A Spark - Something to Think About

Over on social media (I know, I know, many of my posts start off this way, but you cannot deny that social media is something that affects us all in some way or another), someone asked a question. "What would it take for music therapy to become mainstream?"

Ooooh, boy. I have opinions about this!

Now, if you keep reading this post, keep in mind that this is a blog. Specifically, it is MY blog which means that I get to offer my OPINIONS in the way that makes the most sense to me. These OPINIONS are mine and mine alone. I do not have any financial incentives or assistance that might interfere with my opinion development - no one sponsors me or tries to influence me in any way. I am merely a music therapist who loves her choice of profession most of the time. My OPINIONS, though, matter to me - you can take them or leave them, that is up to you. If you want to engage in conversation with me about this topic, I would love to have that discussion. I want to know your OPINIONS about the things I write about.

So, what would it take for music therapy to become mainstream?

I want to know how we know that music therapy is not mainstream? What does "mainstream" mean? For me, it is tied to societal awareness. How will we know when we achieve this goal? I like the idea of clear goals. I would venture to say that Physical Therapy is mainstream - no one really has to ask for a definition of PT, but Occupational Therapy is less mainstream. People are often aware that OT exists, but they are not as clear about what clients are doing in OT to fulfill goals. Speech Therapy is more mainstream than OT, I think. Do we want people to automatically know what we are talking about when we say that we are music therapists? Do we want to be reimbursed at PT rates? What do we, as a group of professional, want?

I get uncomfortable when we fall into the discussion about how much we are worth as professionals. While this is a crucial conversation, I do not feel that it can be solved on a national level - this is a local market issue. I do not like it when salaries are the center of our conversation rather than the benefit that we can bring to our clients. I am, however, aware that money is a huge concern for all people on this planet, so we cannot get that topic solved...ever. We will always want more. I would like for us to separate professional concerns from those of our reason to do this job - the convergence of music and people for a therapeutic benefit. Is this an ideal situation that will never be completely possible? Perhaps.

Some of the barriers that I have identified for this concept about music therapy becoming mainstream are as follows:

• societal awareness of what we do and how we do it.
• perception that music is an "extra" that is only available to those who are immersed in it
• competition from others who do not do what we do but who advertise that they do the exact same thing without any sort of training
• wide variety in what people are taught is "music therapy" and what is "NOT music therapy"
• wide variety in skill levels for clinicians - there is no consistent checklist of skills that music therapy professionals have to demonstrate to be employed
  
• lack of on-going clinical experience for professors who are teaching from the limited experience they had as a clinician before becoming professors and/or basing their teaching on research interactions which are significantly different from day-to-day clinical interactions and work
• an over focus on research without a direct correlation to clinical interactions with clients
• apologetic nature of people in the profession which may manifest in taking less salary for work, deferring to others because of our education levels or other reasons, wish to help people with this wonderful thing, music, without valuing self and experience
• demands from professionals for access to information without compensating creators, composers, authors, and experienced clinicians
• closing the information gap between what a professional organization is supposed to do for its members and what a professional organization cannot do for its members
• internal arguments that cause rifts between professionals, often petty arguments that lead to demands, threats to leave, and hurt feelings on all sides
  
• therapist attrition
• youth of work force

Oh my, I could go on, but I am not going to... 

I enjoy problem solving, and this is a problem that I will never solve. I have accepted that fact, but that does not stop me from offering my thoughts and OPINIONS about all sorts of things.

So, what do I think it will take for music therapy to become more "mainstream?" I think we need to, first of all, stop arguing with each other about things. I think we need to understand that we are all unique in our OPINIONS and that it is fine for us to operate within our own expectations and experiences. There will be times when our language is different. There will be times when our job expectations are different. There cannot be a perception that there is only one "right way to do music therapy." Some of our expectations must be standardized more than they are right now. University programs need to have more consistent expectations for students - within the world of academia. Music therapists have to be able to explain what we do with clients in ways that are accessible to others - we don't do that well. We have to stop thinking that clinicians can function by relying on their instincts alone. We need to teach students and interns the actual things that we do in the process of being a music therapist, engaging with a client within the music and the therapeutic relationship that we have established. We have to start our advocacy on a personal level rather than expecting a national organization to be able to advocate for us where we are, doing what we do on a daily basis. I also think that we need to be better humans to each other, and we need to understand that we can disagree and still come to compromise. There you go.