Ep 18 Gary Ansdell

Professor Gary Ansdell has been a music therapist for thirty
years, working mostly in the area of adult mental health in the
last decade, and currently in late-life care settings. He has
been involved in a wide range of areas of music therapy practice,
and in developing the Community Music Therapy movement. Gary has
also been active in training and research, developing new Masters
and PhD programmes for Nordoff Robbins, where he was Director of
Education (2008-15). He has published widely in the areas of
music therapy and music and health and is author/co-author of
seven books on music therapy, the latest of which include How
Music Helps: In Music Therapy & Everyday Life (2014) and with
Tia DeNora Musical Pathways in Recovery: Community Music Therapy
& Mental Wellbeing (2016). His longterm collaboration with
the music sociologist Tia DeNora has led to their joint
editorship of the new book series Music and Change for Ashgate
Publishers.


Gary currently works as an independent music therapy
practitioner, consultant and scholar, and is an Associate of
Nordoff Robbins, UK, where he is Convenor of the MPhil/PhD
programme. He is also an honorary Professor in the department of
sociology, philosophy and anthropology at Exeter University and
Adjunct Professor in Music Therapy at the University of Limerick.


Gary talks about Mercédès Pavlicevic in this interview. He also
talks about different approaches to music therapy, and we address
some controversies, including Gary’s much discussed concept of
the ‘consensus model’ in music therapy, and the perceived
dichotomy between music-centred and psychodynamic music
therapy.