ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the ways in which people with learning disabilities can make use of music therapy. An outline is given of British social history of people with learning disabilities and the way their needs have been perceived and met over the past few decades. The reasons why these clients might be referred to a music therapist are discussed, and the process of therapy is outlined. Music therapists have been working with people with learning disabilities since the inception of the profession, and a brief description of this work, and related literature, is given. The author’s psychodynamic approach to music therapy is described, and is illustrated by detailed case material of work with a client who has profound and multiple learning disabilities.
