The text is focused on two relatively young yet rapidly developing disciplines: psychology of music and music therapy. The goal of the article was to outline the territories of both disciplines and consider relationships between them. The text includes characteristics, presented through clarification of the subjects of both areas, attempt to place them in the general classification of sciences and considerations regarding the methodology. It also indicates important aspect of artistic component, present especially in practical music therapy, and reaching beyond scientific inquiry. The author notices difficulties of integrating activities utilizing arts with systematic, research-oriented perspective. She shows relationships between disciplines, paying attention to the significant differences, but also complementary values. She concludes that despite of being separate, psychology of music and music therapy have common grounds.

The meaning of silence in music therapy

In this paper, the author attempts to provide a comprehensive description of the complex phenomenon of silence and sheds light on its significance within the context of music therapy. By considering various definitions of silence, as well as ways of approaching the phenomenon of silence, in both the domain of interpersonal communication and the abundant realm of sound, the author aims to highlight the multifaceted nature of the matter. The author discusses the distinction between the silence and the muteness, draws attention to an interdisciplinary character of the field, enumerates diverse angles of considering the issue, and examines the role of silence within a larger perspective of fields of psychotherapy and music therapy. In the presented cases of music therapy work, silence is a kind of a therapist’s tool. Owing to an insufficient amount of research papers on silence in music therapy, it is impossible to produce pioneering findings in the very field. In this paper the author ventures to summarise latest data, points out the urgency of delving deeper into the issue, and discloses novel prospects for music therapy to be discovered in pursuit of investigation of the ambiguous notion of silence.