The Use of Pre-Composed Songs with a Highly Defended Client

Abstract

This paper illustrates how pre-composed songs which have special meaning for the client can serve as an intermediary phenomenon in psychoanalytically-informed individual music therapy, providing opportunities for the therapist and client to develop shared meanings within the therapeutic boundaries. The client is a teenage boy with moderate learning difficulties who has suffered abuse and deprivation. He is seen as highly defended, presenting an ‘opportunist’ secondary handicap (Sinason 1986) in response to earlier traumas, and as having a limited potential space (Winnicott 1971). Pre-composed songs which had special meaning for him were able to contain his emotions in a structure that was digestible for him. The use of these songs was not seen as a substitute for free improvisation, but as a necessary precursor.

After an introduction, the first five music therapy sessions will be described, followed by a conclusion discussing the underlying therapeutic processes. The setting is a secondary special school in north London. Music therapy is the only formal therapy offered for children who have been deprived, neglected, and/or abused, and who struggle with the reality of handicap every day.