Research Focus:
Music Therapy with Families

Central to the research focus "Music therapy with families" is the exploration of music therapy settings that involve the patient's family in therapeutic work. This can take the form of close caregivers, carers, relatives or entire families.
This involves working with music therapy in different constellations across the entire lifespan and brings additional aspects and challenges to be described and analysed.
 

WZMF addresses this topic on various levels:

  • In collaboration with international colleagues we are working on the development and organisation of the "Music Therapy with Families Hub" network. In this context, the first international "Music Therapy with Families" symposium was held at mdw - University for Music and performing Arts Vienna in September 2022, which was very well received.

  • The proceedings of this symposium have just been published. This publication offers a comprehensive summary of all presentations, workshops and posters from this event (https://doi.org/10.21939/mt-family_symp)

  • The WZMF team is currently working on setting up an online platform for the "Music Therapy with Families Hub" (www.mdw.ac.at/mt-family), which will provide information material, event information and literature.

  • Another important step is networking activities in German-speaking countries, which are also available on this website.

  • Gender- and diversity-sensitive aspects of music therapy with families: In the context of family or family-like structures that also involve several generations, power and hierarchical relationships often have an impact. Gender- and diversity-sensitive approaches and a critical examination of the ethical aspects of this way of working are suitable for making these visible and reflecting upon them. Participatory research methods should balance out such power imbalances.

Current research projects:

Attachment-based aspects of MusikSpielTherapy (MusicPlayTherapy): This PhD-project investigates a triadic therapy approach for infants and their caregivers, which draws from current evidence on attachment research and connects it to music therapy interventions. New perspectives gained in the process flow directly back into music therapy training at the Institute of Music Therapy.

Publications:

Phan Quoc, E., Burghardt-Distl, A., Flower, C., Oldfield, A. & Hernandez-Ruiz, E. (Eds.). (2023). Symposium Music Therapy with Families Proceedings. Music Therapy with Families Hub. https://doi.org/10.21939/mt-family_symp

Ettenberger, M. & Phan Quoc, E. (2023). Musiktherapie mit Familien: Kultur, Identitäten, Diversität und Gender. Musik & Gesundsein, 43, 18–22.

 
Phan Quoc, E., Burghardt-Distl, A. & Stegemann, T. (2023). Beziehungsweise—Musiktherapie mit Familien. Musik und Gesundsein (MuG), 43, 13-17.
 
Phan Quoc, E., & Romer, G. (2020). Musiktherapie mit Familien. In H.U. Schmidt, T. Stegemann & C. Spitzer (Hrsg.) Musiktherapie bei psychischen und psychosomatischen Störungen (S. 326–333). München: Elsevier.


Coordination:

Eva Phan Quoc, Thomas Stegemann