Music Therapy and Parent-Infant Bonding

Music therapy is an internationally recognised field of professional evidence-based practice. Qualified music therapists use the engaging, non-verbal aspects of music to create relationships in which therapeutic goals can be pursued and needs of clients addressed. This is the first book to focus specifically on the ways that music therapists provide support for the development of the special and necessary bond between parents and their infants, where some vulnerability is experienced. In the book, music therapists from four countries, Australia, Ireland, the UK and the US describe their practices with reference to contemporary theory and research. Throughout, the chapters are illustrated with engaging case material. Many of the authors are the world leaders in the area of music therapy to promote parent and infant bonding. Others are having their first opportunity to describe their work publicly in print. The focus in each chapter is on the need for this work, the theoretical underpinnings of the practice, and the music therapy practice itself. The book is arranged in 3 sections. The first section covers work in therapy sessions with children and their parents. The second section describes programmes where the music therapist leads a group of parents with their infants, such as the renowned Sing & Grow in Australia. The final section presents work with medical patients and their families including in the neonatal intensive care unit, and for cancer patients.The book will be valuable for music therapy practitioners and students, and more broadly for all those in the field of infant mental health.

Professor Jane Edwards is a qualified music therapist with expertise in research, theory and practice with families and young children. Originally from Australia she directed the first music therapy courses at the University of Queensland before coming to Ireland to lead the development of music therapy training and research at the University of Limerick. She is the inaugural President of the International Association for Music & Medicine. She is the director of the Music & Health Research Group at the University of Limerick.