Proceedings, Oxford, UK (2002) - World Federation of Music Therapy

- whether it was more an 'avoidance' of loss than a developmentally
useful experience of togetherness. As the group persisted though I began
to hear an implicit appeal to alter my understanding. I found myself
thinking of Alvarez (1992) and how finding an object and delighting in it
- 'harmonising' with it - can be a developmental achievement for some
deprived or disturbed patients. In reading Bollas I encountered a further
resonance between the group's music and a search for a transformational
object that is 'associated with ego transformation and repair' (Bollas
1987, p18).
Here then was a process of transformation for me, as well as the group.
Like J, I found a way to be 'surprised' by the music and what it could do.
This experience nurtured an important new meaning for me as therapist.
It did more than that though for, in doing so, it enabled us all to further
enjoy the music and meaning-making process. By staying close to the
group and being open to its surprises, we were all able to create a more
valuable narrative about what music was and could do for us.
Example 3: The therapist as a transformational object
At times, of course, it is the therapist who acts as a transformational
object for the patient (Walsh-Stewart and Stewart 2002).
A colleague has been working with a very deprived adopted Romanian
girl, C, for 10 weeks. C is eight years old and has a learning disability;
she does not speak. While C plays some of the instruments and shows
positive feelings about coming to music therapy, she can also become
aggressive and will lash out at the therapist and the instruments.
Something about the nurturing offered by the therapy seems at times to
evoke an unbearable contrast with her earliest orphanage experiences.
For the last four weeks the therapist has been taking the girl out of the
room if she attempts to physically attack her or the instruments.
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