Improvisational music therapy as "encounter"

Journal/Book: Nordisk Tidsskrift for Musikkterapi. 1996; 5: 76-86.

Abstract: This article examines the concept of "encounter" with regards to improvisational music therapy, emphasizing the original conception of Martin Buber in his classic work I and Thou. In improvisational music therapy there is a threefold relationship, between client, therapist and music. In the first part of the article the concept of encounter is applied to the relation to the medium of music in itself, contrasting "Analytical Music Therapy" and "Creative Music Therapy" in this respect. It is attempted to show how the concept of encounter in its original sense may shed light on the power of music as a therapeutic agent in itself. The therapeutic relationship is often described in the terms of "I and Thou", but in the article this is shown to be a statement that must be qualified. The mutuality between client and therapist may never be complete due to the responsiblility of the therapist to take into overall consideration the effect of the therapeutic prosess on the client, while this kind of responsibility is not appropriate the other way around. This is illustrated in the case of socalled "clinical improvisation". Still it is emphasized that mutuality is at the core of the therapeutic relationship, and this is contrasted both with "materialistic" and "idealistic" conceptions of self in therapy. These two aspects of encounter: between the client and therapist, and in relation to the improvisational musical medium in itself, are also naturally and dynamically related to each other, and this may account for the particular power of an approach to music therapy in which music in itself as a medium is emphazised.

Note: Rudy Garred is a lecturer in music at Høgskolen i Stavanger, at the teachers college. He is an MA music therapist, and has been working for several years, mostly in the special pedagogical field. He is also the leader of the Norwegian Association for Music Therapy. Address: Høgskolen i Stavanger, Avd. for lærerutdanning p.b. 2557 Ullandhaug, 4004 Stavanger, Norway. Tel.: (+47) 51 83 34 08. E-mail: rudy.garred@lu.his.no

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