Music Therapy and Traumatic Brain Injury

Simon Gilbertson is a trained musician and music therapist. He is a lecturer in music therapy at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland, and was previously Head of Music Therapy at the Klinik Holthausen in Germany. After gaining his doctorate at David Aldridge's Chair for Qualitative Research in Medicine at the University Witten Herdecke he went to work with David at the Nordoff-Robbins Centre in Witten, Germany. David Aldridge is Co-Director of the Nordoff Robbins Centre and Visiting Professor for the Creative Arts Therapies, Bradford Dementia Group, University of Bradford, UK. He is the author of a number of books within the field of music therapy, such as Music Therapy in Palliative Care and Music Therapy Research and Practice in Medicine, and co-author of Melody in Music Therapy with Gudrun Aldridge, all of which are also published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Reflecting on the subtitle after reading the book, A Light on a Dark Night, provides a useful metaphor for the particular approach of music therapy used: the holistic and humanistic apporach of creative music therapy as a model of rehabilitation and intervention. A first impression of the book is how precisely the authors set the context of the book. Considering the limited literature in the field (Baker & Tamplin, 2006), this book provides a very comprehensive introduction to traumatic brain injury and rehabilitation. It gives the reader a wider perspective by offering information on epidemiology of brain injury and stages of rehabilitation... After an impressive and thorough description of the research method and the case studies, the authors suggest that during the course of music therapy, patients' behaviour during music-making can change...Overall, the authors skilfully bring to life three case studies under the umbrella of the holistic approach and creative music therapy, and provide a research study well placed within the context of traumatic brain injury and rehabilitation.

• 1. Traumatic Brain Injury and Rehabilitation. 2. Music Therapy with People who Have Experienced Traumatic Brain Injury: What the Literature Says. 3. Therapeutic Narrative Analysis: How We Look at Cases. 4. Bert's Story - Changing perspectives: Identifying and realizing communicative potential in early isolated states . 5. Neil's Story - From distress and agitation to humour and joy: the creation of a dialogue. 6. Mark's Story - A fusion of two worlds: physical dependency and creative partnership. 7. The Narrative Explicated. Bibliography.