Content Newsletter April 2014 European Association of Editorial 2 Introducing a new member of the EAMTS board 3 World Congress of Music Therapy 7th-12 th 2014 in Krems, Austria 4 An interview with Rebeka Eröss: Music Therapy in Hungary 6 Refugee project in Hamburg, Germany 9 An internship abroad in Nepal and India 11 Bachelor and Master Thesis 14 Music Therapy Students: TO PROVIDE EXTENSIVE COMMUNICATION POSSIBILITIES AND TO CLOSE THE GAP BETWEEN BEING A STUDENT AND BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL
Editorial Dear Members and Friends of the EAMTS, There have been big changes within the EAMTS. Since the last board meeting we have been busy getting in contact with music therapy programs, updating the homepage, organizing new projects and of course: Preparing ourselves for the poster presentation at Music Therapy World Congress in Krems, Austria, this summer. Also the board has changed: Unfortunately Sebastian had to leave board, but we want to thank him on this way for his participation. Reka from Hungary joined the board and is giving us new input from East Europe. You are going to read more about her and the situation of music therapy in Hungary further on in the Newsletter. therapy association which will hopefully help to finance more projects. Later on, Anna, a Dutch music therapy student, will describe her great experiences she had while doing a music therapy internship in Nepal and India in 2012/ 2013. We hope you enjoy this newsletter and hope to see many of you in Krems this summer! If you have any request or if you maybe want to write an article yourself please contact the board of the EAMTS: eamts.org@gmail.com Warm regards, Monika Hoog Antink This newsletter is going to take you on a journey through the music therapy world, beginning in Krems, Austria. Claudia writes about the upcoming congress and the participation of the EAMTS within it. Then Katrin presents the refugee project that took place in Hamburg, Germany, last year. Unfortunately it had to stop but they created a music
Introducing a new member of the EAMTS board Reka was born in Budapest in 1983 in Hungary. She holds a master degree in Social Policy and has recently joined the EAMTS board. She has been living abroad several times, when she did research on the Nordic Model of Welfare in Sweden and Finland. After graduating she has started to work in Brussels at Eurochil which is the biggest children's rights NGO in Europe. Her main field was youth participation and she has carried out several projects, workshops about children's rights for young people. Reka will finish her postgraduate studies as a Music Therapist in June 2014. She loves to travel, to work with children and to spend her time with friends and family. She is planning to get involved more in music therapy by learning from already existing best practices and methods such as the Nordoff Robbins method or the special music method.
World Congress of Music Therapy 7th-12 th 2014 in Krems, Austria Did you ever wonder what a world congress of music therapy is like? Are you interested in learning about music therapy practice in other countries and on different continents? Would you like to meet music therapy students and professional music therapists from around the world? Then you should partcipate at this year's world congress of music therapy in Austria! The WFMT world congress of music therapy will take place from the 7 th to 12 th July in Vienna and Krems in Austria. It is the first time that a world congress has such a strong focus on the student perspective on music therapy. Thanks to the organizational team of the congress and the Assembly of Student Delegates of the WFMT (ASD) it offers a lot of special opportunities for students: Vienna, Graz, Krems, and Heidelberg are presented (capacity of 30 participants). For further information regarding the workshops and registration please visit the following link: http://www.musictherapy2014.org/tentative-schedule/ 2) During the whole conference many student-focused lectures and workshops are included in the program (to learn more, you can follow the same link as noted above). 3) The WFMT Assembly of Student Delegates is holding a special poster session on Wednesday, 9.7., 1:45 to 2:30 pm, where students and student organizations can present their work, projects and experiences. Tina and Katrin from the EAMTS will also present a poster regarding the structure and work of our organization there. 1) Two of the pre-conference workshops in Vienna on the 7 th of July (1-7 pm) are designed especially for students and are free of charge. One workshop is organized by the WFMT Assembly of Student Delegates and is called Studying, Interning, and Working Abroad: Preparing for Global Engagement (no size limitation to participants) and in the other workshop masters' students thesis research from 4) After the presentation the posters will be exhibited in the student lounge. The student lounge is a room, which is reserved for the students during the whole congress as a place of meeting other students, of networking, exchanging and connecting. Different presentations and discussion groups will be led there by students and
