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A Guide for Aspiring Music Therapists

Music therapy is a clinical modality that can help to facilitate education and rehabilitation. In order to become a music therapist, one must:

  • Earn a bachelor’s degree in music therapy through an AMTA-approved university
  • Complete an internship
  • Pass the board exam (MT-BC)
  • Masters equivalency: If you already hold a bachelor’s degree in a related field (e.g. music education or performance, psychology, counseling, etc.), it might be possible to earn a master equivalency to attain a music therapy degree

An education in music therapy involves the study of music (theory, instrumental performance, ear training, composition, and more), psychology, biology, and the clinical application of music.  

As one who is just about to complete the internship process, I’d like to share things I have learned with hope that it will help any aspiring music therapists to lay out their path to board certification in music therapy. Here are some tips to consider:

Cultivate a sense of curiosity, tenacity, and compassion

These attributes are a foundational consideration in determining if the field of music therapy is right for you. If you are interested in becoming a music therapist, you are most likely drawn to the profound potential healing benefits of music and wish to contribute to your community in positive ways. It is important to reflect on your sentiments so you can further foster these noble attributes in order to actualize them for the benefit of the community.

  • Curiosity: There is always more to learn. Fostering a sense of curiosity will help you to continue to cultivate your skills and knowledge to become an effective music therapist in the future. However, be careful not to fall down rabbit holes of information. There is no point in collecting knowledge without application. At this point, you don’t have to be an expert in everything.
  • Tenacity: Anything worth pursuing is going to be difficult. Fostering a sense of determination will help you to overcome any challenges that inevitably come your way. Consciously developing healthy coping strategies is crucial for setting yourself up for success because the jobs in music therapy require tremendous mental and emotional energy. 
  • Compassion: Music therapists are here to help people. Foster a sense of compassion for the profound beauty of the human being and practice appreciating that beauty in everyone you encounter. One thing to watch out for is to be so empathetic that you take on the pain of those you work with. Another thing to make sure of is to care for yourself so you can show up every day without burning out

Strategically map out your academic path

Education is very difficult and expensive, so planning your path strategically is crucial for setting yourself up for success. Consider the following:

  • Transfer Credits:

To lessen the financial burden of university attendance, it may be wise to attend a community college for basic classes such as psychology, sociology, biology, English, writing, and music classes. In most cases, this will save a tremendous amount of money when you enter an AMTA-approved university program. Be aware, though, that some colleges will only accept a certain maximum of transfer credits.

  • Test out:

It helps to develop your skills in music, psychology, biology, etc.  before you enter the educational institution. By being able to test out of basic classes thanks to the work you put in beforehand will save you time and money. However, weigh the pros and cons of testing out of classes. Sometimes a class that is perceived as unnecessary will show you exactly what you need to know. We don’t know what we don’t know. 

  • Scholarships:

Consider applying for as many scholarships as you can before and while attending college. This can make a huge difference in reliving the financial burden of college. 

  • In state vs out of state: One additional consideration is whether an AMTA-approved university is in or out of your home state. In many cases, this affects the tuition price. 

Grow your musical skills and repertoire

Musical skills are fundamental to the practice of music therapy, as music therapists often use a wide variety of instruments that include guitar, drums, percussion, piano, and vocals. 

No matter what population you serve as a future music therapist, you will surely be playing lots of songs. It is helpful to have an extensive repertoire so you always have something up your sleeve. A practice you can do for this is to choose one song a day and play along to it while reading the chords. You can find the chords to almost any song at UltimateGuitar.com. This will also help to develop your discipline and musical skills. 

Consider developing a repertoire from a wide range of styles, genres, and eras. For example, the repertoire used with elderly individuals would most likely be very different from the repertoire used with children. 

Shadow a Music Therapist

One thing I wish I had done is to shadow a music therapist so I could see the real-life application of the practice. This can help to gain a better understanding of what a music therapy session looks like before and during your music therapy education. It can also help you to learn about the practice and which populations you would like to work with in the future. It can also be helpful to seek out a music therapist to take lessons from. A musical education tailored to music therapy skills can be very helpful. 

In conclusion, the path to becoming a music therapist can be a beautiful journey if it is right for you. The question of whether music therapy is right for you is not a simple question to answer. Perhaps the best way to know is to experience music therapy first-hand by shadowing a music therapist and reflecting on what kind of career you wish to have. Seeking out opportunities to volunteer in music therapy led programs, gain volunteer or work with people in the settings that music therapists work in (be a candy striper, work at group home and provide direct care support, volunteer at a camp, etc.). We set ourselves up for success when we practice strategic planning, discipline, musical skills, reading, writing, speaking, and playing. Enjoy your journey!

This post is not intended to provide financial advice. 
Written by Alec Johnson, Music Therapy Intern

Equipping music therapists with the language to explain the practice

The practice of music therapy is quite often misunderstood as an entertainment rather than a functional research-based clinical modality. 

