Group Music Therapy: A Group Analytic Approach

In Group Music Therapy Alison Davies, Eleanor Richards and Nick Barwick bring together developments in theory and clinical practice in music therapy group work, celebrating the richness of what group analytic thinking and music therapy can offer one another. The book explores the dynamic elements of the processes that take place in both group analytic therapy and group music therapy, exploring both the commonalities and the distinctive characteristics of the two modalities.

To music therapists, psychotherapists and other arts therapists Group Music Therapy offers a body of knowledge and enquiry through which to understand the music therapy group process through some of the central proposals of group analysis; to group analysts it offers insight into the possibilities of non-verbal communication through improvised music and, more widely, invites thought in musical terms about the nature of events and exchanges in a therapy group. Links are made with group analytic theory as well as with other associated theoretical traditions, such as attachment theory and theories of early infant development. The book explores the history of group music therapy and the history of group analysis, looking both at core concepts and at more recent developments. Attention is also given to developmental issues, drawing upon theories of infant development and attachment theory and clinical vignettes drawn from music therapy practice with a wide range of patient groups illustrates these ideas. The book concludes with a discussion of the possibilities of co-therapy and other collaborative working and of the value of experiential groups in training.

Group Music Therapy will be a key text for clinicians and students seeking to expand their theoretical thinking and enrich their practice, and offers a grounding in group analytic ideas to professionals in other disciplines considering referrals to group work.

Alison Davies trained as a music therapist and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She has worked in the NHS and in private practice and has run groups for music therapy trainees at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and the Guildhall School of Music, London. She has also taught and run groups for the Philadelphia Association psychotherapy training.

Eleanor Richards is a senior lecturer in music therapy at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice. She has a longstanding interest in group work and is involved in the development of music therapy training and practice in India.

Nick Barwick is a group analyst who has conducted groups in the NHS, higher education and private practice. He is Head of Counselling at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where he also teaches on the MA in Music Therapy. He is immediate past editor of the journal Psychodynamic Practice.