favourable for the adolescent and their lifeworld.
This paper suggests that music creates a basis for such collaboration. It shows the
underlying possibilities for both staff of child welfare units and music therapists for
developing good practice in collaboration in the music room. Music (playing and
listening to music as well as songwriting) might in fact create a vital starting point
for meaningful being, co-being,
This is an action research project, which aims to look at what music therapy as a discipline and methodical approach can provide in planning, startup, and early years of a new institution for adolescents. One part of the project focuses on the adolescents and seeks to explore how their participation in music workshop may affect their views on the others youths, affect relations with the adults who participates, and relations with the institution as a whole. The other side of the project has an organizational focus, where one by letting the employees participate together with youngsters in the music workshop and being supervised by the music therapist, will explore what a music-therapeutic approach can offer in direct work with youth, as well as their relation to the institution.
Retrieved from
The following discussion is necessarily brief, given the larger framework of this paper.
Maslow positioned his work as a vital complement to that of Freud: ‘It is as if Freud
supplied us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out with the healthy
half’. Retrieved September 5, 2018 from:
Ruud refers to The United Nation’s human rights. For more on these rights, read:
Retrieved from
From Greek aletheia; uncoveredness. Alethic hermeneutic therefore calls for the revelation of something hidden.
We cannot explain why so few authors did not define the term. One reason could be that authors found the term to be self-explanatory or/and so well established that further explanation was unnecessary.
We used the term
We might define intersubjectivity as something existing (a feeling, for example)
which is experienced as shared between conscious minds (retrieved 20.5.2018 from