Helen and Mary write about using music improvisation in their individual sessions and Andrea. Helen’s sessions in a psychiatric institution began when she was a teenager struggling with depression and continued when she was discharged. She describes using her flute. Mary tells about making sounds and music that helped her to open to her feelings.

Cecilia, a music therapist, writes of her experience as a client in which she, as a child of Holocaust survivors, encounters and integrates her “Holocaust shadow.” She describes powerful images that emerged as she listened to music in a deep state of consciousness, aided by the therapists who worked with her over several years.

Ann, a mother of young children and a music therapist, writes of six sessions of in-dept therapy she began when she was being treated for cancer. In her sessions, Ann listened to music in a relaxed state. She describes the imagery that she produced and its relevance to her struggle. By mutual agreement with the therapist who supported her during these private sessions, she does not name the therapist.

T present excerpts from the journal he kept during his year of therapy with Jenny. T describes highlights of the imagery he experienced as he listened to music in a state of deep relaxation. The insights he gained from processing the imagery with Jenny helped him over come his fears of memories of sexual abuse.

Guilio, in his early twenties, writes about two important sessions that took place during his 7 months of therapy with Gabriella. Guilio describes using improvisation on xylophones and drums to learn to free himself from obsessions, to stay in relationship, and to balance his male and female parts. (Italy)

Connie writes about her physical and emotional experience of the music when she is in therapy, deeply relaxed, and listening to classical music. Connie is a music therapist, but she writes as a client in therapy. (Canada)

Joanne presents transcripts of an interview with Walter after a session during one of his hospital stays when he began to vocalize and create a song. Walter, a teenager, suffers from the chronic pain crises of sickle-cell anemia. Walter tells of his experience of pain and of how he finds music helpful.

In writing about therapy that began when her cancer was diagnosed. Maria includes some of the songs she improvised with Alan’s piano support. Maria and Alan wrote this narrative together as part of their ongoing therapy.

Diane presents words gathered from eight or more adult clients in her practice. Some of her clients struggle with histories of substance abuse, eating disorders, or abusive or disturbed parents. Three clients tell in interview, poems, and prose of their experience using improvised playing and singing and of the feelings and images that emerged in the playing. Diane also presents both a collage of clients’ words about singing in therapy, taken from her journals, and several poems about her clients.

Eric presents Rachel’s written responses to his questions about their 10 listening and biofeedback therapy sessions in a healing center. Rachel, a musician, suffers from Raynaud’s disease, a condition of poor circulation to extremities, which become numb and cold. Eric includes graphs showing Rachel’s physiological responses during various aural stimuli, such as her favorite music and environmental sounds.

Madelaine offers excerpts from an audiotape Lilly prepared for their last session together. On the tape, Lilly, a survivor of childhood abuse, presents songs, readings, and personal celebrations of their sessions during which she shared the imagery that she generated while listening to classical music in an internally focused state.

Sally offers Peg’s words, both verbatim interviews and monologues constructed from comments she has heard Peg make many times. Peg is a 92 year-old nursing-home resident. Sally interlaces the narrative with descriptions of Peg’s music experience in the home; these include sessions in which familiar music is recreated to stimulate physical movement, instrument playing, singing, and conversation.

To write this narrative, Alison and William, a midlife businessman, reviewed Alison’s transcripts from parts of four nonconsecutive therapy sessions (chosen because they contained imagery of William’s relationship to his wife) that took place more than 2 years earlier. William’s imagery (evoked during relaxed listening), some of his words during the discussion after the music in the four sessions, and his feelings on revisiting the material of his sessions are included. Transcripts of William’s thoughts about the therapy taped at their recent meeting conclude the narrative. (Australia)

Christina recounts her daughter Franny’s engagement with music over her 15 years. In the 3 ½ years of private sessions with Julie that were part of her individual education program, Franny sang familiar songs, role-played, and improvised at the piano. Franny has developmental delays and mild cerebral palsy.

