Dr Catherine Warner

• Qualifications:PhD, MA, PG Dip MTh SFHEA
• Position:Programme Leader for MA in Music Therapy
• Department:HAS - Health and Social Sciences
• Telephone:+4411732 84497
• Email:Catherine.Warner@uwe.ac.uk

About me

I am programme leader for the MA Music Therapy and the MA Therapeutic Music Studies and a senior lecturer at UWE. I have been an HCPC registered music therapist for 29 years and have also worked as a professional cellist and pianist. My research interests are broad and I am passionately interested in access to skilled music therapy to support the mental health and empowerment of people with complex needs. Our team has recently established the first supervision training course in music therapy, which can be taken as part of the MA Therapeutic Music Studies or as stand-alone CPD.

My PhD focussed on the ways that people with a profound learning disability can be influential in participatory research, through involvement in a music therapy project.

I am currently co-writing a book with Tessa Watson on Contemporary Issues in Music Therapy Training for Routledge, and editing a book on the Culture and Practice of Music Therapy Supervision for Jessica Kingsley publishers.

I am the UWE representative for the European Consortium of Arts Therapies Trainers (ECArTE) and have regularly provided workshops for various art therapy trainers in Europe. I have been a visiting professor at the university of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, University of Paris, Skopje University, CODA arts university in Rotterdam and Emanuel University, in Oradea, Romania.

I have developed international placement opportunities for MA Music Therapy students in Rwanda, Uganda, Borneo, Brazil, Romania, Canada, USA and Georgia.

Currently our programme is working in formal collaboration with Emanuel University, Oradea, Romania to support the development of an infrastructure for Masters level music therapy training and the professional networks needed for this. We also support an NGO in Malta, Villbianca, to train and devleop staff as music therapists, to work towards a more robust infrastructure of music therapy practice in Malta. CPD students on the UK programme are from Malta and Romania. 

My undergraduate degree was in philosophy (but with Part 1 in music) at King's College, Cambridge with an emphasis on aesthetics, moral and political philosophy and philosopy of mind.

I have been part of the university team for two Erasmus+ projects over 4 years which developed and promoted training of educators to use the arts to support young learners across Europe affected by adverse life experiences. These projects led to the development of CPD Collaborative Arts Masters modules at UWE.

As a Trustee of the British Association of Music Therapy, I am the Chair of the Training and Education Committee. This group is responsible for developing curriculum guidance for the BAMT and therefore for the profession in the UK. I have also been a member of the Racial Awareness Panel of the BAMT. As Scientific Committee Chair I have co-ordinated the programme of two BAMT conferences in London and Birmingham.

Area of expertise

Training approaches in music therapy using critical disability studies, psychodynamic and humanistic models, microanalysis of music therapy, community mental health practice using music therapy; participatory action research in music therapy, music therapy child bereavement, public involvement in music therapy research, supporting development of music therapy practices, training and infrastructure in Romania and Malta.  

Publications

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