student organizations. For example the ASD of the WFMT will present its projects for students and there will be presentations from students from different countries about their music therapy approach, education, etc. So the student lounge will give a lot of opportunities for information and exchange... 5) Furthermore the WFMT student delegates organized a round table at Thursday, 10.7., 4:30 to 6:30 pm, which is entitled WFMT Assembly of Student Delegates Exploring the Future: Student Perspectives on Globalization of Music Therapy. The ASD will present its work, perspectives, goals and achievements there and it would be great if a lot of students would take part. 6) In the cultural village different nations will be able to present themselves and music therapy in their country. Students are involved here as well. 8) Miraculously the organizational team and the ASD have managed to organize a lot of low fare accommodation possibilities for students. For further information please contact the WFMT. The EAMTS will be present at the world congress with most of our board members and we are very excited to go and to be part of this great music therapy world gathering. We are looking forward to meet you there and would be happy to assist you with any questions you might have. We think it is great that the congress team and the ASD have put so much effort to make it a world congress where students needs and perspectives are heard, appreciated and approached. This should be rewarded by a huge student presence at the congress. So let's all go and make it a 1000 student participants at this years world congress of music therapy! 7) What exactly will happen in the interactive music therapy room is still kind of a secret, but it surely will be fun! Claudia Zindel
An interview with Rebeka Eröss: Music Therapy in Hungary 1. Please tell me about your education and background? I spent much of my childhood singing in a choir and playing the flute, but I never wanted to pursue a professional career in music. I had a circuit in the literature department at the University of Pécs Circuit.finally I graduated as a psychologist and some years later I became a clinical psychologist. I got experience working in many fields of psychology, such as working with people with physical disability, neurologically injured children and both adult and child psychiatry. 2. When have you felt that psychology was not enough and you wanted to introduce new methods such as music therapy? I always wanted to combine my hobby and my profession somehow, so this could be music therapy! Therefore I started my music therapeutic education at ELTE (Bárczi Gusztáv Gyógypedagógiai Kar) tutored by Urbánné Varga Katalin. 3. Was there music therapy before in the hospital? No. 4. What are your main observations, your conclusions after this years? A few years ago I had successfully applied for a grant offered by MOL and had a unique chance to buy a lot of instruments. When the children come to my sessions, their eyes light up and they are very excited to see the many instruments collected from all over the world: from big congas and djembes to small kalimbas. Music therapy can help children with issues regarding communication, attention, motivation as well as with behavioral problems and mood. The most obvious change you can see in the children following music therapy sessions is their happy mood, their relaxed state of mind. 5. How well known is music therapy in Hungary? At the moment music therapy, as a profession, does not really exist in Hungary. Music education and teaching methods are world famous (Kodaly method, and Kokas Klara s method). Using music in a therapeutic way does not have a very long tradition in Hungary, only a handful of people are well trained and there are very few jobs available as a music therapist. If you want to evaluate music therapy from a medical point of view, the doctors, psychologist consider it seems like hurly-burly. If you evaluate it from a musician point of view, it seems
like a bunch of silly clowns playing around. The bottom line is that music therapy is not yet an appreciated method in Hungary. Music therapy and its methods need to be taught widely and seriously, research and publishing of the results must be done. 6. Is there any specific area you feel music therapy can give more than anything else? As a dynamically orientated psychotherapist my main interest lies in the preverbal period of the human development, from age 0-3 years. Most of the psychological injuries are connected to this very sensitive period. Music therapy being a non-verbal method, music (along with other nonverbal methods) it can offer a chance for correction. Everyone responds to music somehow, it affects our minds, bodies and emotions. Through music we can help to improve physical health and ability in several domains, address emotional and behavioral difficulties, develop communication and social skills, increase creativity, self-esteem and confidence. During music therapy the cognitive functioning can be developed as well, like motor skills, memory, ect is improvisation. In music therapy improvisation is defined as a process where the client and therapist relate to each other. I work with a cotherapist Komáromi Erzsébet Katalin, she is an art therapist at the Heim Pál Hospital. In the department of child psychiatry we make up music, musical improvisation, while playing and singing, extemporaneously creating a melody, rhythm or song. Following our improvisation, we conduct a verbal circle where we encourage the children to express their feelings, associations, impressions they had during our musical experience. 8. Tell me something about the main difficulties you experience in your work! The main difficulty is the lack of time. I find I could find more time to hold more group music therapy session on a regular basis. I also would like to allocate more time to do extensive reading and conducting research in the field of music therapy. I hope to visit some schools and institutions abroad in the future as well. 7. How does a Music Therapy session usually looks like? The sessions usually last about 45 minutes and the main method I apply 9. What are your professional plans for the upcoming years? Uhhh, I am full of plans. I have recently changed jobs, in order to make
