Jose Pouwels about the intro days

From 18 to 20 October 2023, the Music Therapy introductory days took place at Codarts, a course for people interested in the profession of music therapy and our Music Therapy Master's programme.

José Pouwels is music therapist and tutor at our Master Music Therapy. She studied Music Therapy at Codarts, in the first cohort. Before that, she obtained a bachelor Music in Education at Artez in Arnhem and studied Classical Voice and Music Theatre in the United Kingdom.
She tells us about the workshop ‘Active Music Therapy’ she gave during the introductory days.

Active Music Therapy is a method where clients are invited to actively engage in improvising or making music in a safe environment; a music therapist facilitates this by creating a safe environment and therapeutic relationship, for example by starting in a rhythm that a client can connect to.

The mechanisms of interaction in Active Music Therapy start very bounded, to help clients experience enough safety to get into playing. Later, the fixed form is released more and more, creating more space and freedom for improvisation.

In her workshop, José makes a link to childhood, in which the caregiver offers the child stability from where it can explore its own boundaries. Participants of the workshop were introduced to Active Music Therapy by experiencing this approach themselves. They engaged in the role of client and therapist to practice it.

José: “What I really like about the introductory days is that, as a participant, you find yourself situated in a group with strangers. In that group setting, you go through a process as a group and as individuals. This immediately gives you a glimpse of the setting of the Master Music Therapy: your own process and the group process are interrelated, and you have to deal with that. In a context of reciprocity you learn to be vulnerable, so that you can tell your story on an instrument and are able and willing to share it.”