Music Therapy with Adults with Learning Disabilities

178 Pages·2007·5.05 MB·English

by  Tessa Watson

Music Therapy with Adults with
Learning Disabilities
Music Therapy with Adults with Learning Disabilities explores how music
therapists work in partnership with people with learning disabilities to
encourage independence and empowerment, and to address a wide variety
of everyday issues and difficulties.
Comprehensiveandwide-ranging,thisbookdescribes indetailtheroleand
work of the music therapist with adults with learning disabilities. Many
clinical examples are used, including casework with people with autism,
Asperger’s syndrome, profound and multiple learning disabilities and a
dualdiagnosis oflearning disabilityand mentalhealth problems.The book
also explores issues of teamwork and collaborative working, considering
how music therapists and their colleagues can best work together. The
chapters are grouped into four sections: an introduction to current music
therapy work and policy in the area, clinical work with individuals, clinical
work with groups, and collaborative and teamwork. Guidelines for good
practice are also provided.
This is a thought-provoking and topical text for all those involved in work
with adults with learning disabilities. It is essential reading for music
therapists and fellow professionals, carers, policymakers and students.
Tessa Watson is a music therapist and music therapy trainer. She is
convenor of the music therapy training course at Roehampton University.
Tessa’s current clinical work is with adults with learning disabilities for
Ealing Primary Care Trust where she is Principal Arts Therapist.

Music Therapy with Adults
with Learning Disabilities
Edited by Tessa Watson
Firstpublished2007
byRoutledge
27ChurchRoad,Hove,EastSussexBN32FA
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
270MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016
Routledgeisa nimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Copyright(cid:216)2007Selectionandeditorialmatter,TessaWatson;individual
chapters,thecontributors
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
fromthepublishers.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
Libraryof CongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Musictherapywithadultswithlearningdifficulties/editedbyTessaWatson.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-415-37908-3(hardback) – ISBN978-0-415-37909-0
(paperback)1.Musictherapy.2.Learningdisabilities–Treatment.3.Learning
disabled–Rehabilitation.I.Watson,Tessa,1967–
ML3920.M899652007
615.8'5154–dc22
2006102044
ISBN 0-203-94654-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN:978-0-415-37908-3(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-37909-0(pbk)
Contents
Contributors vii
Foreword ix
TONYWIGRAM
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
TESSAWATSON
1 Valuing people: a new framework 5
TESSAWATSON
2 Music therapy with adults with learning disabilities:
sharing stories 18
TESSAWATSON
3 Music therapy and autistic spectrum disorder 33
RHIANSAVILLE
4 Challenging behaviour: working with the blindingly obvious 47
CATHYWARNER
5 ‘What bit of my head is talking now?’: music therapy with
people with learning disabilities and mental illness 58
ELEANORRICHARDS
6 Friendship and group work 71
CLAREL.FILLINGHAM
7 Community, culture and group work 85
TESSAWATSON
vi Contents
8 Working with people with profound and multiple learning
disabilities in music therapy 98
TESSAWATSON
9 Looking in from the outside: communicating effectively
about music therapy work 112
BENSAUL
10 Multidisciplinary working and collaborative working in
music therapy 121
KARENTWYFORDANDTESSAWATSON
Appendix I: Guidelines for good practice for music therapists 133
Appendix II: Useful organizations and websites 137
References 140
Index 157
Contributors
Tessa Watson is a music therapist and music therapy trainer. She is con-
venor of the music therapy training course at Roehampton University.
She has worked with a variety of client groups in mental health and
learning disabilities, her current clinical work being with adults with
learningdisabilitiesforEalingPrimaryCareTrust.Tessahasundertaken
research in learning and teaching in the arts therapies, music therapy
work with adults with learning disabilities, and women in secure psy-
chiatric services, and regularly speaks about and publishes her work.
Rhian Saville trained as a music therapist at the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama and is currently Head Music Therapist at Nottingham
Healthcare NHS Trust. She has worked with children and adults in
learning disability and mental health for 13 years, having a particular
interest in people with autism.
Cathy Warner PhD is senior lecturer in music therapy at the University of
the West of England. She has 13 years of clinical experience in the fields
of learning disability, mental health, bereavement and neurology, and
has presented and published her work widely. She is particularly inter-
ested in the perspective of the client within music therapy research.
Eleanor Richards is Senior Lecturer in Music Therapy at Anglia Ruskin
University, Cambridge, and Senior Music Therapist at Cambridgeshire
and Peterborough Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, where she
works with adults with learning disabilities. Also a psychotherapist in
private practice, she has a particular interest in the applications of
attachment theory to therapeutic work with people with learning dis-
abilities.Sheistheauthorofarangeofarticlesandpapers,andco-editor
of Music Therapy and Group Work.
Clare L. Fillingham is Lead Music Therapist for NHS Borders in Scotland,
covering adult learning disability and mental health. She trained at
Guildhall School of Music and completed a Masters research degree
viii Contributors
at University of Roehampton in 2003. She is currently completing a
training in group analytic psychotherapy in Glasgow.
Ben Saul works with adults with learning disabilities and challenging
behaviour in Greenwich and is part of the transdisciplinary assessment
team based at the Greenwich PCT Child Development Centre. He runs
introductory courses on music therapy at City University, London.
KarenTwyfordtrainedasamusictherapistattheUniversityofMelbourne,
Australia. She has worked primarily in the area of special education in
the UK and Australia. Her recent masters research investigated the use
of collaborative multidisciplinary approaches amongst music therapists
and other professionals in the United Kingdom.
Foreword
Tony Wigram
Music Therapy with Adults with Learning Disabilities is a very welcome
addition to the literature, especially because this population has attracted
muchlessattentioninthepastcomparedwithotherpopulations.Theimpact
ofalearningdisabilityismostkeenlyfeltwhenanincreasinglackofservices
and support fails to recognise the uniqueness and potentials of this group
within our society. In a world where labels carry more and more weight,
paradoxically because of the label ‘learning disability’ we are all frequently
guilty of underestimating and consequently reducing our expectations of
people with mild, moderate, severe or profound learning disabilities. This
fascinatingbookopensadoorintoacreativeworld,allowingustobeboth
reassuredandchallenged,andtorealisewhatmusicusedtherapeuticallycan
mean.
Tessa Watson has brought together an experienced and highly skilled
group of contributors to offer a detailed exploration and understanding of
thevalueofmusictherapyinthismultifacetedarea.Thebookoffersinsights
intotheroleofmusictherapyinaddressingtherealandeverydayissuesthat
peoplewith learning disability face – the need to be recognised, listened to,
understood and to open up their emotions through a medium that allows
anger as much as happiness, sadness as well as joy, and bewilderment, fear
and anxiety. Expressing difficult, sometimes painful emotions is not nega-
tive; it is as necessary and healthy as positive emotional experiences. We
frequentlydiscuss whether therapiesmeet health needs – wellhaving some-
one listen and respond to your frustration and anger is also a health need,
and as much a healthy process as physical treatments.
Tessa Watson sets the scene by offering a practical and focused explana-
tionoftherelevanceandscopeofmusictherapy,illustratingthisthroughthe
process of three imagined people. This opening section provides such a
useful understanding from referral to therapy, valuable for many differing
groups – trainee music therapists, music therapy clinicians and educators
fromwithintheprofession,anddisciplineswithinthemultidisciplinaryteam
and managers of services from without. Tessa Watson also addresses the