Synthesis Sunday: Pavlicevic's Chapter 10 - Meaning in Relationship

In Chapter 10 of Music therapy in context: Music, meaning and relationship, Mercedes Pavlicevic continues to discuss the perspective of the importance of relationship to the therapy process. She avers that you cannot completely separate music and the client from the client and therapist interaction. This supports what I've been telling interns for the past five years during intern webinars - without the music, the client, and the therapist, music therapy cannot happen. You have to have all three of these elements in place in order to have music therapy. Now, Pavlicevic didn't say this - I did, but I like it when I find something that supports what I believe about music therapy.

Anyway.

The rest of the chapter offers a perspective on psychodynamic theory and how music therapy fits within that perspective. I have to admit, this is not a theory that I am completely comfortable with - often the folks that I've met who practice within this framework have been very dismissive of my perspectives, so I've become very wary when I dive into this particular way of thinking about music. Mercedes Pavlicevic, on the other hand, presents this theory and perspective in a way that I can understand.

By the way, there are some wonderful figures in this chapter. You know me. I love a good visual, and I found that the figures explain the concepts shared in an easily understandable format (for me).

Quotations for the chapter -

"Donald Winnicott (1971) talks about therapy taking place within a 'space between' two people - therapist and client..." (p. 143).

"Casement describes the space in therapy as being framed, and this framing separates it from the world outside..." (p. 143).

"The analyst, too, needs to be alert to keeping the space 'pure' or 'sacred,' and needs to attend to, and check, his or her own potential for interfering and intruding into the space" (p. 143).

I have to admit, I think I have a better view on what being a psychodynamic music therapist actually means. I still don't believe that there is as much difference between what I do and what others do as is apparently perceived, but I can start to see some of the reasons for the different perceptions here.

There wasn't much for me to take into my daily music therapy interactions in this chapter, but there was quite a bit to think about. I like that. I like being challenged to think about music therapy from inside and outside my own perspective. I am looking forward to the last three chapters of this book.

Thank you, Mercedes Pavlicevic, for writing this text. It has offered me lots of things to think about and ways to discuss things that were simply inherent to my therapeutic process before now. I now have other terms to describe what I've wanted to describe for years and years.



Pavlicevic, M. (1997). Music therapy in context: Music, meaning and relationship. London: Jessica Kingsley.