Laura, Catherine, and Victoria write of their children’s piano lessons with Mary Ann, a music therapist and piano teacher. All three children (two are teenagers and one is 10 years old) have struggled with learning disabilities. The parents describe how the music-making in individual lessons and periodic group classes harnesses the children’s auditory strengths.

Michele and Sally have prepared a study of Rose, a 90-year-old nursing-home resident who is blind and has chronic schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. The writers, who have worked with Rose for a total of over 5 years (first Michele, then Sally), analyzed separately two videotaped sessions. In reporting the two representative sessions, they include descriptions of Rose’s responses to familiar songs and they present soliloquies they have constructed on Rose’s behalf on the basis of their repeated observations of her in and out of therapy.

Barbara presents Tammy, a severely multiply disabled teenager whom she, as supervisor of student therapists, has observed in therapy for over 3 years. Barbara tells of Tammy’s responses to favorite songs and music games in one of her sessions at a music therapy clinic. Barbara constructs a soliloquy—what Tammy might say if she herself could speak—from her own understanding of Tammy and from extensive interviews with Tammy’s mother.

Mary reproduces a song written with 19-year-old Marco during his hospitalizations after the recurrence of his brain tumor. Mary reports his mother’s words about the song, which is a permanent representation of Marco’s thoughts and feelings. (Canada)

In separate interviews, Suzanne asked Kelly’s mother and her co-therapist to watch a videotape of Kelly’s thirty-sixth session in a music therapy clinic. Suzanne transcribes their comments about Kelly’s experience and includes descriptions of Kelly’s engagement (humming, playing percussion instruments, and listening) with the music. Kelly’s music, brought back from week to week through Suzanne’s piano improvisations, is included in the narrative. In a further attempt to get as close to Kelly’s own voice as possible, Suzanne intersperses the narrative with soliloquies that are her interpretation of what 9-year-old Kelly, who has had frequent seizures for most of her life, would say if she could speak.

Barbara describes 4 years of therapy for Lisa, first in Barbara’s private practice and then in a small group school setting. Lisa was between 9 and 13 years old when these sessions, in which they used familiar songs and movement and percussion-playing took place. Interspersed with descriptions of Lisa’s behavior during the sessions are short soliloquies Barbara wrote on Lisa’s behalf, saying what she believes Lisa would say if she could speak her thoughts. Barbara also reports an interview with Lisa’s mother, who participated in the early sessions.

Janice and Roia write about Pat’s experience of therapy in which piano improvisation is the primary mode of communication and expression. Pat’s sessions take place in his residence, a developmental center. Roia is his therapist and Janice is Roia’s mentor and supervisor. Since 30-year-old Pat is developmentally delayed and nonverbal, the authors describe his behavior in the sessions and make inferences about his experience. Using the concept of parallel process, they suggest that Pat’s feelings about the therapy are parallel to Roia’s concurrent feelings about supervision.

Rika presents the study of 8-year-old Henry during an 8-minute individual segment of therapy in a group therapy school setting with three other autistic boys. During the segment, she and the co-therapist encourage Henry to sit on the piano bench and play or sing with Rika’s improvised music. (Henry’s melodies are included.) Rika reports Henry’s behavior during this short segment and interprets Henry’s state of mind in the form of imaginative soliloquy, since he is not capable of commenting on his internal experience. A component of Rika’s study is a review of the videotape of this segment with Henry’s mother and the co-therapist; their interpretation of Henry’s experience is included with her own. (Japan)

Dorit interviewed three clients (of three different therapists) and presents their words under topics that emerged as meaningful. Ben, a recently paralyzed 10-year-old in a rehabilitation center, talks about how song-writing in a small group encouraged group members to say things they would not ordinarily say. Karen, a middle-aged music therapist, describes the life impact of the imagery she experienced while listening to music in therapy. Lyn, a midlife secretary about remarry, describes improvisation in her private sessions. (Israel)

Denise presents interviews with seven people who were asked to describe moments of insight in their individual therapy sessions. They experienced in-depth therapy in which they listened to music and shared the imagery that came from their deep unconscious. After presenting direct quotes from the interviews, Denise offers a distillation or review of their content. (Australia)