Music in therapy: increasing possibilities for action

Abstract

The article discusses how music therapy, considered as a discipline as well as arenas of different practices and theoretical models, may contribute to our understanding of how music may influence our actions. Among the many models of music therapy the author discusses an ontology of music which is compatible with a contextual understanding of how musical meanings are produced and performed. The article further presents how theories from receptive music therapy (The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music), improvisational music therapy (Creative Music Therapy), Community Music Therapy, and more resource-oriented ways of working may provide new insights into how music in therapy works in giving us new possibilities for action.