Introducing NLMT's latest training, aimed at arts therapists, healthcare providers and those interested in finding out about the theory behind music therapy. As a team, we're influenced by psychodynamic theory and how our past experiences inform our present - but how does this theory fit into our post-pandemic society?

Music and Psychodynamics, running over six Monday evenings in September and October, will take you through some key concepts of psychodynamic theory, linking them to music, art, therapy, politics and society. We'll be running the first five weeks online, with the final week a hybrid event giving you the option to join us in person in North London for a panel event with refreshments and goodies from NLMT.

Want to attend one of the lectures? Book a Session Ticket.

Want to come to the whole series? Book a Series Ticket.

If you would like to split your payment for your Series Ticket, please email info@northlondonmusictherapy.com - we will be happy to arrange this with you.

Bringing together lecturers from music therapy, art therapy and psychotherapy, there will be a plurality of approach while always being linked to how therapy works.

Monday 19th September - On Countertransference with Marianne Rizkallah (online)

Marianne will take you through a series of clinical examples with children, adolescents and adults to demonstrate why knowing our countertransference is one of the most powerful tools we can have in and outside of sessions. She will show the importance of countertransference both in verbal work and especially when working with those with significant special needs. Marianne Rizkallah is Director and Head Music Therapist at North London Music Therapy, and the Vice Chair of the British Association for Music Therapy.

Monday 26th September - On Transference with Ann Sloboda (online)

Ann will facilitate a live clinical workshop, with material examined in real time to illuminate how transference manifests within sessions - and how our thoughts within sessions, and how we think about them, reveal themselves in our everyday lives. Ann Sloboda is Head of Music Therapy at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a psychoanalyst in private practice.

Monday 3rd October - On Projective Identification with David John (online)

David will bring a series of musical examples and thoughts from some of Bion's seminal texts to show the interlinking of projection and projective identification with other psychoanalytic concepts. He will also discuss an idea for a tool for music therapists linked to Bion's work. David John is a rrtired music therapist and psychoanalyst.

Monday 10th October - On Winnicott's Holding Theory with Dr. Lisa Margetts (online)

Lisa will talk about her doctoral work in a school in Belarus, and how using Winnicott's Holding Theory enabled teacher-student relationships to grow and develop. Dr. Lisa Margetts is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton, music therapist, researcher, educator and author. She specialises in music therapy consultation research with special educational staff teams overseas and in the UK. Her current clinical practice is with children on the autistic spectrum.

Suggested reading: Lisa Margetts, Adam Ockelford, David Hargreaves & Julie Sutton (2021) Potential spaces: Supporting the development of relationships between classroom practitioners and children with complex needs in Belarus through music therapy consultation, Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 30:4, 338-356, DOI: 10.1080/08098131.2020.1806913

Monday 17th October - On Containment with Prof. Dr. Gitta Strehlow (online)

In a hybrid lecture-interview format, Gitta will take you through an overview of containment and how we see it in our sessions and in everyday life, carrying on the conversations begun at the European Music Therapy Conference 2022. Prof. Dr. Gitta Strehlow has been working for over 20 years with adults at Bethesda Hospital Hamburg-Bergedorf, Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and in parallel with sexually abused children. She wrote her dissertation about Music Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder patients. Since 2019, she has been Professor of Music Therapy at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, Germany. Her publications and research interests include psychiatry, trauma, psychodynamic thinking and mentalisation.

Monday 24th October - Music and Psychodynamics: In Conversation (a panel event held at JW3 Centre, Finchley Road, London. In-person or online attendance is possible)

With increasing waiting lists and huge pressures on finance and time, where is the place for deeper, more thoughtful work in the 21st century healthcare workplace? A panel of music therapists and psychotherapists representing the NHS, service providers, education and the third sector will discuss how psychoanalytic ideas fit into these areas of modern practice.