Music therapy and parent-infant bonding

Abstract

This chapter presents some of the theoretical formations and research that supports the work of qualified music therapists in promoting healthy and secure attachment between parents and infants where disruption to a secure relational bond has occurred, or is vulnerable in some way. It considers the characteristics of the innate musicality of the very young infant, and discusses the mutual regulation potentials of music making between caregivers and their developing infants. For the purposes of this chapter, and indeed this book, the definition of infant used is the broadest possible; from birth until three years and eleven months of age.