Child-Centred Music Therapy

This open access book draws on recent developments in children’s rights, particularly concerning the child’s right to participation, provision and protection .  Since 1989, the UNCRC has become a catalogue of rights that expresses legal norms used by all countries in the world. The UNCRC can be considered a toolkit that expresses a normative order, that is, a human rights standard for how to legitimately protect children, and to facilitate processes of participation. For many children and adolescents’ music is a significant source for gaining health and social/cultural participation. Music then, has the potential for realizing values inherent in the UNCRC. The main aim of this book is to utilize The United Nations Conventions on the Rights (UNCRC) as a tool to give an overview of relevant themes, and to critically explore what implications the convention has for the profession of music therapy, and more specifically, music therapy for children and adolescents.

Viggo Krüger  is Associate Professor at the Grieg Academy Center for Music Therapy Research, University of Bergen, Norway

Kathleen Murphy  is Assistant Professor/Program Director for Music Therapy Graduate Studies at the State University of New York, USA