23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

This will necessarily involve much study, e.g. of the
neurological basis of the disabilities we meet in our work
the effects of spasm in cerebral palsy, the different
types of aphasia in stroke victims, the varying stages of
dementing processes in older clients, the difference
between intention end resting tremors in Multiple
Sclerosis and Parkinson's disease and how these
tremors affect musical performance as well as
emotional adjustment, and so on.
If we work in psychiatry, we must learn about the
differences between schizophrenia and psychotic
depression, obsessive and how this may affect
someone's behaviour in a music therapy session, how
to assess suicide risk in depressed persons, how posttraumatic
stress disorder affects people and what effect
their terrifying flash-backs may have on their
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participation in music therapy and so on.
Following on from this we have a sphere of the client's
relationships; we must never see him as an isolated
individual with whom we work in total separation from
his social milieu. Today's philosophy of socio-medical
care demands that music therapists, like other
professionals, have a responsibility to the social unit in
which the client is placed or from which he has come.
Although for practical reasons we may have to work with
the client alone, we must never lose sight of the fact that
he is part of a social unit, whether this is a family or the
social unit of a ward or nursing home, and indeed many
clients belong to both groups and in such cases the
music therapist may be in a unique position to help
bring the two worlds together!
3. Responsibilities application of music to therapy.