This program provides students with the opportunity to gain knowledge and develop competencies in such areas as music therapy and practice; clinical disorders; assessment, planning and intervention; improvisation and music of many eras and cultures; interpersonal skills and group dynamics; basic research, and documentation.
The program blends academic and experiential course work. Students deepen their experience of music, creative expression and the role of the arts. They are encouraged to explore their values, beliefs, feelings and communication patterns, to increase their effectiveness in the field.
They have field work in a different setting for each of the four terms, in which they are given increasing responsibility to design, implement and evaluate their own treatment programs, under clinical supervision.
Continuance in the Music Therapy program will be contingent upon an adequate level of personal, academic and clinical skills as jointly evaluated each semester by the Music Therapy faculty. Music therapy is a helping profession in which music therapists work with clients who are in a state of disability.
In the therapist/client relationship, there is an assumption that the therapist is in a well enough state of health and well-being to mediate client difficulties with an appropriate clinical approach.
In other words, the therapist must function in clinically suitable ways, be emotionally stable and able to respond generally vis-a-vis the client's needs. The therapist is the helper.
The role of the Music Therapy program, in addition to student education, is to safeguard the standards of practice of the professional music therapy community through monitoring student readiness to work with members of the community-at-large who are at risk because of disability, disease, cultural and social deprivation, and otherwise disadvantaged.
Safety of clients is essential.
Music therapists use the creative process inherent in musical participation to assist individuals and groups to improve their mental, physical and emotional functioning.
Music therapists work with deep emotions in special therapeutic programs, run exercise and dance programs, lead choirs, instrumental ensembles and music appreciation groups as they contribute to therapeutic goals.
Music therapy is increasingly identified by health care professionals as an effective catalyst for client motivation, stimulation and communication.
Career Opportunities
