In this article I describe my personal journey through mental illness to practising music therapist, which spans some 30 years. The bleak and barren landscape of the hospitals in which I was an acute patient has now been transformed into a colourful milieu where I practise as a music therapist. The parallel paths of my own illness and my professional training are growing into an integration of my inner and outer life, which is reflected in my music therapy work with people with mental health problems. The names of all people have been changed to safeguard anonymity. I have used the third person when discussing my own story, also providing additional perspective by using the pseudonym 'Jane'. The article is in two main sections.

Supervising clinical material that is expressed in musical language but which is discussed and articulated predominantly in words can make the development of a supervisory relationship a complex process. This paper examines how certain elements within the clinical material of a musical therapeutic relationship may give rise to material of a primitive nature, and how this can become unconsciously expressed within the supervisory relationship.