Music Therapy and Traumatic Brain Injury

1. Traumatic Brain Injury and Rehabilitation. 2. Music Therapy with People who Have Experienced Traumatic Brain Injury: What the Literature Says. 3. Therapeutic Narrative Analysis: How We Look at Cases. 4. Bert's Story - Changing perspectives: Identifying and realizing communicative potential in early isolated states . 5. Neil's Story - From distress and agitation to humour and joy: the creation of a dialogue. 6. Mark's Story - A fusion of two worlds: physical dependency and creative partnership. 7. The Narrative Explicated. Bibliography.

Simon Gilbertson's and David Aldridge's book, Music Therapy and Traumatic Brain Injury: A Light on a Dark Night speaks to me both as a music therapy clinician who has worked with ""unreachable"" clients in many settings and as a family member of one who has suffered a traumatic brain injury. The book investigates how music therapy can meet the needs of people who have experienced TBI. Ultimately, the authors find the language to help music therapists working with traumatic brain injuries explain the question ""why music?"" to health care professionals, to family and friends of the victum, and to the community as a whole. The authors encourage the integrative, holistic aspects of music therapy, emphasizing that music interventions in music therapy can meet not only the functional cognitive and physical needs of a patient but also the psychosocial and emotional needs that no doubt arise in a hospital setting... Music Therapy and Traumatic Brain Injury: A Light on a Dark Night is a valuable contribution to the music therapy literature for several reasons. First and foremost, the findings of the research presented provide music therapists important insights that will help to communicate music's role in therapy for patients with TBI to all persons who work and care for these individuals. Second, this book introduces a practical research design for clinical music therapists to use in their work. Lastly, as a family member of one who has suffered a traumatic brain injury, Gilbertson and Aldridge have written a book that has assured me that a normal life may exist for a person who has suffered a TBI with the help of integrative rehabilitation.