World Congress of Music Therapy 2026
Sat, Jul 11
|Bologna Congress Center
Presentation title: Meeting the Unreachable: A Music Therapy Case Study with a Boy with ARFID, Reluctance to Engage, and Emerging Masculine Defences
Time & Location
Jul 11, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM GMT+2
Bologna Congress Center, P.za della Costituzione, 4, Bologna, Italy
About the event
I am delighted to share that I will be giving an oral presentation at WCMT 2026 in Bologna.
This reflective clinical case study explores music therapy work with an 8-year-old boy with ARFID, emotional withdrawal, reluctance to engage, and emerging masculine defences.
The presentation considers how music therapy can offer an indirect but meaningful route into therapeutic contact when verbal therapy feels too exposing or unsafe. I will discuss refusal as communication, the role of control and vulnerability, and how songwriting, listening, improvisation and symbolic material created small but clinically meaningful openings.
I will also reflect honestly on the difficulties and limits of the work, including family and school context, countertransference, and the need for wider ARFID-informed support.
If you are attending WCMT 2026, I would be very happy to connect and see you there.