Two kinds of music therapy: Exploring ‘genre’ in the context of clinical practice

This article explores distinctions between different approaches to music therapy and how these distinctions might be relevant to clinical practice. The article adopts an exploratory subjective stance, with the author exploring the relevance of a perceived distinction between ‘music-centred’ and ‘psychodynamic’ music therapy, as described in the literature, to their own clinical practice. A series of clinical vignettes, taken from work with children and young people, are used to illustrate the influence of both psychodynamic and music-centred theories on clinical practice in context. An integrative client-centred approach is proposed, where psychodynamic thinking and music-centred ideas can be incorporated as needed, according to the individual needs of each client.