Teamwork: Therapist and Cotherapist in the Nordoff-Robbins Approach to Music Therapy

ABSTRACT: This article will attempt to give the reader/listener a sense of the experience of teamwork that is central to the Nordoff-Robbins approach. This way of working considers the team holistically, as an integrated unit that is greater than the mere sum of its individual functions, exploring the ways in which a team shares and communicates perception, responds to musical and creative impulses, and realizes clinical intentions. The discussion that follows will emphasize the contribution of the co-therapist to the therapeutic process. It explores the formation and function of the initial Nordoff-Robbins therapy team, and the evolution of team roles and training. Through the presentation of an audio example with commentary giving moment-by-moment insight, the clinical experience of a particular pair of therapists conducting group music therapy will be explicated. Introduction Teamwork is certainly one of the defining characteristics of the music therapy of Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins. Virtually from its inception, their clinical work was done together. Aside from a few early and formative instances, Paul Nordoff never saw a client by himself. In the more than quarter century since they last worked together, Clive Robbins has not seen a client without the presence of another music therapist. All of the cases that comprise the practical basis for what is known as the Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy were undertaken jointly. This consistency of clinical approach does not nearly describe the extent to which teamwork was pervasive in the professional undertakings of Nordoff and Robbins. They composed much of the music that comprises the repertoire of songs and set pieces associated with the approach together; they wrote and edited books and articles for publication together; they presented their work together in a great variety of settings; they trained the students who today carry on and extend the scope and application of the work together. Each successive generation of Nordoff-Robbins practitioners learns, by example and by training, a team approach to music therapy. The discussion that follows will emphasize the contribution of the cotherapist to the therapeutic process. This position-however it is conceptualized and whoever fills it-is a singular one in music therapy. It is easy to imagine that a pianist or instrumentalist who engages clients musically, often improvisationally, can function as a music therapist in other clinical approaches. However, a second therapist, who may or may not play music, who may thoroughly dominate a session or be so unobtrusive as to be an undetectable presence on an audiotape, is a phenomenon that is rare and that has to date received little direct written scrutiny. In addressing this deficiency, we will view the teamwork involved in the Nordoff-Robbins approach and the activities of the cotherapist from three perspectives. First, we will explore the formation and functioning of the initial Nordoff-Robbins therapy team, Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins themselves. This will be accomplished with considerable help from Dr. Robbins, who consented to be interviewed at length during the preparation of this article. second, we will discuss current teamwork issues in Nordoff-Robbins, emphasizing departures from this initial prototype, the reasons that these changes occurred, and their effects. Finally, we will present an audio example from our own work as a Nordoff-Robbins therapy team, with commentary providing moment-by-moment insight into the clinical experience of a particular pair of therapists. History Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins were introduced to each other at the Sunfield Children's Homes, an Anthroposophical residence in England for what would now be called children with special needs, in 1958. At this time, many of the aptitudes and attributes they brought to their work together were already in place. Nordoff, approaching fifty, was a noted American composer and classically trained pianist of concertlevel proficiency, who was on sabbatical from his position as a college professor of music. …