Thoughtful Thursday: Why Is It So Difficult to Find the Music Therapist or Music Therapy Job That You Want When You Want It??

Let's face it...

There is a HUGE disconnect between the number of music therapists out there and the number of available jobs.

Every single day, I see posts both from music therapists who cannot find a job and music therapy business owners who are desperate to find music therapists to work. Every single day.

I pay attention to these discussions, posts, and comments because music therapist attrition is something that has always interested me. I have often wondered why our profession continues to be so young and inexperienced, and I have collected many answers from therapists who have remained in the profession as well as those who have left.

There is no simple answer to the question of why are there so many open music therapy positions and so many music therapists who leave the profession because they can't find jobs. Not everyone is able to or wants to move where the jobs are. Not everyone can sustain their desired quality of life on a therapist's salary. Not everyone wants to work for someone else. Not everyone lives in a place where music therapy is something that the market can support. There are all sorts of answers, and each of us have to find our own way in, out, and through this profession.

I love being a music therapist, and I am fortunate that I have been able to be employed as a music therapist for most of my career. I have taken positions that are not music therapy positions in order to make a living. I am able to move to where jobs are available. I am now in a position where I will have to make my own job in a place where I want to go.

I know music therapists whose businesses are waiting for music therapists to come and work. They have potential clients waiting for music therapy services, but therapists are not showing up or are showing up thinking that they will be making significantly more than the marketplace allows.

I am writing this from a place of privilege. I recognize that. I have a comfortable life after many years of struggling with money. I no longer have any student loan debt. I was able to work while pursuing my graduate degree. I have always been able to find employment, but I have not always enjoyed what I have done for work. I have been able to sustain work in this profession, and that is not something that everyone can or wants to do.

My path is my path. It will not be the same for anyone else, so there is really nothing that I can tell another music therapist to do. All I can do is let people know that they have to find their own paths. No one owes their professors anything (common thread that I have heard from interns over the years). You paid for your tuition and their attention while you were in school - there is nothing owed. You do not owe it to your internship directors to continue to be music therapists. All you owe to anyone is to you - you have to find where you are happy. If you are happy moving to where a job exists, then do it. If you are happy not being a music therapist in a place where you feel like you belong, then do that. If you do not like where you are or what you are doing, then change your life for the better. Go on your own path.

I guess the primary thing that I do not understand or like very much is when someone gets onto shared social media looking for validation that their situation is horrible and it is someone's fault. The posts often come across (to me, at least), as accusatory - "So and so said that I could find a job, but I can't. It's all so and so's fault!" When others offer to talk about possible employment, the original posters refuse any and all assistance for many different reasons.

Why complain if you are not interested in fixing the problem?

I think yesterday's rant has finally arrived today...

I am paying attention to these things as I am moving towards my own next act.

So, what do I think?

So many things...

I have never been one to do much grandstanding (other than here on my blog, of course), so I do not understand the need to a) reveal my employment struggles to a very large, very opinionated, and often wrong group of people, and b) blame others for my path in life. I was raised knowing that I was responsible for the choices that I made - no one else. If something is wrong in my life, then I have to be the one who fixes it. 

I was also brought up in the days before the internet, so I have lots of caution when it comes to putting things online. If I don't want public commentary on things, then I do not post things online. I have many blog posts that I have written that are not published because it is no one's business but my own. Once posted, always present. This is really the thought that goes through my head when I am writing, adding to social media, and responding to what others say. This may be a function of being a vintage music therapist, but that is how I move through my posts and social media use.

What I hope for you, dear music therapist (and my sister, if she reads this post), is the ability to find your path in life in a setting that offers you enough money to live on, challenges that keep you stimulated, and happiness in who you are and what you choose for yourself.

What do you think is the major obstacle facing music therapists and employment these days? Let me know in the comments...