Music Therapy Today - World Federation of Music Therapy

Abdollahnejad, M.R. (2006) The use of music therapy with substance abusers. Music Therapy Today (Online)
Vol.VII (2) 318-332. available at http://musictherapyworld.net
In 1997, the first nation-wide congress was held in Iran and subsequent to
the feed-back arising from the first congress reflecting such demand in
the society, it was decided that an association be established with the mis-
sion of extending and developing the overall aspects of music therapy
both quantitatively and qualitatively including the training of experts in
the field.
Finally in the year 2001 the association was established. Since then, this
association has succeeded in holding long term and short term training
courses, work shops, in the field as well as creating a database as refer-
ence for interested researchers. The association has also tried and applied
music therapy in the treatment of children with mental and physical
handicap besides substance abusers.
On the other hand, this association has so far held five nation-wide con-
gresses aiming at wider exchange of information with researchers and
experts in the field.
Last but not least, due to the efforts of the association, music therapy will
soon become an academic field of study in Iranian universities.
Tehran Therapeutic Community
The therapeutic community (TC) for the treatment of drug abuse and
addiction has existed for about 40 years. In general, TCs are drug-free
residential settings that use a hierarchical model with treatment stages
that reflect increased levels of personal and social responsibility. Peer
influence, mediated through a variety of group processes, is used to help
individuals learn and assimilate social norms and develop more effective
social skills.
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