No abstract

Music therapy in South Africa is slowly negotiating a practice that takes into account our continent's musical vibrancy, as well as contextual understandings of "health" and "illness." Although music therapy in the (so-called) developed world is situated within the paradigms of medicine, education, psychology and research - in the formal and often scientific sense - in South Africa, this practice needs to be re-defined to make it relevant to the contexts in which we work. The Music Therapy Community Clinic (MTCC) is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to provide music therapy services to previously disadvantaged communities in Cape Town, South Africa. Socio-political problems such as poverty, unemployment, gang violence and HIV and Aids have lead to the fragmentation and disintegration of many of these communities. The MTCC's Music for Life project emerged out of a need to provide after-school music activities and to reach a wider group of children than those seen for clinical music therapy sessions. As the project has developed and expanded, the music therapists have drawn in community musicians to offer an increasing range of musical activities to children. The collaboration between music therapists and community musicians has led to many questions about the roles and identities of each. This article is based on a presentation given by the MTCC at a Symposium for South African Arts Therapists held in Cape Town in June 2007. The article discusses the merits and challenges of the Music for Life Project and offers reflections from both community musicians and music therapists pertaining to our negotiated and changing roles as we continue to develop the project together.

Many music therapists have alluded to challenges in their work with groups of young people. However, chaos, incorporating experiences of disintegration and destruction, is a construct often overlooked in music therapy literature. Some music therapy authors have related experiences of chaos to the struggles faced by young people referred for therapy. These experiences require management, modification, or resolution. The authors of this article synthesized broader understandings and approaches towards chaos described in literature from fields including music therapy group work, drama therapy, the arts, psychoanalysis, organizational studies, and philosophy. Chaos is positioned as an inherent and necessary aspect of music therapy groups with young people, situated within a mutually potentiating relationship with more ordered features of a group process. From this paradoxical perspective, therapeutic transformation is enabled through creativity that holds the tension between order and the destructiveness of chaos. When chaos is welcomed in music therapy groups and framed within appropriate boundaries, the authors argue that experiences of chaos can be harnessed to support engagement with the paradoxes of creativity and destructiveness. The provision of a space to play with chaos supports young people who are required to flourish within adverse, chaotic life circumstances. The significance of this position for a group of young people who have committed offences in the South African context is highlighted.

How does music therapy engage diversity? My participation within three different South African communities offers possibilities, questions and thoughts to music therapists as we form our profession in this country and perhaps also globally. In a diverse, transient community, music is able to draw people together and may help to reconcile our many differences, but can also highlight the fragmentation of this community if all individuals and groups are not considered. As I introduce music therapy to an affluent school community, I find the cultural understandings I share with community members a helpful advantage, and yet I need to consider that by working only in wealthy, resourced communities similar to my own community, I may be highlighting the divide between wealth and poverty. In this way, I compound our countries' struggle with social inequality. As I initiate a short term music therapy group in a community very different to my own, I struggle with questions of whether music therapy has any relevance here, and find myself adapting my thinking, and working closely with the community to form a music therapy practice that has value in this context. These diverse work experiences challenge music therapists to increase our awareness of pertinent national and global issues and the possibilities our profession holds for addressing these issues. We need to explore new communities whilst continually reflecting and questioning all that we do and sharing our different work experiences with one another. Otherwise, whilst our work may hold much value within a particular community, we may find ourselves addressing or compounding national or global issues and may be growing or inhibiting our profession.

The South Africa-based ‘Support Programme for Abuse Reactive Children’ combines psycho-educational and cognitive behavioural diversion approaches with creative programmes, including music therapy, to offer holistic rehabilitation to young sex offenders. This chapter offers a case story describing key moments in the music therapy process for one group of young offenders. From my perspective as the music therapist, I consider how collaborative drumming enabled participants to experience belonging and acceptance and how musical story-writing and improvisation motivated group members to support and challenge one another as they took ownership of their personal stories. I further explore how the experience of creating and performing a group rap offered a means through which group members could reconnect with their home communities as adolescents with potential, hope for the future, and a willingness to take responsibility to make relevant changes in their lives.