A short description of music therapy in Hungary and the work of the Hungarian Music Therapy Association

1. Music Therapy in Hungary –
The life of Hungarian Music
Therapy Association

2. About Hungary
 Scientists
 White wine
 Thermal springs
 Music / Sziget Festival

3. Research
 Composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, who researched
Hungarian folk music and revealed it to Hungarians and the rest of
the world in the first half of the 20th century

4. Kodály’s Concept of Music Teaching
and its Effect on Linking Music and
Therapy
 Introduce music to the
field of special needs
 Self-expression
 Transformative effect
 Reformed music education
system
 Making music accessible to
everyone

5. Field of special needs
 Kodály’s idea about making
music accessible to
everyone inspired many
musicians and music
teachers to introduce music
to the field of special needs
 They have used the Ulwila
method

6. Klára Kokas
 Kodály follower
Klára Kokas
 Children moved to music
 Singing folksongs
 Relaxing position
 Improvise movements
and transform into
different imaginary
beings
 Dance in the group or
dance a solo
 Share their experience

7. The Beginnings of Music Therapy
in Mental Health
 Using music integrated
into the therapy process
in psychiatry started in
the late 60’s
 Dr. Ildikó Konta’s musical
painting

8. Games in therapy
 Composer László Sáry used
creative musical games
 Games required
concentration, listening,
enabled the patiens to
experience order,
togetherness and creativity
 One of the next guests in
Balassi Institute

9. The development of the
profession
 The first meeting of
professionals in 1980
 Conferences and
workshops organised at
the Institute of
Psychiatric Rehabilitation
 Music Therapy category
was formed within the
Hungarian Psychiatric
Association in 1986

10. New connections abroad
 1989, music therapists from outside
Hungary
 Heinrich Moll, Miklós Buzási,
Dr.Gregorio Tisera, Gabriela Wagner,
Attila Missura, Kimmo Lehtonen, and
Eva Mees-Christeller

11. Two Hungarian music therapy
associations
 Albert Schweitzer
Music Therapy
Association in Pécs
was founded by Attila
Sasvári in 1992
 Hungarian Music
Therapy Association
was founded by Ildikó
Konta and chaired by
Katalin Urbán Varga
in 1994.

12. Training Courses
 In 1992 the first post-
graduate course took
place in Pécs at the Liszt
Academy of Music in
cooperation with the
Medical School of Pécs
 The three year post-
graduate course was
running from 1992 until
1996 when an
accreditation process to
comply with EU
regulations began
 The program was
relaunched in 2003 as a
2.5 year post-graduate
part-time arts therapies in
Pécs
 Additional two year post-
graduate part-time music
therapy training in
Budapest

13. Music therapy training course at the
Special Needs Faculty of the Eötvös
University in Budapest
From 2003, led by
 Dr. Ildikó Konta
 Katalin Urbán Varga
 Dr. Anna Fekete.
 Prof. Hans Helmut Decker-
Voigt from Germany,
helping music therapy gain
recognition in
postcommunist countries

14. The Post-graduate Education in
Budapest
 At Eötvös Loránd
University Bárczi
Gusztáv Faculity of
Special Education
 For 2 years: 870 houres
 Most important aim is
self experience.

15. Requirement and Preliminary
examination:
Requirement:
 At least a BA degree
 120 hour self-
experience course
„personality
developement with
music therapy”
 At least 6 years of
experience in music
Examination:
 Music: sing and
performance on one’s
musical instrument
 Psychology:
psychological
knowledge and
aptitude
 Situation practise:
flexibility, creativity

16. Future music therapists study…
Psychology, psychotherapy,
patopsychology, psychiatry,
paint, psychodiagnostic,
pedagogy, special education,
art, verbal grouptherapy, music
theory, dramatic folk games
and game therapy (with also
Kodaly method), improvisation,
dance and movement therapy,
situation practise

17. What is music therapy?

18. The Fields in Which Music
Therapists Work in Hungary
 Medical rehabilitation
 Education counselling service
 Psychiatry
 Special education
 Schools
 Nursery schools
 Logopedia
 Hospice
 Retirement home
 Prevention groupes
 Children hospitals
 Foundations
 Team building
 and more…

19. Our work and aims for the
future
 In 2015 the leadership of the
association renewed, and in 2016 it’s
final form was born, with 6
enthusiastic music therapist in the
presidency
 In 2016 Music Therapy Conference in
Budapest with a special guest visitor
from Luxemburg, Laurence Reuter
 Themes were: a music group on a
psychiatry, MT with refugees, with
multiple difficulities, in
neurorehabilitation,
childrehabilitation, our musical
motherlanguage, and even musical
bowls

20. International aspects
 For the third time we joined
European Music Therapy Day
on november 15
(www.musictherapyday.com)

21. Education
 Maintain the professional
leading of the music therapy
education in Budapest, both
120 hour „personality
developement with music
therapy”, and the 2 year
post-graduate education
 Continue the education on
the Eötvös Loránd
University Bárczi Gusztáv
faculity of Special education

22. Music Therapy Club
 Keep on with
Musictherapy Clubs,
once a month in
Budapest Music
Center (there are at
least 100 professional
music therapists in
Hungary!)

23. In the future…2017-2020
 Continue organising Musictherapy
Conferences
 Continue organising meetings for
European Music Therapy Day
 Propagandise professional music
therapy in Hungary
 Initiate a Professional Music Therapyst
Database
 Inviting professional Music Therapists
to Hungary for workshops
 Getting new friends in Slovenia 

24. Last questiones…
…?

25. Thank you for your kind attention!