Music Therapy Clinician: Supporting reflective clinical practice Volume 1 | Page 35

part
of
a
rescue
fantasy
[laughter]…because
it
really
bothered me that the folks that I
work with don’t have a lot of
opportunities to take part in, like, a
normal Saturday night thing with
friends! And it was important
that…and I felt strongly that it
needed…there needed to be
something happening like that, and
I guess we didn’t exactly not have
the support of the developmental
center…I mean, you know, they let
us use our Canteen area, and the
Canteen folks were really gracious
and let us use stuff there, but it was
a lot more challenging, I think,
because of the venue. Just….simply
because trying to do something like
that in a place that’s about as not
community as you can get
[laughter]
trying
to
create
community and have it expand is
very challenging, and, frankly, as I
think about it, and I’m listening to
you guys, I’m astonished that we
managed to pull it off for ten years
as much as we did with various
volunteers and such. And, really,
the reason we stopped was
because all of our volunteers kind
of moved away and had babies,
and…At any rate…um I’m just
looking through other sorts of
questions that we had here. Oh,
here was one! You know…I think CJ
is…CJ Shiloh is the person who
started to talk about this in terms of
a Community Music Therapy
approach, and I wondered what
you guys’ thoughts were about
that…whether that sounds like it
rings true for you or not…whether
this kind of a venue seems like
Community Music Therapy. Christine, do you want to start, and then,
Angela, when Christine’s finished.

Christine:

I think, you
know…maybe the lived experience
of the participants in the choral
group
might
call
it…community…like,
they
may
experience it like Community Music
Therapy. Um, I often wonder how
much, sort of the…the performance
and listener experience, um, is a bit
removed from what I kind of

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understand as Community Music
Therapy. Um, so, you know, I guess
if there were ways that we could,
you know, in a concert, kind of,
include other people in the
performance - and there were
sometimes where that would be
programmed- I would say that
maybe, in a sort of, in a narrow way
we could say that the singers
probably experienced it maybe as
some Community Music Therapy for
themselves. Um, but that’s about
the only way I could sort of see that
fitting.

Roia: Mm-hm.
Angela: Yeah, I think…I mean,
music therapy is so…just coming
towards a definit