Music for life - Gary Ansdell

Creative Music Therapy has its origins in working with children with special needs. In the last twenty years, however, the approach has been used extensively in music therapy with adult clients with learning difficulties, chronic illness, and mental health and psychosocial problems.

Music for Life is the first survey in book form of this work with adult clients. It presents:

* case studies of work carried out by the author and other therapists in the UK and Germany

* accounts of work with clients with learning difficulties, neuro-motor damage, Alzheimer's Disease, AIDS and psychosomatic problems

* details of working with a coma patient and in a music therapy group

* theoretical chapters, drawing on themes emerging from the case studies
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on creating, expressing and meeting in music.

Central to the book is the idea that music therapy derives its uniqueness from music's base as a non-verbal art form. Accompanying MP3 files contain excerpts from case studies described in the book and are available for download on Jessica Kingsley Publishers' website.