Melissa Mercadal Coll
Department of Education and Artistic Mediation
She pursued higher studies in Flute at the Conservatori Municipal de Música de Barcelona and earned a degree in Psychology from the University of Barcelona. She completed her Master's in Music Therapy at Florida State University in 1987 and obtained a PhD in Music Pedagogy from the University of Oregon in 1993, USA.
- Music Therapy for the elderly.
- Music and quality of life.
- Assessment of social music projects.
- Music Therapy and research.
- Psychological aspects of musicians.
Research Projects:
- ESTIMUL’ART MÚSICA–Cuidant persones a través de la música (Grup de Recerca “Investigació i Creació Musicals” (Esmuc) i “Fundació ACE). (2017-2018)
- La cultura com a instrument de benestar i inclusió social per a les persones amb Alzheimer: Avaluació de l’impacte del programa del AUDITORI (CESS UVic-UCC; Grup de Recerca “Investigació i Creació Musicals” (Esmuc); Servei Educatiu de l’Auditori de Barcelona (2017-2018).
- La ESMUC recomana—Ressenyes de llibres sobre pedagogia musical que fain una aportació a la innovació educativa Grup de Recerca “Investigació i Creació Musicals” (Esmuc) (Inv. Principal: Dra. Sofía Martínez) (2017-2018).
Books
- Mercadal-Brotons, M., & Martí, P. (2012). Música, musicoteràpia y discapacidad. Barcelona: Editorial Médica JIMS.
- Martí, P. & Mercadal-Brotons, M. (2010). Musicoterapia y medicina. Barcelona: Editorial Médica JIMS.
Book abstracts
- Behrens, G. A., Clements-Cortes, A., Gadberry, A. L., Kavaliova-Mussi, A., Milford, J., Heiderscheit, A., Brault, A., Brotons, M., & Zanini, C. (2017). Networking with the WFMT: The metaphore of a spin-drum. In M. Mercadal-Brotons & A. Clements-Cortes (Eds.). Proceedings of the 15 World Congress of Music Therapy. Special Issue of Music Therapy Today 13(1), 207-208. Retrieved from http://musictherapytoday.wfmt.info
- Sabbatella, P. L., Melissa Mercadal-Brotons, M., & Del Moral Marcos, M. T. (2017). Descriptive research in music therapy in Spain. In M. Mercadal-Brotons & A. Clements-Cortes (Eds.). Proceedings of the 15 World Congress of Music Therapy. Special Issue of Music Therapy Today 13(1), 138-139. Retrieved from http://musictherapytoday.wfmt.info
- Melissa Mercadal-Brotons & Patricia L. Sabbatella (2016) Music therapy methods and assessment practices of professional music therapists in Spain: a descriptive study, Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 25:sup1, 141-141, DOI: 10.1080/08098131.2016.1180181. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08098131.2016.1180181
Book chapters
- Mercadal-Brotons, M. (in press). Music Interventions for Advanced Dementia: Needs and Clinical Interventions Identified from a Narrative Synthesis Systematic Review. En A. Baird, S. M. Garrido, & J. Tamplin (Eds.), Music and dementia: From cognition to therapy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Mercadal-Brotons, M. (2016). Part-time two year music therapy programme. Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). In T. Stegemann, H. U. Sch, Schmidt, E. Fitzthum, & T. Timmermann (Eds.), Music therapy training programmes in Europe: Theme and variations (pp. 128-139). Germany: Reichert Verlag.
- Mercadal-Brotons, M., & Martí, P. (2015). Musicoterapia y estimulación cognitiva [Music therapy and cognitive stimulation]. In E. Valero-Merlos and J. I Rico Becerra (Eds.), Terapia ocupacional. Nuevos retos en geriatría y gerontología [Occupational Therapy. New challenges in geriatrics and gerontology] (pp. 675-684). Murcia: Morphos Ediciones, S.L.
Articles
- Mercadal-Brotons, M. & Alcântara-Silv, T. (in press). Music therapy for non- Alzheimer’s disease dementia: A systematic review. Frontiers in Medicine.
- Mercadal-Brotons, M., Sabbatella, P. L., & Del Moral Marcos, M. T. (2017). Music therapy as a profession in Spain: Past, present and future. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, 9(1), 111-119. Retrieved from http://approaches.gr/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/8-Approaches-9-1-2017-brotons.pdf
- Moral, M. T., Sánchez Prada, A., Mercadal-Brotons, M., & Sabbatella, P. (2017). Análisis de contenido y análisis DAFO en una investigación cualitativa sobre la Musicoterapia en España. Investigação Qualitativa em Ciências Sociais//Investigación Cualitativa en Ciencias Sociales//Volume 3. In http://proceedings.ciaiq.org/index.php/ciaiq2017/article/view/1182
- Martí, P., Mercadal-Brotons, M. y Solé, C. (2016). Tratamiento de musicoterapia para el estado anímico de pacientes con cancer. Un estudio piloto. Música, Terapia y Comunicación, 36, 29-48.
She has more than 25 years of clinical experience in the field of Music Therapy. She currently combines her teaching and research activities with coordinating master's and research programmes at ESMUC, where she also oversees the Master's programme in Music Therapy.
In the field of Music Therapy, she has specialised in the area of geriatrics and dementia, a target group with which she has major clinical experience, and published extensively at both national and international levels.
She is a member of the research group "Psicopersona" (Psychology, Person, and Context) at the Universitat Ramon Llull. She currently serves as the Spanish delegate in the European Music Therapy Confederation (EMT) and heads the Publication Committee of the World Federation for Music Therapy (WFMT).
She has been a professor in the Pedagogy Department since 2004 and has been the Academic Director of ESMUC since 2018.
La música como terapia (Video)