However, new insights from the cognitive neuroscience of music (neuromusicology) and the study of neuro-aesthetics is helping us to form a better understanding on the impact of music on brain function. This emerging perspective is helping us to employ music more effectively as a clinical modality and make a more compelling case for the practical utility and necessity of clinical music therapy. 

While we all may intuitively understand the transformative power of art, it can be quite difficult to define what it is and how it affects us. 

The purpose of this post is to help explain the practice of music therapy for the benefit of personal reflection and interpersonal/interdisciplinary communication. My hope is that this information will help you to equip yourself with the language and rhetoric to explain music therapy in a way that effectively elucidates and contextualizes the practice as a legitimate and effective clinical modality. 

Explanation

Music is a complex sensory-motor experience that can have a profound effect on brain function and behavior. This is because music playing or listening involves a wide set of brain functions that all engage and synchronize in coordination with the music, as music is composed of a wide set of elements in various dimensions that all coincide as one harmonious whole.

Areas in the brain that are activated in music listening or playing are sometimes also involved in other activities that are non-musical. These brain areas are engaged in things like speech/language, attention, cognition, memory, emotions, etc.

Music stimulates neurophysiological processes that are non-musical in nature (speech, language, cognition, emotion, memory, etc.) which can make it an effective tool for education and therapy. However, in order to ensure the musical experiences effectively facilitate education and therapy, it needs to be intelligently administered.

This is where the craft of music therapy comes in.

Music therapists are trained to utilize musical elements as a set of tools to target and develop specific neurologic processes, thereby effectively influencing positive change in the skills, cognitive abilities, and behaviors of the individual receiving treatment.

This is why the practice of music therapy requires a specialized education as an individual trained only in music (e.g. performance, technical music skills, , etc.) may do more harm than good, regardless of good intention. 

To become an effective music therapist requires a rigorous study of music, biology/anatomy, psychology, neuro-aesthetics, neuroscience, and clinical application to administer effectively. 

In conclusion, there is sufficient scientific evidence (sources below) for the benefit of music for personal and social well being. The utility of music therapy spans far beyond simply providing entertainment. 

Music therapy can:

  • Help to facilitate positive change in the brain (neuroplasticity)
  • Train and improve brain functions (attention, memory, executive functions, social skills, etc.) in the same way you can target and exercise muscle groups in the gym
  • Improve emotional intelligence and fluency
  • Promote social cohesion
  • Structure the perception of individuals / groups receiving treatment. 
  • Provide comfort and psycho-emotional resolution in end of life care
  • Do much more

Ultimately, when administered by a qualified professional, music therapy is an effective modality for facilitating education, rehabilitative therapy, and general wellness within an individual and the community. 

Sources

Galińska, E. (2015). Music therapy in neurological rehabilitation settings. Psychiatria Polska, 49, 835–846. https://doi.org/10.12740/PP/25557

Hodges, D., & Thaut, M. (2019). The Oxford Handbook of Music and the Brain. Oxford University Press. Neurosciences and Music. (n.d.).

Thaut, M. (2005). Rhythm, Music, and The Brain.

Thaut, M., & Hoemberg, V. (2016). Handbook of Neurologic Music Therapy. Oxford University Press.

Written by Alec Johnson, Music Therapy Intern

The TDM is a model music therapists use for designing clinical protocols. It was created by Michael Thaut as a model for neurologic music therapists to design clinical interventions that are scientifically valid by providing an effective assessment, accurately targeting a specific function with a non-musical exercise, transforming said activity into a musical exercise, and ensuring the skills / functions developed in the clinical session transfer to activities of daily living (ADL’s) (Thaut & Hoemberg, 2016). 

The TDM is a six-step process:

1. Diagnosis and functional / clinical assessment of the patient

2. Development of therapeutic goals and objectives

3. Design of functional, non-musical therapeutic exercise structures and stimuli

4. Translation of step 3 into functional therapeutic music exercises

5. Outcome assessment

6. Transfer of therapeutic learning to functional applications for “activities of daily living” (ADL)

A few key points to consider when using the TDM are to:

  1. Ensure clinical efficacy

It is absolutely essential for clinical interventions to be informed by the latest scientific literature. By staying up to date on the latest research regarding a given diagnosis / population, the music therapist is providing the best possible care and benefit to their client.

2.     To individualize treatment protocols

Individualization is a crucial step in the creation of clinical interventions. By prompting the client to engage in a given behavior, the music therapist is essentially facilitating plastic change in the brain. Neuroplasticity is the change in neural structures that enables an individual to develop / rehabilitate a skill, function, or behavior. Neuroplastic change in one function might not necessarily translate to another, so the therapist must target the function with precision. 

Another important consideration regarding individualization is the optimization of the treatment process by leveraging a client’s personality type, cultural orientation, and personal interests. The exploitation of idiosyncratic propensities can help to expedite the treatment process tremendously. 

