Music therapy in mental health for illness management and recovery

Many music therapists work in adult mental health settings after qualifying. For many, it will be a challenging and even daunting prospect. Yet until now, there has been no psychiatric music therapy text providing advice on illness management and recovery. This essential book fills the gap in the literature, providing the necessary breadth and depth to inform readers of the psychotherapeutic research base and show how music therapy can effectively and efficiently function within a clinical scenario. The book takes an illness management and recovery approach to music therapy specific to contemporary group-based practice. It is also valuable for administrators of music therapy, providing innovative theory-based approaches to psychiatric music therapy, developing and describing new ways to conceptualize psychiatric music therapy treatment, educating music therapists, stimulating research and employment, and influencing legislative policies. An important aim of the book is to stimulate both critical thought and lifelong learning concerning issues, ideas, and concepts related to mental illness and music therapy. Critical thinking and lifelong learning have been - and will likely continue to be - essential aspirations in higher education. Moreover, contemporary views concerning evidence-based practice rely heavily upon the clinician's ability to think critically, seek a breadth of contradicting and confirmatory evidence, implement meta-cognition to monitor thoughts throughout processes, and synthesize and evaluate knowledge to make informed clinical decisions relevant and applicable to idiosyncratic contextual parameters. For both students and clinicians in music therapy, this is an indispensable text to help them learn, develop, and hone their skills in music therapy

Michael J. Silverman (PhD, MT-BC) is director of Music Therapy at the University of Minnesota. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Music Therapy, the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health and the World Journal of Methodology and has published refereed articles in journals including the Journal of Music Therapy, the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, and the Archives of Psychiatric Nursing. Michael is actively engaged in clinical practice and research with psychiatric patients at the University's Medical Center.