Abstract
After more than 10 years in the role, this Editorial marks my last edition as Editor of British Journal of Music Therapy (BJMT). I am pleased to welcome Stuart Wood and Becky Dowson who have joined the BJMT Editorial team. It seems appropriate to look back as I say goodbye to this part of my professional life.
In May 2013, Kay Sobey, Rachel Darnley-Smith and I sent off our application to British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT) to become BJMT Editors; we had been acting Editors before that point and were excited about taking on the role. Looking back to our application, I see that our vision included greater diversity of publications and authors, a goal to move BJMT online and the provision of workshops to support new authors. During my time as Editor, we have made some of these changes and marked some important developments. And over the 10 years since 2013, colleagues have joined and left the Editorial team but I have remained a constant. I’ve enjoyed my work with you all; thank you to Kay Sobey, Rachel Darnley-Smith, Alison Barrington, Philippa Derrington, Emma Millard and Donald Wetherick. When geography has allowed, we have enjoyed some social moments among all the hard work, three of which I share with you below.
When the new BJMT team stepped into Julie Sutton’s shoes in 2013, plans to move the journal online began in earnest. Supported by all Julie’s preparation and Donald Wetherick’s guiding hand as BAMT Chair, negotiations took until May 2016 when the first online edition was published. It felt like a daring step at the time! Now the majority of views of BJMT are through the Sage platform, and this has enormously broadened the international reach and content of the journal. While for BAMT members online access to the journal is part of their membership fee, the Editorial team is aware of the barrier that cost presents to others who wish to read BJMT, an issue that the team have been pondering for some time.
Another strand of the Editorial team’s work has been with the Editorial Panel. The Editorial Panel is the advisory group who support the work of the Editors. In our meetings, we have studied Sage metrics, discussed feedback and explored ways to develop the journal. Thanks in particular to John Strange, Helen Loth, Helen Odell-Miller and Jackie Robarts for their support. The Editorial Panel has recently been in the process of change, with a forward focus for representation from a student or recent graduate, a service user, diversity champion and an interdisciplinary colleague. However, this is currently on hold as looking ahead, BAMT will be consulting with the membership about BAMT’s various communications, including the journal, to reflect the changing needs of information sharing about our profession.
The Editorial team’s involvement in International Music Therapy Journal Editors’ meetings at European conferences has provided rich opportunities for discussion and international understanding. In 2022, the team were pleased to host the book of abstracts from the 12th Edinburgh European Music Therapy Conference on the BJMT Sage webpages. Our ‘Writing for Publication’ workshops have run both as stand-alone BAMT events and as part of national and international conferences. I have enjoyed meeting new and experienced authors and providing workshops to move writing barriers out of the way and develop authors’ understanding of what makes a good journal article. In one of my first Editorials, I quoted Tony Wigram who wrote ‘it takes time to write a paper, and it’s putting your head on the block, because you can always get chopped down by people’ (Bonde and Nygaard, 2011: NP). Writing is an important narration of the development of our profession, and sometimes the chopping to which Wigram refers can produce new growth and can allow new ideas – and the profession – to flourish. Do consider contributing for the journal and to the discourse about our profession.
Having looked back, I now turn to this packed Edition of BJMT which includes five articles and five book reviews. Perhaps in their way they represent some of the development narrated above; the international voice of the journal as well as the scope across research, practice and theory. This issue begins with Viggo Kruger’s article providing an engaging perspective from Norway about the use of music therapy with adolescents in the care system. The young participants who took part in this research project identified music therapy as a resource, a place to connect and trust and a way of managing complex emotions. Marie Strand Skanland and Gro Trondalen, also from Norway, provide a research-based article that also centralises service users’ voices in a study about music therapy in a Flexible Assertive Community Treatment team. Their interviews with service users and Music Therapists provide characteristics of the music therapy relationship and underline the centrality of relationship in the work.
Sarah Seppendorf, Julia Hoorman, Natalie Schloeßer and Artur Jaschke write about an area of work which is infrequently documented, music therapy in eating disorder treatment and the synergy with systemic and family-based therapy approaches. Their systematic review concludes that there are opportunities for interdisciplinary colleagues to consider how music therapy might be more fully combined with existing practice in this area. Alex Street and Artur Jaschke explore a relatively new area of work for music therapy with a scoping review considering the value of active music-based interventions in an adult intensive care unit (ICU) setting. They also suggest that more research is needed to explore the use of music therapy and interdisciplinary exchange. Finally, Ian Grundy writes about writing in his article Notes on Notes, a fascinating exploration of the act of writing notes, and the impact upon our work as Music Therapists. As usual, all these articles have been peer reviewed and the BJMT team would like to thank all those who contribute to the profession in this way.
Five book reviews are also included in this edition. First, Liz Coombes reviews Karen Goodman’s most recent book Developing Issues in World Music Therapy Education and Training, which, as Liz notes, provides us with a rich selection of writing. This book adds to Karen Goodman’s important contribution to the music therapy literature presenting and exploring different perspectives and issues across international country models. Our second book review by Adrienne Freeman is a long overdue review of Claire Molyneux’s book Tales from the Music Therapy Room. This book brings something of New Zealand and its music therapy practice to us through the words, images and soundscapes in the book. Adrienne ends her review reflecting that this book reminded her why she became a Music Therapist in the first place; a wonderful endorsement!
Helen Loth provides our next review of Bob Heath’s ‘beautiful and moving’ book Songs from a Window which focuses on songwriting in music therapy in end-of-life care, exploring issues including boundaries and the song as both process and product. The lyrics and recordings are available on Heath’s accompanying webpage. In our next book review, we move to a theoretical framework that is greatly influencing music therapy at present, with Imogen Dyer’s review of Laura Beer and Jacqueline Birnbaum’s edited book Trauma Informed Music Therapy. This book outlines the principles of trauma informed practice and illustrates the use of these in clinical work with children and adults. Our last book review is by Lucy Bolger. Lucy reviews Caroline Miller and Mariana Torkington’s edited book Arts Therapies in International Practice Informed by Neuroscience and Research; another area of considerable interest to Music Therapists. This volume focuses on the challenges and opportunities of using neuroscience as a way to understand and support work in the Arts Therapies as described through a variety of case studies in diverse settings. Thanks to all our book reviewers; I hope these reviews leave you wanting more and reading more!
I will enjoy reading the journal, but now from the other side of the fence, remembering Eliot’s (1994) words, . . . to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. (p. 42)
