Thoughtful Thursday: Do We (Music Therapists) Own Music?

Oh, boy. It's another one of those days where my social media page is covered with indignant comments about yet another person out there who is doing something with clients that involves music. The criticism starts - "Is this person a music therapist?" "Should this person even be allowed to use music in a 
nursing home?" "I had a job and someone like this came in and took it from me!"

Sigh.

I find all of these discussions pretty exhausting, and I don't really like that it happens so much. My opinions (that's what this is entirely - OPINION - which means that I get to think and write about whatever I want, and I get to share it with other people as such - OPINION, not FACT) are pretty set by now, and I feel that we music therapists are the ones that are failing.

Okay. I know that some of you just stopped reading at the end of that paragraph right there. If you are still with me, let me start explaining.

Here are my opinions:

1. Music does not "belong" to any particular profession. If it did, we would not be able to use music as a therapeutic medium - the performing community would have barred our access a very long time ago. I cannot stop my fellow co-workers from drumming on a table or singing to my client or using music/dance breaks to refresh the attention of a classroom group simply because I have a title that includes the word, "music." Why would I want to do that, knowing what I know about the benefits and physiological, psychological, and neurological effects of music? If my counselor co-workers want to sing an opening song (even if they want to learn my opening song), that is okay with me!
2. Only a person with the appropriate education, clinical training, and credential should ever say that what he/she is doing with a client is music therapy. I don't mind my co-workers using music within their areas of specialty, but they all know that what they are doing is NOT music therapy. I have given them lots of terminology to refer to their use of music within counseling, within education, within other areas of client interaction. They respect my education and training the same way I respect theirs. I don't call what I do with my clients "art therapy" just because I decided to add some painting to my music listening therapeutic music experience. The art therapist doesn't claim that she is doing "music therapy" when she plays specific music for a therapeutic process in her sessions. It is a mutual respect that I have EARNED because of my relationships and advocacy for my profession.
3. It is my job to advocate and educate others about music therapy rather than music as a therapeutic intervention. Whew. Do you see that difference? My counseling co-workers use opening songs at the beginning of play therapy. They use those songs in a way that is very similar to how I use those types of songs - a signal to gather, a way to assess client interest, mood, and interaction, a start to the therapy time. That is the extent to how they use the music. They are not trained to shape the music to specific client responses or to use the music to elicit reactions. They do not know how to observe small motor entrainment cues and then shape the music to those cues. I do. When we sit down to discuss how we use music, I demonstrate how my knowledge of my therapeutic medium informs the clinical decisions that I make during every music therapy interaction. They are always astounded by what I do with and through music - things that they have never been aware of, even when sitting with clients in the group! I know many music therapists who cannot define themselves through the perspective of music as a tool for therapy.
4. I am not going to be able to be the sole provider of music-based interventions at my facility (or in the world, for that matter!).  I cannot be in every classroom when someone wants to play some music to fill up the background. I am not going to be able to be in every play therapy group to sing the opening song to clients and stand by just in case they want more music in the session. These things are ridiculous and shared with you with lots of sarcasm behind them - I know that, and just want to point out that music therapists have NO control over how much clients access music. For me, I have come to terms with this particular concept by thinking of music therapy as a part of a pyramid of services. This is an idea from all sorts of sources, but Elizabeth Schwartz is the first person that I heard talking about music therapy intervention in this manner - give credit, right? Beth mentioned that music therapy was at the top of this particular pyramid. Most people access music in a general manner - ways that do not need music therapists to be there. The next layer of the pyramid is the folks who need specific intervention for easy things - folks who would benefit from consultation with a music therapy, but who do not need the attention and work involved with music therapy treatment. These might be the folks who are looking to use music to help them with specific tasks. The music therapist plays a role, but most of the work is on the client. The last tier of service is those that need the work of a music therapist. These are folks like my kids who often have failed in music education settings and have severe behaviors of concern that bar them from participating in other, less-restrictive environments. They need the services of a music therapist rather than just a music volunteer (AND, I know how to talk about music therapy in a way that my administrators realize that they need a music therapist rather than a music educator or volunteer!).
5. It is MY job to explain what I do to others in a way that makes sense to them. I also have to be able to back up my statements with research from their own professions or areas of specialty. We all understand things best when new concepts are presented in a manner that we know well, so it makes sense to use educational research when I am trying to speak to the teachers at my facility. I also have to work with these people, so it is better to be diplomatic and helpful than get the reputation as "that music therapy shrew who thinks she owns music and won't let us sing unless she's there leading the entire thing!" Believe me, it is so much easier to get respect and consideration when you are not the shrew!! 

What is our way forward? As music therapists, we need to be able to explain these differences in a calm, logical, and polite manner. We need to be gentle when advocating for the use of our professional title. We need to continue to work towards title recognition in all areas. We need to support the use of music for non-music therapy purposes, and then we need to be able to demonstrate why it is important for folks to be around music both with and without us being there. We need to be firm about the terminology that we prefer, but we also have to offer alternatives so that my co-workers know that they are not doing music therapy with their students, but they are using music to enhance their own form of therapy.

At some point, I will write more about how to gain a deeper understanding of our medium AND how to use that understanding to support and inform the use of music and music therapy in different advocacy situations, but it is time to post this and move forward. Feel free to share or debate, comment or question either here or on the Facebook page.