What is Music Therapy?
Music Therapy is a therapeutic intervention which uses music to achieve non-musical goals.
The goal of all interactions
Kenneth Bruscia
between client and therapist is to optimize the client’s health.
Music Therapy provides a space to explore issues using music as the primary mode of communication between client and therapist.
It is facilitated by Music Therapists who are clinical professionals with a high degree of musical and psychological training.
In the UK, Music Therapists are required to be complete a two-year Masters Degree, attend regular clinical supervision and engage in lifelong learning to continue professional development.
Music Therapists are regulated by The Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC).
The most comprehensive definition of music therapy is “the professional use of music and its elements as an intervention in medical, educational, and everyday environments with individuals, groups, families, or communities who seek to optimize their quality of life and improve their physical, social, communicative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health and wellbeing. Research, practice, education, and clinical training in music therapy are based on professional standards according to cultural, social, and political contexts.” (WFMT, 2011)
This definition covers the wide range of perspectives and schools of thought within the music therapy profession including the approach Fife Music Therapy practices – Psychodynamic Music Therapy.
Music as a means for wellness.
Music has been monumental throughout history and cultures and the naturally therapeutic qualities of music have been widely known since ancient times. We see examples from history of people being very deliberate in how they use music therapeutically in their own lives and the lives of those in need.
Music Therapy as a modern profession started in the 1950s to collate these practices and research their effectiveness and best applications to create a large catalogue of interventions and techniques that qualified Music Therapists, with their training in psychology, can safely deliver.
