Conversations on Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy

A series of animated conversations about aspects of Nordoff-Robbins music therapy by two experienced practitioners and trainers. One author, Rachel Verney, was trained directly by Paul Nordoff and speaks to the craft and the vision of his pioneering work. While presenting 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 is the natural connection in Nordoff-Robbins work between precise details of musical craft, and the ‘big questions’ that this work often evokes for therapists and clients.