Dr Daphne Rickson, ONZM, of Paekakariki, for services to music therapy
Dr Daphne Rickson is a Registered Music Therapist. She lectured and helped initiate a Music Therapy Masters’ Programme at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington.
She was Council Chair and President of Music Therapy New Zealand.
She helped review the organisation’s Standards of Practice, and, following the 2019 terrorist attack, helped develop its Aotearoa Crisis Intervention working group.
She is Australasian Regional Liaison for the World Federation of Music Therapy Council.
She achieved New Zealand’s first PhD in music therapy, focusing on people with complex needs and enabling marginalised people to use music resources to increase their community participation.
She has researched ‘singing for wellbeing’ in post-earthquake Christchurch.
Dr Rickson co-authored the book ‘Creating Music Cultures in the Schools: A Perspective from Community Music Therapy’.