more time to conduct research with infants and learn about this specific time period (age 0-3). I am also planning to visit a third world country this summer in order to gain more knowledge about ancient and tribal music, the usage of instinctive music and traditional healing instruments. Reka
Refugee project in Hamburg, Germany Beating the drum to invite people for music therapy. A rather unusual way to announce the music therapy session. How are you? Do you want to play drums? Some young men follow Tina s invitation. But not only the announcement is unusual, as the place is also rather odd. I arrange some more chairs in a circle in an empty church. Some people are already there, some more will join later. Everyone has a percussion instrument and there are some more instruments in the middle. One would start with a rhythm, and then the others started joining by imitating the rhythm, starting a new one, answering, commenting. Everybody seems to know what to play and if not somebody will show him what needs to be played. It takes a little time to get into a common groove but once it starts flowing there is no halt. The sound of the drums echoes in the church hall. The sound is quite overwhelming as well as the feeling of creating something together. There is not so much talking during the session. Sometimes there are conversations afterwards. One young man said that he could feel happy while drumming. Maybe that is the main goal: to offer some place where one can just be, create something and make some music. Something that has nothing to do with a status of residence or work. Something that has simply to do with being human. Refugees from Lampedusa in Hamburg Last year in April, about 300 refugees from Lampedusa came to Hamburg to try to start a life. They were mainly from West African countries and found jobs and social security in Libya before the beginning of the war. Being impossible for them to stay, they were forced to leave the country. Landing in Lampedusa they faced inhuman conditions in refugee camps. Italy was unable to cope with the growing amount of refugees so they were sent to several other countries in Europe. Having arrived in Hamburg in April they had no place to stay. They were not given any permit of residence or work because according to the Dublin 2 agreement it would be Italy having the responsibility for them. In June the St. Pauli church offered place for 80 young men to sleep in the church. They have put tents and showers in the garden of the church and developed a network of volunteers to provide food, clothes and hygiene products as well as cultural offers and medical support. For further information please visit: http://www.lampedusa-inhamburg.org/
The refugee project We (Tina Posselt and Katrin Reinländer) had the idea of offering a music therapy group on a weekly basis to the young men staying in St. Pauli church. It needed some organizational work in advance to organize instruments and find a suitable place and time. It was also important to us to check whether it is an offer that people would like to take part in. The kindergarten belonging to the church lent us instruments for the afternoon and we were allowed to use the church for that time. When the weather was still warm we were even in the tent outside the church. It was an open group, usually between 6 and 12 persons, meeting for about an hour to improvise freely. We were inviting people and they joined and left the group as it felt right for them. Our concept to have a fixed group and also to talk about things had to change to a more open concept in the idea of community music therapy. It became an open drumming group for everybody (refugees, teenagers, employees of the church, volunteers, children and parents from the kindergarten) and the most important thing was to get connected in different traditional rhythms from all over West and North Africa and to feel the liveliness and strength of the music. Unfortunately, the project had an abrupt break when the 80 young men had the chance to move out of the church into heated mobile homes. The church was used for other activities and it became difficult to reach the people. To have the possibility to fund more such projects Tina found an association to support music therapy in outpatient care. Musiktherapie-Initiative e.v. The idea to found an association sprang from the refugee project in Hamburg. Working with the refugees made evident that there are hardly any possibilities to join a music therapy group outside the clinical setting in Germany. Especially patients who would profit from music therapy most, cannot afford it. The association was found in November 2013 and we are still doing the ground work. So far the work is based on a volunteering basis. By organizing small events, fundraising and dealing with public relations, the association is hoping to purchase first instruments soon. On the long run, music therapists will offer group sessions for children, adults, refugees based on their needs. If you would like to get more information about the Musiktherapie-Initiative e.v. please email info@musiktherapie-initiative.de. You can also visit the homepage at: http://www.musiktherapieinitiative.de Katrin
