1st Edition

Portraits of Everyday Practice in Music Therapy

Edited By Noah Potvin, Kate Myers-Coffman Copyright 2023
294 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

294 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

294 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Portraits of Everyday Practice in Music Therapy is an edited volume of case studies providing music therapy students and new professionals with critical reflections on everyday clinical practice across a variety of treatment settings, theories, approaches, and cultural contexts. These case studies articulate the important foundational work occurring around clinical breakthroughs to... Read more

Unit 1: Developing Clinical Readiness as a Music Therapist in Training

1. Navigating Countertransference with Clinical Supervision 

Kimberly Woodman & Katie Lahue

2. From Culture Shock to Integrating Preferred Music by Youth: An International Music Therapist in Training's Journey Towards Cultural Reflexivity 

Yiqing Xiang

3. Cases From the Heart: A Journey of Vulnerability, Trust, and Growth for Intern and Supervisor 

Sara Langenberger & Spencer Hardy

4. Developing Adaptability and Bridging Authentic Relationships in Entry Level Music Therapy Training 

Gabriela Espinal-Santiago and Kathryn MacGown

    Unit 2: Aligning Personal Values and Emerging Clinical Identities as a New Professional

5. Discovering Self Through Reflexivity and Shared Social Identities with Clients

Alex Peuser

6. Finding Intimacy Through Supervision

Joy Kaminski

7. Expanding Practice by Exploring Clinical Limitations

Cathleen Flynn

8. How Much Giving is Enough?

Yu-Ching Ruby Chen

    Unit 3: Attuning, Adapting, and Maturing in Practice

9. Connecting, Disconnecting, and Reconnecting Through Changes in Therapeutic Context

Crystal Luk-Worrall

10. Regaining Trust in the Music: Music Therapy with Emily

Conio Loretto

11. The Ever-Changing NICU: A Journey Through Crisis

Elisabeth Bombell

12. Discovering Artistic Truth in Music Therapy 

Cassandra Byers

13. The Ebb and Flow of the Therapeutic Journey: Adjusting Theoretical Orientations in Clinical Practice 

Katherine Myers-Coffman

    Unit 4: Embracing Complexity and Ambiguity in Practice

14. The Extended Discharge: Relationship Building, Meaning Making, and Advocacy in Long-term Treatment

Jesse Asch-Ortiz

15. I Can Be With What She Brings

Stephenie Sofield

16. Sound, Silence, and Spoken Word: Music as a Holistic Aesthetic of Experience

Noah Potvin

17. Reconnecting Musicians with Music at the End of Life: Developing Musical Identity Beyond Performance

Dalita Getzoyan

18. "Luchando tu Estas": Interdisciplinary Collaboration in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Gabriela Asch-Ortiz, Suzanne Miller, and Abby Patch

    Unit 5: Embracing Loss in Therapeutic Closure

19. How it Feels to be Free: Reflections on the Relationship Between Music and Spirituality at the End of Life

Jasmine Edwards

20. Clinical Termination and Emotional Closure: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Anthony Borzi

21. It’s Time to Say Goodbye: Stories of Music Therapy Endings in Private Practice

Lindsay Markworth

22. Integrating Loss into Life: Termination in Bereavement Counseling and Music Therapy

Molly G. Hicks

Biography

Noah Potvin, PhD, LPC, MT-BC is an assistant professor at Duquesne University. His practice and scholarship focus on developing culturally reflexive, resource-oriented approaches in hospice music therapy that facilitate healthy end-of-life processes in response to individuals’ cultural traditions and social identities.

Kate Myers-Coffman, PhD, MT-BC is an assistant professor at Molloy University whose work focuses on trauma-informed, resource-oriented music therapy for youth and families who have experienced trauma and loss as well as culturally humble approaches to music therapy practice, pedagogy, and research.

"This deeply reflective volume is a timely, thoughtful, and holistic snapshot of contemporary music therapy practice from the perspective of a new generation of practitioners and is essential reading for aspiring music therapists and experienced practitioners alike. The editors’ transparency and compassion exemplify their commitment to humanistic, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive discourse, and centering the voices of students and early-career practitioners and their internal processes spotlights new perspectives that significantly enrich the knowledge base. The accessible yet profound narratives provide intimate and poignant insight into everyday practices, and nurture and facilitate reader engagement with often challenging ideas."

Dr. Beth Pickard, Senior Lecturer, Researcher and Music Therapist, University of South Wales, UK

"Much of my music therapy training was filled with extraordinary stories of clients’ transformation through the power of music and the therapeutic relationships that developed through it. This book offers different narratives that are grossly missing in music therapy literature that are no less important - the everyday practice of music therapy. Drs. Potvin and Myers-Coffman have purposefully curated narratives from authors who have carefully considered their sociocultural identities, theoretical orientations, and current socio-political-cultural goings-on in the world, and how these elements have informed their everyday practice. These case studies beautifully detail examinations of clinical interactions and decisions, honor the music and lives of the everyday music therapy client(s), and invite the readers to do the same."

Ming Yuan Low, PhD, MT-BC, Assistant Professor, Music Therapy, Berklee College of Music, USA