Our mission
Mission
For service users
We aim to provide the highest quality, person centered and evidence based approaches to music therapy. We design clear and concise goals and objectives using the SMART framework (Significant, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely). Exactly what this looks like depends on the individual resources and needs of the people that we work with. Easy to understand assessment and reporting are key to this strategy. Each of our programmes are individually tailored to the person we are working with as they are at the heart of what we do. We believe that music therapy is best placed as part of a wider multi-disciplinary healthcare team and we strive to contribute to this team where applicable and when permitted. This means that when and wherever possible we co-ordinate our goals with other professionals to achieve the best outcomes for you!
For institutions
We specialize in understanding the institutions that we work with. We take the time to get to know the specific needs and culture of each institution in order to integrate seamlessly into their system. We understand that accountability is key and provide comprehensive assessment and reporting to ensure value for money and efficacy of intervention. We understand that music therapy is not officially recognized by the government of Ireland which complicates funding provision and means that not all institutions can justify a full time music therapy post. This is where we come in, providing tailored contractual services for institutions who do cannot yet access funding for permanent, full time music therapists through no fault of their own. Our B2B services are designed around your institution and how to achieve to best outcomes for our collective service users in a way that provides real value for money.
For music therapy
We believe in the power of music therapy. Whilst it is not officially recognized by the Irish government, we will work tirelessly to provide a model of best practice and hold ourselves to the highest standards. We aim to make music therapy a viable profession in Ireland, benchmarked alongside the other allied health professions and held to the same standards and regard. We believe in continued research and development and actively contribute to music therapy academic literature. Part of our mission is to be an online hub for music therapists, students, other professions and the public to learn about the applications and evidence underpinning the wonderful field of music therapy. Finally, we are embedded in a community, thus community is at the heart of what do. Contact us today if you have a project that we may be able to help with!
Vision
We see a future where music therapy is not categorized as an alternative approach to healthcare but is a valued and respected treatment modality that is central to allied healthcare teams, recognized where appropriate as best practice in standard healthcare (as it currently is in places such as the U.K., U.S., etc).
We aim to provide the most professional experience of music therapy, with a series of protocols and specific follow-ups that guarantee a therapeutic process you can trust that can compliment and be complemented by other healthcare professionals. At the heart of this vision, are the people that we work with, who's healthcare outcomes and quality of life are the ground upon which everything else is built.
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This vision is not limited to the shores of our own Island, we see the sky as the limit and are working hard with both national and international partners to make this valuable and important approach to healthcare accessible to all peoples across the world. We aim to be the model of best practice, to be a hub for information, research and development, continued professional development and to forge a clear path that others can follow to get music therapy into mainstream healthcare practice. We aim to collaborate with national and international partners to make this dream a reality.
Values
Commitment
Quality
Collaboration
Honesty
Respect
Inclusion
Communication
Community
Accountability
What happens when music therapy happens?
This academic publication from the journal 'Misostendio' outlines our understanding of "what happens when music therapy happens". Using a cognitive scientific, dynamical systems based approach, our managing director Danny outlines our understanding of what we do.
Citation:
Dineen, D. (2024). What Happens when Music Therapy Happens: the Dynamics of Music Therapy?. Misostenido, 4 (8), 23-30. https://doi.org/10.59028/misostenido.2024.22
Why the harp?
Why Munster Music Therapy?
A personal note from Danny on identity, history,
Geantraí, Goltraí agus Suantraí
In the days of Gaelic Ireland music was seen as a magical tool. It took twenty years of education for a bard to reach the pinnacle of his profession. The primary tool of the bard, was the harp. So the stories say, in pre-Christian times the mythical Dagda would bring about the change of the seasons by playing his magical harp. In those ancient days, when there were five provinces in Ireland, Meath was known for its kingship, Ulster for its valour, Connacht for its learning, Leinster for its hospitality and Munster for its music.
As a child I was fascinated by stories of long ago. One such story, that of my family name, was that we were bards to the MacCarthy Mór, ancient kings of Munster. I grew up fascinated by this, and of how certain music was held to have magical properties in Gaelic Ireland. There were three Noble strands; Geantraí, Goltraí agus Suantraí (Music to make you laugh, music to make you cry and music to make you sleep). It was said that an accomplished bard could bring good fortune or terrible punishment to a person by way of their songs.
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My family name "Dineen" first emerged in association with bardhood, historiography and chronicling the kings of Munster in these earlier days (the oldest record of an Ó'Duinnín goes back to the year 1098 in the Annals of Innishfallon, one Mael Brénainn Ua Duinnín who was the lector and vice-erenagh of Ardfert). According to Corkery (1925), the last official Ollamh (professor/headmaster) of the Bardic school in Blarney (the once seat of MacCarthy power and home of the world renowned Blarney Castle), was (my presumably distant relative) Tadhg Ó Duinnín.
With the Williamite victory in the war of the two kings (1689-91) came the final extinction of the few Gaelic societal institutions still surviving beyond the earlier flight of the Earls (1607) as the Education Act (1695) introduced some of the first penal laws.
According to Corkery, the last official poem before the schools closure ended with the couplet:
Mo cheard ó mheath le malairt dlíghe i nÉirinn,
Mo chrádh go rachad gan stad le bríbhéireacht.
(My craft being withered with change of law in Ireland,
O grief that I must henceforth take to brewing).
Part of my dream is to give relief to Tadhgs lament and restore the recognition of the power of music to affect our lives and our fortunes. To enable the people of Ireland (and the world) make use of the specific, targeted and proven practice of music for health and well being. Finding inspiration in this ancient bardic tradition, we can use the tools of modern science to renew and revivify the use of music as an even more powerful and pragmatic force, more than the profoundly moving artform we already know it to be.
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The harp is a special instrument. It is the only instrument to be a national symbol, it is the symbol of the Republic of Ireland. Our state seal is based on the form of the harp of ancient high king Briain Ború. The Irish harp was renowned throughout the medieval courts of our gallant allies in Europe. It had magical powers in the earliest history and mythology of this island. In a time before the scientific method, when magic and spirituality were the ways of understanding the world, it was used by the bards to celebrate and to satirise. The verses of the masters of ancient music, so it was said, had power to change the seasons, end a life or raise the dead. The harp in our logo is taken from Wix stock files but matches almost exactly the form of my own harp (a harp that has been played for numerous weddings and other ceremonies). Munster Music Therapy is not representative or officially supported by the government of Ireland (though we have completed contracts with different state and semi-state bodies), we are a private business dedicated to leading by example and part of this mission is to help the government notice and bring about a change of law (policy) in Ireland. Rather than bards wielding musical tools of magic and myth, we are music therapists wielding musical tools of art and science.