The Politicization of Music Therapy

It's back - the reason why I no longer participate so much in the greater music therapy community - people squawking about things that are outside what I feel is the purview of music therapy and then shaming anyone who dares to present a different viewpoint. I view this as the Politicization of music therapy, and it is something that I do not appreciate from the greater music therapy population in general.

There are so many bullies out there on social media, and when you try to call them out, they go into devastation mode bringing their bully buddies into the conversation. Currently, it seems the bullies are calling out anyone who dares to provide any sort of commentary that contradicts or asks for clarification about the current bully trends. As far as I can tell, the current issue seems to have started with someone who objected to the use of profanity in a specific post and now has morphed into a criticism of anyone who objects to assertions about politics and therapy.

I am trying not to let it affect me. I may just hide the people who seem to be the most offensive and the biggest bullies, but I may also just get rid of the entire feed from my wall. That would make my days a bit easier - the angst and doxxing and idiocy that comes from within will be another click away. I will not find things at the top of my feed anymore.

I REALLY do not like "Music Therapists Unite." This group of people just seems to do everything possible to shame everyone into a common viewpoint without consideration of fact versus opinion. This has been a common complaint of mine for many years, and I just started to get back into the group for its marketing value. It took very little time to remind me why I left the group to begin with.

We do not unite. It used to be that we could tolerate the opinions of other people and discuss our differences with an acknowledgment that opinions were something to be heard and thought about. It was okay to express something that was different, and it was heard and considered. That no longer seems to be the case. If you respond to the long diatribes of certain bullies, you had better be offering full support and blind obedience to their idea of what music therapy is and should be or else.

Now, I understand some of what is being said - I really do - but I also do not feel that music therapists will fix a broken system. There aren't that many of us, and we are not going to single-handedly change the political climate in my country. Getting into social issues and shaming those in our small community for holding their own beliefs and OPINIONS does not fix what is happening in Minnesota and other places around this country. It just promotes infighting and division in our own community of music therapists.

Perhaps it is time to go back into my fiction project to work some of these things out in my own head. In my fiction, I can make any sort of predictions happen to see if they play out later on. Since my main characters are all music therapists, I have an opportunity to make the music therapy futures that I see into something that others might understand. The opinions and current nastiness that is happening on MTU could be the start of yet another splinter in our profession, similar to the one that happened in the early 70's.

I wonder if the people who start the posts that I really do not like are from former AAMT programs. This wondering is based in interactions from people who were old school AAMT therapists who stated that they would never speak to me if they knew where I lived. Rude, and based in old hurts that were not mine at all. We practice from very different viewpoints, and I wonder if that is part of the entire issue for me.

Are we headed for another split? I wonder.

For now, to protect my own peace of mind, I am going to move MTU off my home page and into my groups page. This way, I will be able to ignore many of the bullies screaming into the group until I can tolerate the diatribe and arguments. I will use the tool for what it is - a tool - and remain out of the discussions as much as I can.

How do you navigate the passion on both sides?? I cannot, so I avoid it. Right or wrong, it is what I do. What I do is what is best for me. It may not be what is best for you, but it is what is best for me.

Thanks for reading.

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