E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Turry, Alan: Performance and Product ....
recorded songs of clients with terminal illnesses. These clients have
described the recording project as giving their life purpose, and feeling less
isolated. 52 David Ramsey has made multi track recording the focus of his
work with neurologically impaired clients, and has arranged for
performances of the music within the hospital setting. This has helped to
change how these clients view themselves-from identifying themselves as a
damaged patient to someone who can accomplish and experience a sense of
completion and wholeness. Rather than feeling helpless they are motivated
to work and rehabilitate. They have been able to find ways to express
themselves, as Ramsey has found the technical means to allow them to
create music despite their disabilities. 53
Sharing the results and accomplishments publicly of the music
created privately in a music therapy session can be a way of cultivating a
sense of achievement within the client. Public sharing can be a way of
validating changes the client has made internally. Maria Logis, a client who
has worked with me in music therapy and has shared her process publicly,
has stated that sharing the music she has created in music therapy sessions
has helped her to "reclaim" her voice. She began public sharing by playing
audiotapes of her music therapy sessions with close friends and family. The
improvised music contained thoughts and feelings not just about her illness 54
but about life long issues. In this way she felt she successfully
communicated her feelings in a way she could not verbally. She decided to
learn the music created in sessions and sing the music publicly for friends
and family. The act of sharing publicly gave her the experience of
overcoming her feelings of isolation, and she describes that she now has
more options besides hiding in a private world of self-criticism. Explaining
52 O'Brien, like Landy, was under pressure from those within the profession who felt it was unethical
for a therapist to be economically supporting her program with the profits of recordings made by
patients and herself. She has stated that the idea of giving the proceeds to the music therapy program
she runs came from the patients themselves.
53 Ramsey, who has experience working within the psychoanalytic framework, feels no conflict to be
working on performance and products with his clients. He explains that the clients he is currently
working with are "not suffering from bad mothering," and thus he concentrates on the task of creating
music, ready and available to deal with underlying emotional issues if they arise.
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