ABSTRACT
The nature of the process of music therapy is a contested area with three central issues. First, is music in music therapy primarily a medium of experience with its own intrinsic benefits or is it primarily a means of accomplishing nonmusical therapy goals in the areas of emotional, cognitive, social and motor functioning? Second, are the processes of clinical and nonclinical musicing different in fundamental ways or are they essentially the same? Third, is music therapy fundamentally an artistic or a nonartistic process? The first issue is taken up in the present chapter; the second two issues are addressed in Chapter 6.
