Books published by Nordoff and Robbins authors
Collaborative Insights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Musical Care Throughout the Life Course (2022)
Spiro, N. and Sanfilippo, K.R.M. (eds) (2022) Collaborative Insights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Musical Care Throughout the Life Course. Oxford: Oxford University Press
This book, which started as a Nordoff and Robbins research project, seeks to build an interdisciplinary understanding of musical care. Bringing together music practitioners and researchers from different fields and disciplines, it traces how musical care is understood and undertaken during different stages of the life course, from infancy to end of life.
Musical Pathways in Recovery: Community Music Therapy and Mental Wellbeing (2016)
Ansdell, G., DeNora, T. & and Wilson S. (2016) Musical Pathways in Recovery: Community Music Therapy and Mental Wellbeing. London: Routledge
This book explores the experiences of participants in St Mary Abbotts Rehabilitation and Training (SMART), a vibrant musical community for people experiencing mental health difficulties. Ansdell and DeNora describe their long-term ethnographic work with this group, charting the creation and development of a unique music project and tracking the musical pathways of a series of key people.
Music Asylums: Wellbeing Through Music in Everyday Life (2014)
DeNora, T. (2014) Music Asylums: Wellbeing Through Music in Everyday Life. London: Routledge.
Taking a cue from Erving Goffman’s classic work, Asylums, Tia DeNora develops a novel interdisciplinary framework for music, health and wellbeing. The book presents music as an active ingredient of action, identity, capacity and consciousness and suggests that access to – and evaluation of – music is an important ethical matter.
How Music Helps in Music Therapy and Everyday Life (2014)
Ansdell, G. (2014). How Music Helps in Music Therapy and Everyday Life. Farnham: Asghate.
How Music Helps aims to promote a better understanding of ‘music and change’ in our personal and social lives. Ansdell links the tradition of Nordoff and Robbins music therapy and its recent developments in community music therapy to contemporary music sociology and music studies.
A Guide to Evaluation for Arts Therapists and Arts & Health Practitioners (2014)
Tsiris, G., Pavlicevic, M., & Farrant, C. (2014). A Guide to Evaluation for Arts Therapists and Arts & Health Practitioners. London: Jessica Kingsley.
By providing practical guidance for designing, planning and implementing bespoke evaluation projects, this useful book supports arts therapists and arts & health practitioners in their quest to integrate thorough evaluation procedures into their everyday practices.
A Guide to Research Ethics for Arts Therapists and Arts & Health Practitioners (2014)
Farrant, C., Pavlicevic, M., & Tsiris, G. (2014). A Guide to Research Ethics for Arts Therapists and Arts & Health Practitioners. London: Jessica Kingsley.
This practical guide aims to inspire ethically aware practitioners to become ethically aware researchers, evaluators and participants. Although the emphasis is on research, ethical considerations presented in this guide are equally applicable to other types of inquiry, including monitoring and evaluation projects.
Where Music Helps: Community Music Therapy in Action & Reflection (2010)
Stige, B., Ansdell, G., Elefant, C., & Pavlicevic, M. (2010). Where Music Helps: Community Music Therapy in Action & Reflection. Aldershot: Ashgate.
This book describes the emerging movement that has been labelled ‘community music therapy’ and presents ethnographically informed case studies of eight music projects in England, Israel, Norway, and South Africa. It portrays how music and musicing have helped individuals, groups and communities challenged by illness or disability, social and cultural disadvantage or injustice.
Taking Music Seriously: Stories from South African Music Therapy (2010)
Pavlicevic, M., Dos Santos, A., & Oosthuizen, H. (Eds.) (2010). Taking Music Seriously: Stories from South African Music Therapy. South Africa: Music Therapy Community Clinic.
Taking Music Seriously gathers together the first generation of South African-trained music therapists, each of whom ended up venturing into audacious territory through their work. Funders, teachers, doctors and community workers were persuaded to believe in music as a therapeutic force at a time when music therapy was relatively unknown and little understood.
Conversations on Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy (2010)
Verney, R., & Ansdell, G. (2010). Conversations on Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.
This short book presents a series of animated conversations about aspects of Nordoff and Robbins music therapy by two experienced practitioners and trainers. While attempting to characterise the key principles and values of the charity’s approach, their conversations are also questioning and sometimes iconoclastic, teasing out both the subtleties and the mysteries of the work.
Music Therapy in Children’s Hospices (2005)
Pavlicevic, M. (Ed.). (2005). Music Therapy in Children’s Hospices: Jessie’s Fund in Action. London: Jessica Kingsley.
The use of music therapy in children’s hospices has burgeoned since its introduction by Jessie’s Fund in the mid-1990s. This text brings together the experiences of 11 music therapists working with children who are in the final stages of life-limiting illness. It celebrates the communities created through an inclusive music therapy practice with children, their families and hospice staff.
Community Music Therapy (2004)
Pavlicevic, M., & Ansdell, G. (Eds.). (2004). Community Music Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Music therapists from around the world present spirited discussion and practical examples of the ways music therapy can reflect and encourage social change. Reflecting on traditional approaches as well as newer practices, the writers offer fresh perceptions on their identity, assumptions and attitudes and the new possibilities for music therapy in the 21st century.
Groups in Music: Strategies from Music Therapy (2003)
Pavlicevic, M. (2003). Groups in Music: Strategies from Music Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Group musicking happens all the time: in the street and in the classroom, at music festivals and in music therapy sessions. In this book, music therapist Mercédès Pavlicevic develops a broad-based discourse to describe, analyse and guide the practice of group musicking, drawing on her own extensive experience and illustrated with vignettes drawn from a range of formal and informal settings.
Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies (2001)
Ansdell, G., & Pavlicevic, M. (2001). Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies: A Practical Guide: Jessica Kingsley.
For students and researchers – and music therapists who want to keep up with research literature – this book provides a highly accessible beginner’s guide to arts therapy research. Ansdell and Pavlicevic offer hints and tips for anyone preparing a funding proposal or research project, with advice on the project’s title, structure and aims, and how to collect, organise and analyse research data.
Music Therapy: Intimate Notes (1999)
Pavlicevic, M. (1999). Music Therapy – Intimate Notes. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
The stories and reflections in this book describe powerful encounters between nine music therapists and their clients. Through music therapy, the clients discover their creativity and, in the process, come to terms with suffering. The stories also reveal the passion and integrity of the therapists who themselves undergo profound changes as a result of their work.
Music Therapy in Context (1997)
Pavlicevic, M. (1997). Music Therapy in Context. London: Jessica Kingsley.
This book addresses several key questions in debates around music therapy. Are words necessary in creative music therapy? How is clinical improvisation distinct from ‘pure’ music improvisation? How do music therapists address culture-specific nuances in music? Drawing extensively from current literature, it encourages music therapists not to compromise the musical process at the heart of their practice
Music for Life: Aspects of Creative Music Therapy with Adult Clients (1995)
Ansdell, G. (1995). Music for Life: Aspects of Creative Music Therapy with Adult Clients. London: Jessica Kingsley.
This is the first survey in book form of music therapy with adult clients. It presents case studies from therapists in the UK and Germany, including accounts of work with clients with learning difficulties, neuro-motor damage, Alzheimer’s Disease, AIDS and psychosomatic problems. Central to the book is the idea that music therapy derives its uniqueness from music’s base as a non-verbal art form.