Resource-oriented music therapy

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Randi Rolvsjord · 2004 · Bergen, Norway

What it is

What it is: RoMT is an approach and set of therapeutic principles, not a step-by-step protocol. It was developed by Randi Rolvsjord at the Grieg Academy, University of Bergen, Norway, in the Norwegian tradition Procter traces from Even Ruud through Aasgaard and Stige. It orients therapy to the…

Format

• Rolvsjord publishes no fixed phase model; sources describe principles, case processes and a trial format. The format and phase structure below separate what is sourced from what is synthesis.
• Format used in the trial (sourced)

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: Randi Rolvsjord's resource-oriented music therapy (RoMT) for individual work with adults in mental health care, as set out in (a) her empowerment paper (Rolvsjord 2004, Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 13(2); republished in Voices 2006), (b) the treatment manual written for the Bergen-led randomised trial (Rolvsjord, Gold & Stige 2005, Nordic Journal of Music Therapy 14, 15–32, DOI…
• Professional frame (Domain VIII): in the trial, RoMT was delivered only by academically qualified music therapists with clinical psychiatric experience who had been specifically trained in the resource-oriented principles. In practice this means a credentialled music therapist: for example HCPC-registered (UK, BAMT as the professional body), MT-BC via CBMT and AMTA (USA), or a master's-trained music therapist in…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• drift toward problem-only or therapist-led work.
• measurement crowding out collaboration. Share the results with the client.
• reading control-taking as "resistance". In this model it is usually agency.
• praise that feels false or patronising. Be specific and honest. If the client wants to talk about a problem, follow them (4.10).
• music becoming a rigid coping ritual or a channel for rumination. It is working when the client reports self-directed music use.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.