Thoughtful Thursday: Advocacy
Every day my news feeds on various social media sites are filled with things about music therapy. There are videos, articles, advocacy reminders and needs, thoughts, books, and connections with other therapists going on those sites day in and day out. Lots of the stuff that I see is good - lots of it is crap, but the thing is that music therapy is growing, becoming more prevalent, and is much more of a household name than it was 10 years ago.
So, I think about music, therapy, and my role in this profession.
What are the things that you wish you knew about this profession before starting the education and training process? About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about the 7 things I wish I had known about music therapy before I started working as a therapist. These things still run true for me. I still see the need for advocacy, theory, and a relationship to music.
These days, I see a need for patient advocacy - not for patients but with patience. There is rarely a day when someone isn't complaining about how someone else is taking a piece of the music therapy pie away from us. The responses to these complaints are really telling. They indicate several different ways to react - good and bad. There is the "How Dare They" response, the "We'll Get Them For This" response, and the "It Never Ends" response. I try very hard to be a person who goes into a "Education is the Best Policy" response.
It is frustrating to see someone try to promote a CD as "music therapy." There is so much more to music therapy than a piece of music. At the same time, though, people will do what they can do to promote what they do so they can make some money. When I've spoken to people about the differences between music therapy and a therapeutic use of music (as I understand it), they are often able to understand why it is important to distinguish between the two.
In my professional life, I work with an art therapist, several social workers, some milieu therapists, and a recreation therapist. They all use music in one way or another in their interactions with our mutual clients. I also use elements of what they consider their therapeutic medium in my music therapy practice. I have no problem with them starting their groups with a song. I have no problems with them leading lyric analysis discussions. I have a problem if they say that they are doing music therapy. They are not. (By the way, they don't.) We talk about this in our group supervision meetings on a regular basis. There is a difference between being a music therapist and doing music therapy and a social worker using lyric analysis to illustrate goals with an adolescent client.
It is my job, as the expert on how to use music as a therapeutic medium, to fully explain the differences between what I do and what a social worker does with the same medium - music. If I cannot do that, then there is no reason for the greater world to recognize my role as a clinician. I can jump up and down in my little corner of the world, but no one will listen to me if all I can do is state that what someone else does is NOT music therapy.
This is why it is so important for us to know what we do and to be able to articulate what we do. In order to advocate for music therapy, we need to know what it is and what it is not. We need to be able to speak to others about what music therapy is and what it is not. We need to be able to feel confident enough in our own role to be able to recognize that other people use music in therapeutic ways. These ways do not have to threaten our existence, but can serve to enhance what we can do out in the world.
Here's how I approach folks who use the term "music therapy" in an inappropriate manner. First, I tell them that I am a music therapist, and I ask them to tell me how they use music in a therapeutic manner. (Notice the subtle change in language there?) Next, we talk about how music changes and shapes our interactions with the clients. We talk about how music engages the client in interaction. Finally, I close the conversation with a description about how I use musical elements to shape behaviors and responses and how they use music to spur behaviors and responses. We chat about how they use music to enhance their particular tool (art, recreation, talk), and we chat about how I use music as my tool. Most of the time, the conversation ends with a mutual agreement to call what they do something other than music therapy, leaving the term for me to use.
For the record, I have no problem with the art therapist using music in her art therapy sessions to provide background for an art therapy intervention. I have no problem with the social worker using a song to start her play therapy group. I have no problem with the recreation therapist leading a lyric analysis group. I think that any opportunity to get music to my clients is a good one. I only start to have a problem when those professionals call what they do "music therapy." My colleagues know this about me and don't call what they do "music therapy. We have a mutual respect for each other and each other's professional training and education. That makes advocacy easy.
Advocacy takes time. It takes patience. It takes constant education, conversation, and discussion. It takes a calm head and a logical brain in order to talk to others about how what I do is different from what they do. Patience.
Good news - it is getting better. Bad news - this process will never stop. Keep your head, be patient, and it will get better.
