Dr Helen Oosthuizen practiced as a music therapist in South Africa since 2006, including facilitating groups with young offenders. She has published in journals and books and is an editor for Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy.
Email: [email protected]
Dr Helen Oosthuizen practiced as a registered music therapist in South Africa (2006-2019). She recently immigrated to the UK, registered with the HCPC, and began work as a Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. In 2020 Helen was awarded her PhD by the University of Melbourne, Australia, based on her research and work with young South Africans who have committed offences.
Helen has published journal articles and book chapters and is an editor of the book Taking Music Seriously: Stories from South African Music Therapy. She is part of the editorial team for the journal Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy.
Music therapy groups Helen facilitated with young South Africans who have committed offences often felt chaotic. Helen is interested in research exploring how music therapists can use experiences of chaos as a resource in therapy groups with young people. In her doctoral research she found that, paradoxically, experiences of chaos worked together with more ordered group experiences. Both were essential for group creativity and growth. These possibilities supported young people to recreate their lives within music therapy, and possibly also in contexts experienced as chaotic beyond groups.
AHMADI, M. & OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2012. Naming my story and claiming myself. In: HADLEY, S. & YANCY, G. (eds.) Therapeutic uses of rap and hip-hop. New York: Routledge.
ERRINGTON, K., ERRINGTON, S., OOSTHUIZEN, H. & SANGWENI, N. 2013. Dancing, drumming and drawing the unspeakable. Matatu: Journal for African Culture and Society, 44, 55.
KRIGE, H. 2005. From music therapy to community 'musicking': Addressing social issues and eliciting potential within a culturally diverse context. [mmus (Music Therapy) Dissertation, University of Pretoria].
OOSTHUIZEN, H. Under Review. Broken strings: Navigating boundaries in work with groups of young South Africans who have committed offences. In L. Hakvoort & A. Gilboa (Eds.). Mistakes in Music Therapy.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. & MDAKA, N. Under Review. Crossing the divides: Considering postcolonial music therapy in the South African context. In S. Hadley, A. Crooke & M. Norris (Eds.). Music Therapy and Colonialism.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2020. Exploring Experiences of Chaos as a Resource Within Short-Term Music Therapy Groups With Young South Africans Who Have Committed Offences.[Doctoral Dissertation, University of Melbourne]. Melbourne, Australia.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2019a. The potential of paradox: Chaos and order as interdependent resources within short-term music therpy groups with young offenders in South Africa. Qualitative Inquiries in Music Therapy, 14.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2019b. "There's a good spot in my heart": A story of a music therapy group that enables young sex offenders to reconnect with themselves, their stories and their communities. In: MCFERRAN, K., DERRINGTON, P. & SAARIKALLIO, S. (eds.) Oxford University Press Handbook of music and adolescence. London: Oxford University Press.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2018. Working with and within chaos: The development of a music therapy programme for young sex offenders in South Africa. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 4.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2015. Celebrating 15 years of music therapy training in South Africa. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 15.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2012. Health, masks and music: Narratives of empowerment in a South African community music therapy project based in a tuberculosis hospital. International Journal of Community Music, 5, 175-188.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2010. A touch of jazz. In M. Pavlicevic, A. Dos Santos & H. Oosthuizen (Eds). Taking Music Seriously: Stories from South African Music Therapy. 139-154. The Music Therapy Community Clinic
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2009. Some thoughts on being a white music therapist. Voices Resources.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2006a. Diversity and Community: Finding and Forming a South African Music Therapy. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy [Online], 6.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. 2006b. Diversity and Community: Finding and Forming a South African Music Therapy. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 6.
OOSTHUIZEN, H., FOUCHÉ, S. & TORRANCE, K. 2007. Collaborative Work: Negotiations between Music Therapists and Community Musicians in the Development of a South African Community Music Therapy Project. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 7.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. & HADLEY, S. 2013. Narrative three: This skin I am in. In: HADLEY, S. (ed.) Experiencing Race as a Music Therapist: Personal Narratives. Gilsum: Barcelona.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. & MCFERRAN, K. 2020. Playing with chaos: Broadening possibilities for how music therapist’s consider chaos in group work with young people. Music Therapy Perspectives, miaa024.
OOSTHUIZEN, H. & VIEGA, M. 2014. A tribute to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 14.
PAVLICEVIC, M., DOS SANTOS, A. & OOSTHUIZEN, H. (eds.) 2010. Taking music seriously: Stories from South African music therapy, London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley.
WESTRHENEN, N., FRITZ, E., OOSTHUIZEN, H., LEMONT, S., VERMEER, A. & KLEBER, R. 2017. Creative arts in psychotherapy treatment protocol for children after trauma. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 54, 128-135.
European Music Therapy Conference (Edinburgh, 2022)
Accepted to present: Oosthuizen, H.: Disturbing music therapy practice with groups of young people: Engaging with chaos as a resource
Accepted to present in roundtable: Hakvoort, L.; Gilboa, A.; Harris, B.; Thomas, D.; Oosthuizen, H.; & Marom, M.: Mistakes, failures, and all that disturbing stuff: Sharing our forthcoming book on making meaning of mistakes in music therapy
University of Roehampton, Centre for International Research in the Arts and Play Therapies (Online, March 2021)
Invited Presentation: Oosthuizen, H.: A paradoxical approach towards chaos as a resource within short-term music therapy groups with young South Africans who have committed offences
Portuguese Music Therapy Association Conference (Online, November 2020)
Invited presentation: Oosthuizen, H.: A paradoxical approach towards chaos as a resource within short-term music therapy groups with young South Africans who have committed offences.
World Federation of Music Therapy Conference (Online, July 2020)
Paper presentation: Oosthuizen, H.: Playing together with chaos: Considering possibilities for engaging with chaos as a resource within short-term music therapy groups with young offenders in South Africa.
Paper presentation: McFerran, K., Stige, B. & Hadley, S. (Editors): Hearing silenced voices.
Roundtable: Hadley, S., Norris, M., Webb, A., Moonga, N., Leonard, H., Roestenburg, W., Bhatia, A., Zambonini, J.P., Low, M.Y., Oosthuizen, H., Hoskyns, S., Baines, S., Abrams, B. & Crooke, A.: Colonialism and Music Therapy
European Music Therapy Conference (Denmark, June 2019)
Paper presentation: Oosthuizen, H. & McFerran, K.: Considering chaos as a resource in short-term music therapy groups with young South Africans who have committed offences.
Paper presentation: McFerran, K, Saarikallio, S., Geipel, J., Krüger, V., Wölfl, A., Rickson, D., Dos Santos, A., Oosthuizen, H.: Music, adolescents and wellbeing.
Roundtable: McFerran, K., Stige, B., Schwantes, M., Metell, M., Gilboa, A., McCaffrey, T., Oosthuizen, H., Rickson, D.: Voices resonating around the world
Online Conference for Music Therapy (Online, February 2017)
Paper presentation: Oosthuizen, H.: Working with and within chaos: The development of a music therapy programme for young sex offenders in South Africa
Conference for the South African Psychological Society for Abuse against Children (South Africa, November 2016)
Paper presentation: Oosthuizen, H.: The role of group music therapy within the support programme for abuse reactive children at the Teddy Bear Clinic
Podcast: OOSTHUIZEN, H. & MCFERRAN, K. 2021. Playing with chaos: Broadening possibilities for how music therapist’s consider chaos in group work with young people. Perspectives on Perspectives: The Online Series of Conversations with and Between Authors From the Pages of Music Therapy Perspectives. AMTA and Oxford University Press. Accessed 27/10/2021 from YouTube.