Humanistic Music Therapy: An Overview

As music therapists, we are frequently asked about our philosophies of music therapy and our approaches to practice when working with clients.  It is common for music therapists to consider multiple approaches when crafting their professional perspectives. The humanistic approach to music therapy is very well known and referenced in practice today, and has influenced some of the most prolific leaders in the music therapy profession.  What does humanism in music therapy look like?

Several leaders in the field of music therapy utilized humanistic ideals:

• Juliette Alvin: innovator of free improvisation theory, targeting outcomes like self-liberation, positive relationships and physical, intellectual, and social-emotional development, allowing client to find their own musical way without fixed rules, structures, or themes (Bruscia, 1988)

• Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins: developed the model Creative Music Therapy, a music-centered relationship, typically improvisational, assists clients in excelling beyond their conditions through musical support and challenges, ultimately promoting actualization of their music potential (Kim, 2004)

• Helen Lindquist Bonny: developed the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music, in which a client experiences images in response to sequences of recorded classical music while discussing with a guide, like a music therapist (Clark, 2002)

Humanism was around long before music therapy formally emerged as a profession in the 1950s, but the increasing acceptance of humanistic psychology didn’t come until later.  There were several humanistic psychology leaders such as Rogers, Maslow, and others that provided the groundwork for how we understand humanism in music therapy.  

Humanistic Music Therapy is generally based on the five principles of humanistic psychology (Bugental, 1964) which are:

1. Human beings supersede the sum of their parts and cannot be reduced to components

2. Human beings exist in a uniquely human context

3. Human beings are conscious and aware of being conscious, both in the context of others

4. Human beings have both choice and responsibility

5. Human beings are intentional, have goals, are aware that they play a role in future events, and seek meaning, value, and creativity

Keeping those principles in mind, Humanistic Music Therapy has four components that directly relate to the practice of music therapy and are used as a foundation to describe it. 

1. Clients:  When applying this framework, clients are regarded as beings, and practice is focused more on the “who” than the “what” a client’s needs.  All clients retain their individuality, including agency and their rights to dignity and respect.  A client’s existence is seen through interpersonal, sociocultural, and historical contexts.

2. Music:  From a humanistic perspective, music is a way of being. Music is located in humanity and is a way for clients and therapists to work together to address therapeutic goals.  Music is relational and each client has their own unique musical identity.

3. Therapy goals: In the humanistic approach, client goals are centered on working towards the ‘maximal expression of human potential’, or self-actualization (Rogers, 1961).  Clients are understood as whole, each with their own agency. To honor a client’s agency, it is important to have a client’s active participation in formulating their own goals.  A client’s relationship with others, community, society, and humanity can support self-actualization.

4. Therapy processes:  In Humanistic Music Therapy, the client and therapist “engage various ways of being, musically, to support self-actualization”.  Music therapy techniques do not define this process, but they can be helpful as long as they serve a humanistic purpose. Music therapy interventions are not isolated techniques that yield isolated results, but instead are understood in a “larger context of a client’s whole being” (Abrams, 2015). 
   

There have been several case studies completed that apply humanistic frameworks to music therapy assessment and treatment.  These case studies have followed individuals in various developmental life stages with a variety of needs and conditions, and have applied different types of music experiences including but not limited to music listening and imaging, song recreation and/or compilation, improvisation, and song composition.  Humanistic approaches in music therapy are found throughout theoretical and clinical literature, and while there is not one specific example of an approach that utilizes all of the principles of the humanistic perspective, it is an approach that can be readily applied to our every day music therapy practice. 

This overview of Humanistic Music Therapy is supported by the Music Therapy Handbook edited by Barbara Wheeler. 

Abrams, B. (2015). Humanistic Approaches. In Music Therapy Handbook (pp. 148–160). The Guilford Press.

Bruscia, K. E. (1988). A survey of treatment procedures in improvisational music therapy.  Psychology of Music, 16, 10-24. 

Bugental, J. (1964). The third force in psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 4(1), 19-26. 

Clark, M.F. (2002). The evolution of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM). In K.E. Bruscia & D.E. Grocke (Eds.), Guided imagery and music: The Bonny method and beyond (pp. 5-27). Gilsum, NH: Barcelona.

Kim, Y. (2004). The early beginnings of Nordoff-Robbins music therapy. Journal of Music  Therapy, 41(4), 321-339.

Rogers, C. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.