“Why don’t you just play some guitar - do some therapy” A music therapist in clinical teamwork: Reflections from a long professional life

Abstract

Teamwork is well known in Swedish healthcare, but the forms of teamwork, and thus also the role of the music therapist in a team, can diverge. Multidisciplinary teams working cross-professionally, is the most used and common description, but it is rare to distinguish between the different models inter- and transdisciplinary team model. Irrespective of model, it is crucial that the team’s various professions acknowledge and respect each other’s proficiency and professional areas. Attentive and mutual collaboration with a team colleague, in and through music, can, in an otherwise unsuccessful situation, create an opportunity to identify patients’ mood, cognitive, communicative, physical abilities and needs.
The unique knowledge of .how and why music and music therapeutic interventions work, is fundamental for the music therapist’s practice and function in the team and for the clinical and therapeutic processes.