Last thing - there are some people who will never get what we do or why we are so passionate about the two little words that define what we do.
Be a calm advocate for music therapy. We do much better when we are professional than when we are hysterical.
So, I think about music, therapy, and my role in this profession.
What are the things that you wish you knew about this profession before starting the education and training process? About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about the 7 things I wish I had known about music therapy before I started working as a therapist. These things still run true for me. I still see the need for advocacy, theory, and a relationship to music.
These days, I see a need for patient advocacy - not for patients but with patience. There is rarely a day when someone isn't complaining about how someone else is taking a piece of the music therapy pie away from us. The responses to these complaints are really telling. They indicate several different ways to react - good and bad. There is the "How Dare They" response, the "We'll Get Them For This" response, and the "It Never Ends" response. I try very hard to be a person who goes into a "Education is the Best Policy" response.
It is frustrating to see someone try to promote a CD as "music therapy." There is so much more to music therapy than a piece of music. At the same time, though, people will do what they can do to promote what they do so they can make some money. When I've spoken to people about the differences between music therapy and a therapeutic use of music (as I understand it), they are often able to understand why it is important to distinguish between the two.
In my professional life, I work with an art therapist, several social workers, some milieu therapists, and a recreation therapist. They all use music in one way or another in their interactions with our mutual clients. I also use elements of what they consider their therapeutic medium in my music therapy practice. I have no problem with them starting their groups with a song. I have no problems with them leading lyric analysis discussions. I have a problem if they say that they are doing music therapy. They are not. (By the way, they don't.) We talk about this in our group supervision meetings on a regular basis. There is a difference between being a music therapist and doing music therapy and a social worker using lyric analysis to illustrate goals with an adolescent client.
It is my job, as the expert on how to use music as a therapeutic medium, to fully explain the differences between what I do and what a social worker does with the same medium - music. If I cannot do that, then there is no reason for the greater world to recognize my role as a clinician. I can jump up and down in my little corner of the world, but no one will listen to me if all I can do is state that what someone else does is NOT music therapy.
This is why it is so important for us to know what we do and to be able to articulate what we do. In order to advocate for music therapy, we need to know what it is and what it is not. We need to be able to speak to others about what music therapy is and what it is not. We need to be able to feel confident enough in our own role to be able to recognize that other people use music in therapeutic ways. These ways do not have to threaten our existence, but can serve to enhance what we can do out in the world.
Here's how I approach folks who use the term "music therapy" in an inappropriate manner. First, I tell them that I am a music therapist, and I ask them to tell me how they use music in a therapeutic manner. (Notice the subtle change in language there?) Next, we talk about how music changes and shapes our interactions with the clients. We talk about how music engages the client in interaction. Finally, I close the conversation with a description about how I use musical elements to shape behaviors and responses and how they use music to spur behaviors and responses. We chat about how they use music to enhance their particular tool (art, recreation, talk), and we chat about how I use music as my tool. Most of the time, the conversation ends with a mutual agreement to call what they do something other than music therapy, leaving the term for me to use.
For the record, I have no problem with the art therapist using music in her art therapy sessions to provide background for an art therapy intervention. I have no problem with the social worker using a song to start her play therapy group. I have no problem with the recreation therapist leading a lyric analysis group. I think that any opportunity to get music to my clients is a good one. I only start to have a problem when those professionals call what they do "music therapy." My colleagues know this about me and don't call what they do "music therapy. We have a mutual respect for each other and each other's professional training and education. That makes advocacy easy.
Advocacy takes time. It takes patience. It takes constant education, conversation, and discussion. It takes a calm head and a logical brain in order to talk to others about how what I do is different from what they do. Patience.
Good news - it is getting better. Bad news - this process will never stop. Keep your head, be patient, and it will get better.
Last thing - there are some people who will never get what we do or why we are so passionate about the two little words that define what we do.
Be a calm advocate for music therapy. We do much better when we are professional than when we are hysterical.
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