Dr Daphne Rickson has lived a life of devotion and dedication to making a difference through music.

Rickson has been involved with music therapy for nearly 40 years as a practitioner, teacher, and researcher. She’s an adjunct professor at the New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī, where she’s taught and examined over 100 postgraduate students and given many international lectures. Her research focuses on using music therapy to support diverse learners in schools and universities.

Among her many accolades, Rickson is President Emeritus and Life Member of Music Therapy New Zealand, recipient of the World Federation of Music Therapy Lifetime Achievement Award and named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to music therapy.

Rickson's latest book, A History of Music Therapy New Zealand (1974-2023): Passionate People will launch during the MThNZ 50th Anniversary Conference: Looking Back Moving Forward (13-15 September). The book shows how music therapy has hugely improved the health and well-being of people in Aotearoa. 

She shares insights along her journey and what she would tell her younger self if given the opportunity.

Life is beautifully unpredictable

In 1977, you feel like you’ve got life sorted. Married, you have a secretarial job, teach piano, and you’re making good money gigging on the weekend.  

First up, let me tell you that opportunities for musicians to earn good money didn’t last!  But that is a bit of a side issue really because, in 1988, after your daughter is born deaf, you will embark on a very different and new career as a practitioner, and later as a teacher and researcher, of music therapy.  

Make plans but be flexible and adaptable

Right now, you have no idea of the challenges that are ahead of you. In this beautifully unpredictable journey through life, you’ll need to be prepared to revise your plans.

When you need to make a detour, make the most of it. The sights and activities available to you will be far more interesting than those on your planned route. And when you are facing a roadblock, don’t panic - park up for a while, take a rest, replenish, and plan again.

It won’t feel like it at the time, but the challenges you face will make you a stronger and better person; seemingly adverse events do turn out to be blessings, and you will experience unexpected, exciting, new opportunities.

Utilise the transferrable skills you developed as a musician

Thankfully, as a musician, you will have a range of skills that will be invaluable to you as you embrace the new opportunities life affords you. 

Utilise your emotional intelligence, your resilience, perseverance, creativity, and ability to think outside the box, and your skills as a team player and collaborator. But most of all, continue to be a good listener. Get alongside people especially when they need a bit of support, be open, genuinely listen to what they have to say, try to understand, and learn from different perspectives.

Embrace lifelong learning

Don’t worry that you didn’t go to university straight from school! 

You will be able to return to studies later in life and gain qualifications in subjects that not only interest you but have direct relevance to your developing career. Who would have predicted that after leaving school at age 16, you would resume your studies at age 35, to gain a postgraduate certificate then a diploma, two master’s degrees, and a PhD!

That said, while it’s important to value and celebrate big achievements, it is the meaningful moments that you encounter every day that will give you the most pleasure.

Life is made up of meaningful moments

Remember the stranger who smiles at you in the street, the sunset, the piece of music that lifts your spirits, the hot bubble bath that soothes your body. 

From your music therapy work, remember the beautiful moments when a patient sighs with relief, a non-speaking child sings, a person with dementia recalls memories through song, and the exquisite moments of musical connection you experience while improvising with participants.

Spend time with children, and Winnie the Pooh

Let children - and Winnie the Pooh - be your teachers. 

They can help you to experience life to the full, and to live as you did when you were a child; in the present, questioning, imaginative, and having fun. 

Pooh may be a bear of very little brain, but as Piglet noted “he never comes to any harm. He does silly things, and they turn out right.”