E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

D'ulisse, M. E.. et al.: Music Therapy Conducted On A Child ...
b) the two therapists created a sequence of movements accompanied by
singing; in fact, the whole session was made up of rapidly changing
movements accompanied by singing and often by musical instruments;
c) they kept their distance from R so as not to invade his space; this
however made him try to approach the male therapist ever more closely,
leading to prolonged bouts of wrestling and body contact.
In spite of this, some important changes in the therapeutic relationship
began to appear for the first time. After having tried, and failed, to open
the door several times, R seemed to accept the fact and began to take an
interest in some of the musical instruments. First he explored them, then he
turned to the therapists with the clear intention of wanting to
communicate. In these brief moments of attention, R managed to abandon
his aggressive manner and allowed the therapists to approach him, almost as
if he wanted to be coddled (he allowed the therapists to put on his shoes,
his brace, his glasses and all the other clothes which he would usually throw
off during the sessions).
After this session, in the three subsequent sessions before the summer
break, two main aspects of the relationship emerged:
1) his aggressive behavior was aimed almost exclusively at the female
therapist with whom he had the same prolonged bouts of wrestling and body
contact as he had done previously with the male therapist;
2) we noted an increase in R’s acceptance of the therapeutic situation in
which he found himself, as shown by less tendency to run away and the
emergence of questions such as “How long before I can go away?” “Where
are my parents?” etc.
At the same time, the interviews with the parents continued always with
the aim of trying to make sense of R’s behavior. They were both asked to
observe carefully at home, and to report back in their own words, on
whatever took place immediately before their son’s aggressive crises. This
information was produced at subsequent interviews in spoken but very
disjointed comments. And yet there appeared to be a logical thread in R’s
behavior who became more aggressive whenever he was ignored or
overlooked (talking about his illness in front of him as though he didn’t
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