Being a Music Therapy Intern: Chapter Four

I am happy to announce that I have published the next chapter of my Music Therapy Internship Handbook in my TPT store. If you are new here, I would like you to know that I am writing a general music therapy internship handbook - one chapter at a time. This chapter, Settling Into the Role of Music Therapy Intern, joins the three other chapters which cover finding an internship, preparing for the first day, and the first day of the music therapy internship experience. All of those chapters can be found in my TPT store.

I am enjoying this experience. I have always been more fascinated with how we do the process of music therapy than any other part of our jobs. The internship seems to be a mystery to music therapy students - it was when I started looking for my internship, and it still seems to be difficult to find information. Eventually, I would love for music therapy students to use this handbook when they start looking for their internships. 

I am trying to cover some of the minutiae that is part of the process of our internships. For example, how to use the bulky National Roster to find placements. There are specific tricks that can help students find information, but those tricks aren't often shared. Many of the interns that I have spoken to over the years do not know the difference between university-affiliated and National Roster internships. This fascinates me because the internship is the culminating experience for us all. Why is it shrouded in so much mystery?

How much time did your music therapy educators spend on talking about internships? 

I do not recall much, but we were shown the paper National Roster (yep, it was a paper roster back then), and told to read through it as part of our free time. There was also no such thing as a university-affiliated internship back in the day. Our advisors talked to us about our internship search and process during advising which was helpful. We had to get the same letters of eligibility and recommendation that I require now in my program, and there was often an essay portion to complete as well. Many of the requirements that current students have were in place decades ago - only four applications at a time, notifying everyone of an acceptance, and accepting an application within 30 days of an offer. Those things have not changed, but they are still surprising for most of the music therapy students I have spoken to over the years.

Now, some programs do a better job than others of explaining the purpose and process of internships, but most students seem to find the process of finding and working in an internship confusing.

I hope that what I write will help make things clear to those who want more information about this part of our education.