ABSTRACT
The present chapter resumes the discussion from Chapter 9 in examining the relationship between contemporary Western music therapy and traditional healing practices using music. The focus moves to issues of clinical application and centers on four questions. First, are adaptations in music therapy necessary when implementing it with individuals from non-Western cultures possessing indigenous healing practices using music? Second, can knowledge of music healing rituals be synthesized with the music therapy knowledge base within a traditional Western medical framework? Third, does music therapy instantiate and reflect perennial experiences of myth and ritual? Fourth, how are the anthropological concepts of liminality and communitas relevant in understanding how music therapy works?
