Ep 83 Evelyn Mason

Music Therapy Conversations

Evelyn Mason is an experienced music therapist and Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Student at the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge. Chroma Therapies and the Independent Neurorehabilitation Providers Alliance (INPA) are collaborating with ARU on this study which focuses on music therapy to address the emotional challenges of family caregivers of people with Huntington’s disease. As a practising clinician, she has specialisms in brain injury rehabilitation, adoption, dementia, learning disability and hospice care.

Having completed her MA Music Therapy training at ARU in 2008, she worked for the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust in Belfast, with children with learning difficulties in Chennai, India, for Methodist Homes Association (MHA) in central England, for Chroma Therapies with individual adoption cases, and currently works with Chroma Therapies as a Neurologic Music Therapist at a brain injury rehabilitation unit in Bristol.

Evelyn employs an integrative approach in her clinical work. At times, she uses psychodynamic processes at the pre-assessment phase to understand relational or engagement issues with the client. Evelyn seeks to adopt a desire-based approach by putting the client’s choices at the core of the therapeutic journey. She works within the scientific theory model when carrying out her rehabilitation work, seeking to enable the client to benefit from inter-disciplinary working and patient-centred rather than discipline-centred programs.

Evelyn's future research interests are related to the field of neuro-disability. They include:

• Developing musical techniques to address neurologically-induced sensations.
• Examining music therapy techniques to address speech deficits in stroke patients diagnosed with aphasia.
• Analysing connections between social issues and acquired brain injury.
• Developing online music therapy models for carers of people with neurodegenerative conditions.

References/links:

The Academy of Neurologic Music Therapy – -In Memory of Robert F. Unkefer (nmtacademy.co)

https://nmtacademy.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/nmt-definitions.pdf

Bruscia, K.E. (2014) Defining music therapy. 3rd ed. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.

Rolvsjord, R. (2016) Resource-Oriented Perspectives in Music Therapy. Oxford University Press.

Thaut, M. and Hœmberg, V. (2016) Handbook of neurologic music therapy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.