Jos De Backer is a Professor of music therapy at Leuven University College of Arts (LUCA), campus Lemmensinstituut, Belgium and is Head of the Masters training course in music therapy. He studied music education and music therapy in Belgium and Vienna and he completed his PhD in music therapy at the University of Aalborg, Denmark. He is Head of the Music Therapy Department in the University Psychiatric Centre KULeuven, campus Kortenberg where he works as a music therapist treating young psychotic patients and patients with personality disorder. De Backer specialises in clinical improvisation, is a member of the advisory Editorial Board for the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy and of the Editorial Panel of the British Journal of Music Therapy and is a past President of the European Music Therapy Confederation.
Part 1 Paediatrics: premature birth and music therapy, Monika Nocker-Ribaupierre; indications for the inclusion of music therapy in the care of hospitalized infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, Helen Shoemark; ''a song of life'' - improvised songs with children with cancer and serious blood disordes, Ann Turry. Part 2 Developmental disability: contact in music - the analysis of musical behaviour in children with communication disorder and pervasive developmental disability for differential diagnosis, Tony Wigram; music and autism - vocal improvization as containment of stereotypes, Gianluigi di Franco; islanders - making connections in music therapy, Claire Flower; client-centred therapy for emotionally disturbed teenagers with moderate learning disability, John Strange; the use of creative improvization and psychodynamic insights in music therapy with an abused child, Pauline Etkin; Orff music therapy with multiple-handicapped children, Melanie Voight; the music, the meaning and the therapist's dilemma, Sandra Brown. Part 3 Neurology: ''singing my life, playing myself'' - song-based and improvisatory methods of music therapy with individuals with neurological impairments, Wendy Magee; music therapy in neuro-surgical rehabilitation, Simon Gilbertson. Part 4 Aspects of training and clinical supervision: integrative approaches to supervision for music therapists, Isabelle Frohne-Hageman; psychoanalytically-oriented music therapy supervision, Janice Dvorkin; music therapy training - a process to develop the musical and therapeutic identity of the music therapist, Tony Wigram et al.
This book is most helpful in setting out and explaining the rationale behind the use of music as a therapeutic medium and thus enabling practitioners to understand how precisely it could be of benefit to their client group... the book is very readable, the prose flows well, theory is well integrated into practice and case studies are pertinent and interesting.