An internship abroad in Nepal and India I am Anna van Eck born in 1990 in Oud-beijerland a city in that tiny little country the Netherlands. Currently I am in my final year of the study music therapy at the University of Applied Science in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. In my third year of the study I went for a whole year of internship to Nepal and India. and fifty days per calendar year. At least you are staying on a tourist visa. However I saw this only as a challenge and enlargement of my work experience. I still remember the time that I said: I am going abroad for my internship. But behind this big mouth there was also hiding fear: the fear to leave everything behind and the fear to go away from my familiar surroundings. But my motivation to go was bigger than those fears, especially when I came in contact with The Music Therapy Trust India and Nepal. Curacao and Suriname were the only offered internships from school and these were not the countries where I was interested in. Since I had already planned to do volunteer work for 4 weeks in Nepal I went looking on Internet for music therapy in Nepal and just a simple search on Google brought me in touch with Dr. Margaret Lobo MT FRSA, the founder of The Music Therapy Trust. She founded the Otakar Kraus Music Trust in the United Kingdom in 1991 to provide music therapy and introduced clinical music therapy to India in 2005 and Nepal 2010. My internship lasted for one year in which I have also been for two months in India, because in Nepal it is only allowed to stay one hundred Nepal and India are countries with a lot of potential for music therapy, as Nepalese and Indian people are natural born musicians. People sing, dance and play spontaneously when they hear music, so music is an excellent way to build up a therapeutic relationship and to work on treatment goals. Beside this, music is also a universal language: there are no rules to communicate in the musical language. This last one played an important role within the treatment as most of the children
where I worked with were non-verbal and I didn t speak fully Nepali or Hindi. During my internship I worked with a wide range of target groups. My main location was Autism Care Nepal (ACN) where I worked with Autistic children of the age between 6 to 13 years. In addition I worked at Special Education and Rehabilitation Centre (SERC), a school for children with special needs and I worked under supervision at Kanti Children s Hospital at the burn wounds ward and oncology. Thereby I have done several music therapeutic projects with orphanage and street children of the age between 8 to 18 years at Voice of children Nepal and Jamghat India. Beside the therapy I was also working as music teacher at the Mountview Kiddie School (MKS) and School of Performing Arts Kathmandu (SPAK). Nepal and India are developing countries so there is as you can see enough of work to do and then I even didn t talk yet about all the workshops, presentations and interviews that I have gave. This was also quite a challenge because when you gave them one finger they took your whole hand. The poverty that you face every day was hard to except so I was determined to help everyone, something that was impossible. After a certain time I came to know that I could not help everyone and I forced myself to focus on a certain number of projects with as result that I actually could do my work much better then before. Also due to the lack of a fixed team you must have a large capacity of independency. In my year I was lucky that I had as well in Nepal as in India a large team of professionals around me from all over the world, but this changes every year. I have Nepal deep in my heart and I can even say that Nepal became my second home. The friendliness and hospitality of the people is amazing. They helped to ensure that my Nepal adventure was something that I will never forget! For everyone who ever intends to go for internship or volunteer work abroad, contact The Music Therapy Trust for a life experience you will never forget! Anna van Eck The Music Therapy Trust: Email: themusictherapytrust@gmail.com Web: http://www.themusictherapytrust.com/ Contact: Dr. Margaret Lobo
Bachelor and Master thesis As you all know, the day will come when you have to write a Bachelor or Master thesis to complete your course. Along with that, of course comes an endless and time consuming search for suitable literature. To make life a little easier for everybody we want to start a platform where you can get in touch with other students and exchange thoughts and ideas about similar topics. Maybe some students have just written about the topic you are interested in? Would it not be great if you could simply contact the students and ask directly? You can decide what information (e.g. name, email address) will be posted on our website along with the topic you are writing about. By contacting us, we can forward the students email address and you can get in touch. Also, we want to give you to the chance to write an article about your thesis finished or in progress - in our newsletter. If you are interested, write to eamts.org@gmail.com. Tina Posselt