Conversations on Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy

This short book presents a series of animated conversations about aspects of Nordoff-Robbins music therapy by two experienced practitioners and trainers. One of the authors, Rachel Verney, was trained directly by Paul Nordoff and conveys through these conversations both the craft and the vision of his pioneering work. Whilst attempting to characterise the key principles and values of this approach, the conversations are also questioning and sometimes iconoclastic—teasing out both the subtleties and the mysteries of the work. Subjects covered include: listening to a person musically; the ‘musical/personal’; “workplay”; the relationship between music, people and pathology; working in and with music; the client-therapist relationship; teaching and supervising music therapists; the role of beauty in music therapy. A key message that emerges through these conversations is the natural connection in Nordoff-Robbins work between the importance given to careful reflection on the precise details of musical craft, and the ‘big questions’ that this work often evokes for therapists and clients. The book ends with some concluding thoughts about music therapy today, and how the ‘perennial understanding’ of people, music, health and illness within the Nordoff-Robbins approach is as relevant as ever. The book is direct and personal; it conveys its ideas through plain language and vivid examples. Although the book is primarily addressed to music therapists with a working knowledge of Nordoff-Robbins music therapy, it would also be of interest to any music therapist, and to anyone working musically with people. Clive Robbins writes in the Preface “there is nectar to drink in these pages”.  2010, 126 pages. Paperback.