We Are...Music Therapists!

It is January again and time for a post about Music Therapy Advocacy! Here is my offering to the many different thoughts going on out there in music therapy USA.

We are...Music Therapists!

This is a wonderful sentiment and a great theme to an advocacy month, and I know that there are many out there who are using this to address the need to toot our own horns and sing our songs loudly and proudly. For me, though, this statement brings to mind some things that I have been pondering for a long, long time.

It is fine and good for us all to identify ourselves as a large group of professionals with a unique name, but it is interesting that, within our own ranks, there are people who feel that they are truly music therapists while I am simply a music activity leader solely based on my education and population of choice. There are others who feel that my client-centered approach is not appropriate... I should be doing their "proven" protocols which is the "only true way" of music therapy.

Every time someone starts to accuse someone from another "camp" of not doing what is right for clients, I feel the music therapy foundation quake a bit. This entire conversation makes me squirm. We are attempting to identify ourselves as a united group, but we are not united in our outlook, definition, or understanding of music as a therapeutic medium. This is a challenging statement, "We are...music therapists," as it expects that we will be able to find common ground in our profession.

Now, I do not think that squirming is a bad thing. This is a discussion that, I feel, should have happened a long time ago. We have a history of going our separate ways. We must not do that again! It is time to focus on what we share rather than what we do not.

Before I continue to go off into a nonsensical rant, let me stop myself here and make a (possibly) controversial statement.

I am a music therapist. You are a music therapist. What we do may look completely different to our own eyes, but for most of the other human beings out there, what we do looks like someone enjoying music offered by a person who knows how to use that music as a therapeutic medium. Therefore, why should either of us judge the other based on terminology, theory, music selection, or anything else?

I think we can do this. I think we can find a shared core knowledge, theory, and technique that all music therapists utilize regardless of treatment format, population, and/or theoretical propensity. Once we know what we have in common, we will be able to understand the attitudes, opinions, and practices of those who have a bit of a different outlook. Our commonalities will inform our philosophical leanings and our personal philosophies of music therapy will strengthen our client interactions.

Because, after all, without our clients, this entire conversation would be moot... right?

I am a music therapist. I am a unique human being who chooses to focus my professional life on using music as a tool to assist others in reaching their personal goals. I celebrate the different ideas, viewpoints, and theoretical foundations that others hold while not feeling diminished due to my own beliefs about music and music therapy.

I pledge this day, January 23, 2014, to seek the commonalities that I share with each and every music therapist that is practicing, has practiced, and will practice. I pledge to continuously seek the form of music therapy that will best support my client - each and every one of my clients, and I will remain open to new ideas, theories, techniques, knowledge, and philosophy to best inform the search.

I hope you will join me.