(Citiți această postare în Română.)

The weekend of the 21st to 22nd September brought together participants from all around Romania for the Intensive Study Training, an essential part of the Distance Learning Programme offered by Music as Therapy International. The training took place at the Centrul Școlar de Educație Incluzivă Nr. 1 in Oradea, a school with a long history of using music in their therapeutic provision. The training was led by a team of three Romanian professionals who are actively involved in running the course. Monika Manases (Moderator) was the main trainer of the weekend. Eleonora Roșca (Supervisor) and I, Larisa Neculai (Coordinator), facilitated the music-therapy-related training, focusing on the basics.

Monika Manases

Monika Manases the course Moderator, brings extensive experience in teaching the fundamental skills for working therapeutically with music. Thanks to Monika’s work, Music as Therapy International formed a partnership with Sound Art E-motion, an association she runs in Romania. This partnership allows course participants to obtain 50 COPSI credits upon completion.

Below, you can read a few words Monika wrote reflecting on this year’s Intensive Study Training:

And so, after our students successfully finalised the Theoretical Part, completing 7 Tutorials and 7 Written Assignments was time for the Intensive Study Training of the Distance Learning Programme “Therapeutic Work through Music for children with disabilities”, organised by Music as Therapy International in collaboration with the Sound Art E-Motion Association. Some of our students travelled for a day and a night to get to Oradea!

Following warm greetings and encouragement from Alexia Quin, director of Music as Therapy International (on Zoom), we – Larisa Neculai, music therapist and course Coordinator working for Music as Therapy in Romania, Monika Manases – Moderator and trainer for the psycho-pedagogical part of the course, and Eleonora Roșca, music therapist and  Music Therapy Supervisor – started this face-to-face weekend with great enthusiasm. During this weekend, we “played,” consolidated concepts, practised music therapy techniques, improvised, and put ourselves in the children’s shoes through role-playing.

These experiences will enable our students to implement our methods for working therapeutically with music in their settings, where they will carry out the Practical Part of the course. Thank you to the Centrul Școlar de Educație Incluzivă Nr. 1 in Oradea for hosting us!”

Monika Manases

Eleonora Rosca

Eleonora Rosca is the Supervisor of the course’s Practical Part. Eleonora is a Nordoff and Robbins music therapist. Recently, she has also completed her studies in Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT). Eli works in Oradea and is a fundamental pillar in the practice of music therapy in Romania. Here are a few thoughts that Eli wrote following the IST:

I had the privilege of participating in the Intensive Study Training Weekend for the second consecutive year. It was a wonderful experience working alongside Larisa and Monika, as well as connecting with new students.

Eleonora Rosca

Among the highlights, to name a few, I had the opportunity to share clinical examples from my work, explore music therapy mechanisms and techniques, and gain a deeper understanding of theories such as unconditional positive regard. It was enriching to put these concepts into practice, both with our clients (in workshoping scenarios) and within our own experiences and how we view ourselves as we embark on this new journey.


We discussed the importance of listening, observing, and listening in playing. As Rachel Verney emphasizes, we music therapists must attune ourselves to the clients in the sessions, by listening to what is there, what isn’t there and what could be there – this approach helps deepen our understanding and enhances our practice (Verney & Ansdell 2010).

Lastly, this experience enriched my music therapy and supervision toolkit, as each student contributed a diverse array of experiences and skills. Their unique perspectives and abilities fostered a collaborative environment, enhancing our collective learning and practice.

Verney, R. and Ansdell, G. (2010) Conversations on Nordoff-Robbins Music therapy. Barcelona Publishers.

Larisa Neculai

As the Course Coordinator, I have travelled to Oradea from the UK, where I work as a music therapist. I am proud to be a former graduate of this course, which provided a solid foundation for my recently completed 3-year Master’s in Music Therapy at the University of the West of England. I am grateful to now have an active role as a facilitator, focusing on explaining and understanding the practical application of key concepts in music therapy.

A shy but curious start of the weekend turned into hours of learning and practical application of the theory the students had covered from February to August. The training concluded successfully with plenty of music and interactive singing on Sunday afternoon. While an intensive training is naturally shadowed by fatigue towards the end, the participants’ interest and curiosity remained consistent until the end of the day.

Participants approached the Intensive Study Training from various professional perspectives, such as psycho-pedagogy, psychology, music teaching, nursery provision, or as students. Whether they had experience in education or other work carried out with children with disabilities, they all shared the same unifying theme: the desire to learn how to integrate music therapy elements into their daily practice.

Becoming practitioners skilled to work therapeutically with music enables participants to implement concepts and practices such as unconditional positive regard and to build their work on a therapeutic relationship based on affect attunement, all within a person-centred approach.

Larisa Neculai

The participants’ commitment of completing this CPD training, tailored to the unique needs of the children they work with, is a testament to their professionalism and dedication. Their resilience was evident throughout the Theoretical Part, which involved numerous challenges.

We’re excited to support our 10 participants in finalising the last details for the Practical Part. By December, they’ll have led 8 music sessions with a group of children with disabilities. The Music as Therapy International team wishes this year’s students all the best and is ready to support them in this new journey of learning through practice.  We hope that their work will have a positive and significant impact on the lives of the children they will work with.