An Earthenware Mug, a 1942 Bomb Crater, an Industrially Reinforced Piano, and Geoff queer Music Therapy

health, fitness, mental, arts, performing, society, culture · EN

To manage the extremely painful emotions arising in response to the ableist, pathologising, classist, heteronormative and racist content in music therapy training, I wrote my essays as consecutive scenes of a play - now 4 scenes! Child development, attachment theory, relational dynamics and therapeutic approaches are all queered via an intersectionally anti-oppressive lens by neurodivergent characters. The narrative opens with a neuroqueer family in North London, heads out to the International Space Station and concludes with a Whodunnit set in IKEA. Weeks in to my studies, it was noted by the tutors that some of the music therapy course content was actively harmful to me as a trans non-binary, autistic, disabled person from a working class background... "in order to best include you, we don't think you should come in" said my head of department. Queer people face many barriers in accessing queer-affirming therapy and these barriers are rooted in the barriers face