From time to time, I and other music therapists receive letters like this:
I attended the University of Kansas. (Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, KU) The program has a great reputation. It is currently one of 66 programs for entry-level music therapy education.
My internship was at Parsons State Hospital and Training Center in Parsons, KS. There I worked with individuals from kindergarten through their mid 60’s with various developmental disabilities.
The short answer is music, music therapy, and related course work. As I completed my degree in the early 1980’s, some of the specifics have changed. I encourage you to see the specifics listed on the American Music Therapy Association page “Becoming a Music Therapist“.
All board certified music therapists are required to continue their education either through continuing education events, advanced degrees, research or other scholarly activities. I have elected to participate in continuing education opportunities rather than an advanced degree.
I am a self-employed music therapist who works with young children, older adults, and both together (intergenerational groups).
6) What do you like best about your profession? What do you like least?
The creativity, the melding of art & science and the responding to a client’s interests, needs and abilities is what I like best about my profession. There isn’t a “sing three choruses of song x” treatment. Being focused on the moment, the client and the desired outcome guides my work.
The thing I like least is the challenge of encouraging people to share music while creating understanding that sharing music isn’t music therapy. This was well stated by the young son of a music therapist: “someone who is not trained but says that they do music therapy is like me saying that I can do construction because I’ve played with Legos.”
What questions do you have for a music therapist?
Place them in the comments below. My colleagues and I will do our best to answer them.
Thanks for the FAQs JoAnn. You’re the first Music Therapist I’ve met–which is not something I’m proud of…
I know you don’t work with teens, but how does music therapy generally work with this population? I imagine it’s challenging in that they may want to listen to their own music (which is oftentimes, not so “clean”), and may be resistant to going outside their genre…
Thank you!
Music therapist work with teens using preferred music or styles of music. Depending on the needs and goals, different approaches are used. Creating, listening, playing, singing, moving…it all depends on what outcome is desired. You are correct that language in songs can be an issue. Some artists do create a “clean version” of tunes. My experiences with teens is while they (like all of us) have preferred music, they can appreciate other music.
JoAnn:
I have been enjoying reading your posts, and have been on your website. I am a graduate student in special education and will hopefully study music therapy after that. I’m thinking about participating in a research project and want to research a music therapy topic. I had been a music teacher for 6 years before this. Do you have any ideas about possible research topics? Any help you can give me would be appreciated. Thanks.
Kristi – It is always exciting to hear from those interested in music therapy.As for areas to consider researching I would recommend you taking some time to consider areas of need that have arisen from your classroom experiences. You may also wish to consider what populations drew you into special education. I realize that may not fully answer your question so feel free to use the contact tab to email me.
I look forward to hearing from you!