Main description:

Many descriptions of empathy revolve around sharing in and understanding another person's emotions. One separate person gains access to the emotional world of another. An entire worldview holds up this idea. It is individualistic and affirms the possibility of access to other people's "inner world." Can we really see inside another, though? And are we discrete, separate selves? How can we best grapple with these questions in the field of music therapy? In response, this book offers four empathy pathways. Two are situated in a constituent approach (that prioritises discrete individuals who then enter into relationships with one another) and two are located in relational approaches (that acknowledge the foundational reality of relationships themselves). By understanding empathy more fully, music therapists, teachers and researchers can engage in ways that are congruent with diverse worldviews and ways of being. Examples used in the book are from active and receptive music therapy approaches as well as from community and clinical contexts, so as to provide clear links to practice.

This book will be a valuable resource for academics and postgraduate students within music therapy and allied fields including art therapy, drama therapy, dance/movement therapy, psychology, counselling, occupational therapy and social development studies.

Contents:

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Empathies

Part One: Insightful Empathy

Chapter 2: A Stance of Receptivity

Chapter 3: Awareness Through Multifaceted Perceiving

Chapter 4: Sharing Emotions

Chapter 5: Understanding Emotions

Chapter 6: Responding with Action

Part Two: Translational Empathy

Chapter 7: A Stance of Honouring Opacity

Chapter 8: Awareness of Translational Processes

Chapter 9: Responsively Being With Each Other's Emotional Expressions

Chapter 10: Negotiating Meanings of Emotions

Chapter 11: Responding Through Accompaniment

Part Three: An Empathising Assemblage

Chapter 12: A Stance of Acknowledging That We Are Always Already Entangled

Chapter 13: Affective Attunement

Chapter 14: Awareness Through Mapping Relationships

Chapter 15: Enhancing Response-ability

Part Four: Relational Empathy

Chapter 16: A Stance of Recognising That We Are Selfing Through Relationships

Chapter 17: Awareness of Emotions as Co-Storying

Chapter 18: Emotions and Meanings in Layers of Co-Storying

Chapter 19: Responding By Affirming and Changing Emotion Stories

Chapter 20: Conclusion