Music therapy and community participation: Selfhood and artistic citizenship within and beyond the clinic

Abstract

Music therapy practices evolve in specific contexts, which suggests that  the conceptual and theoretical claims we make should be continuously challenged by practical realities. In this paper, I challenge tendencies to polarize clinical music therapy and community music therapy, by elaborating on two main themes: a) Possibilities and limitations of connecting community music therapy and cultural participation in music therapy within mental health clinics; b) Ways of relating to the argument that, as professionals, music therapists must heed established models of thinking in the clinic. This theoretical article takes inspiration from two integrative metatheoretical traditions; the bioecological and sociocultural tradition and contemporary enactivist perspectives. The examples that I present in this paper are based in practice contexts within mental healthcare in Bergen, Norway. A “Three-Stage Model” is outlined, with emphasis on the ecological transitions from i) clinical music therapy, to ii) municipal follow-up services, to iii) independent cultural participation in the local community. The affordances and limitations of the notion of artistic citizenship in relation to the Three-Stage Model are explored and related to the notions of personhood and selfhood. The relationships between the Three-Stage Model and organisational culture of mental health clinics in Norway are discussed, and areas of future research indicated.