Therapy in Music for Handicapped Children

This book traces the development of the Nordoff-Robbins approach to Creative Music Therapy. It is in the nature of a clinical autobiography in which Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins describe in detail the successive treatment and research projects through which they empirically shaped their seminal contribution to the field. The approach took two fundamental directions, both creative. With individual children, they based their clinical practice on interactive improvisation; in group work, they mainly relied on composition, songs, instrumental activities and forms of music theatre composed especially to meet the ability levels and developmental needs of the children. The processes of creative therapy that the pioneers researched in children inspired succeeding generations of therapists to apply their approach to adult clients and across the entire spectrum of human disability, illness, deprivation, and need.