E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Turry, Alan: Performance and Product ....
Of course, therapeutically beneficial performances and products did
occur during the early stages of the profession. Successful events and
products helped to create hope and raise the self-esteem for clients who
participated. Clients gained a sense of mastery and confidence in presenting
themselves publicly. When performing as a group, support and camaraderie
developed among clients. A feeling of community helped to create a sense
of belonging and self worth for clients. Pioneering music therapists such as
Nordoff and Robbins were able to successfully integrate performance into
their clinical practice. In their book, Therapy in Music for Handicapped
Children, they describe the benefits of working in rehearsal for a
performance of the piece "hist-whist." The piece was written specifically for
the clients to perform. Eight sessions were required to "perfect" the piece,
and the hard work in achieving this was "where the therapy lay." They also
worked on performing musical plays with children, and the resulting
performances changed the way the children were perceived by their
housemothers, therapists and teachers. Nordoff and Robbins felt that "the
performance was the summation of a therapeutic process that had its origin
and development in the rehearsals." The children became "a team of
performers, sharing new experiences that their own efforts made possible."
Nordoff and Robbins carefully studied the effects of these events on the
children, recording each session and reflecting on the benefits of this kind
of activity. Dr. Herbert Geuter supervised them, and often made suggestions
about the activities, which were based on anthroposophic teachings.
Therapists utilized performance in a variety of settings with a wide
range of client populations. Schmidt-Peters (1987) surveyed the field for
her book, Music Therapy: An Introduction. She described the work with a
variety of populations including visually impaired clients. She stated that
“group music activities, such as dances, singing groups, and instrumental
ensembles, can provide places for visually impaired clients to learn skills to
interact and socialize with each other and with sighted individuals." She
50 I am deliberately avoiding the use of the term countertransference, as this term implies an awareness
of the therapeutic relationship that simply wasn’t present for most, if any, music therapists at this point
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