3.     Leverage the special effect music has on the brain

Music has a very special effect on the brain. The brain consists of a plethora of “processing units”, each having a designated function. In any given activity, a certain combination of these areas are engaged and coordinated in order to process information and carry out a given function. The areas involved in most daily activities are typically confined to a relatively constrained number of networks. In music, however, the brain operates in a very different way. In order to process and produce music, the brain must coordinate a much wider range of processing units. It requires sensory sophistication, multi-modal integration (the communication between sensory processing and motor coordination, for example), executive functions, memory, emotion, and attention. By transforming a given exercise into a musical activity, the music therapist is capitalizing on the special effect music can have on the brain. 

4.     Transfer to ADL’s

The last step of the TDM is focused on transferring the targeted skill / function / behavior into a functional skill that can apply to activities of daily living. This involves fading the music, and transforming the activity back into a non-musical exercise. This is a crucial step because musical activity is not the goal of the intervention, but a scaffold. We use music to facilitate the development / rehabilitation of a given function, and take the music away so the function can stand on it’s own.

Written by Alec Johnson

Bibliography

Thaut, M., & Hoemberg, V. (2016). Handbook of Neurologic Music Therapy. Oxford University Press.

One can think of the brain as comprised of a plethora of mini super-computers, each having a designated function (sensory processing, motor planning and coordination, executive functions, memory, emotion, etc.). In any activity, a certain combination of these brain areas are engaged, coordinated, and synchronized in order to perform the task. 

For example, when watching TV, our visual and auditory systems are engaged to watch the content hear the sounds. If one is playing a video game, we add in the motor component to activate the controller. Depending on the content, we might also be engaging the executive functions of problem solving and decision making. In speech, we have the speech area: motor planning, memory, verbal processing, etc. With each of these activities, the brain areas engaged are relatively local and lateral (meaning in a certain part of the brain, not the whole brain). For example, speech is primarily only processed in the left Broca’s and Wernickes areas. 

Now, with music, something special happens. Music processing requires global engagement (the entire brain), as all of the above-mentioned functions are essential components in both listening to and playing music. It engages sensory systems (visual, tactile, auditory), motor planning and coordination, memory, emotion, executive functions (planning, decision making, navigating music theory, engaging socially, etc). This is why music can be a very effective tool to facilitate the development of the brain (you can think of the brain’s cognitive, speech, sensory functions as muscles that need to be developed in the gym); and why it is an effective tool to facilitate therapy for those with disabilities or neurologic injuries. 

Knowing these facts, what if one could use music to methodically facilitate the development or rehabilitation of skills, behaviors, and functions? Well, thankfully, a lot of very smart people have already built the foundation of this practice. It’s called Neurologic Music Therapy.

Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) is a clinical therapeutic modality that uses music as the primary tool to facilitate education and rehabilitation. To understand it, let’s forget about music for a second. In therapy, we devise activities to target specific functions (speech, sensory, motor, cognitive, etc). These activities are non-musical, as the functions we are targeting are non-musical in nature. We then transform those activities into musical exercises, which skillfully employs the benefit of the neurological effects of music previously outlined. We then fade out the music, transforming the activities back into non-musical exercises. We then make sure these skills cultivated during therapy can be transferred to activities of daily living. The clinical goals and activities are individualized to target the specific needs of each individual to ensure they benefit the individual practically. This process is called the Transformational Design Model (TDM), and can be applied to the activities devised by any therapeutic modality (physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, etc.)

If you’re interested in more information or NMT training, visit https://nmtacademy.co

Music therapy can do so much for an individual and the community as a whole. It can help to facilitate language development, motor learning, sensory-motor integration, emotional regulation and expressivity, social skills, memory, and attention. Musical activities and learning can help to bring people together to nurture healthy social connections, cultivate good character, and develop steadfast discipline. Furthermore, when music education or clinical therapy is facilitated by a neurologic music therapist, the benefits of the musical training are greatly enhanced. They can also help to tailor the training to an individual’s specific needs and desires. Ultimately, music therapy can help a child or adult to build a robust nervous system, which will serve one very well for the rest of their life.

Written by Alec Johnson

Learn about the 9-types of auditory processing and how an individual can experience under or over-responsivity. Learn about how music therapy can help!

Musical Musings is a series of interviews with music therapists sharing how their work was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Music therapists share the ways they adapted their practice to meet the needs of their clients in the midst of severe restrictions. 

This podcast series was created for an internship special project with the goal of encouraging the music therapy community through sharing stories of resilient music therapists, advocating for music therapy as a profession, and increasing awareness of diverse settings and clientele of music therapists.

Musical Musings features interviews with Livia Umeda, MT-BC, Marissa Renella, MT-BC, Stephanie Labor, MT-BC, and Lauryn Cooney, a student music therapist.

Musical Musings is available for listening on Spotify!

-Emma

My time interning at MTCCA has been a beautiful whirlwind. I am so thankful for all of the growth and experiences I have had here. Here are my top 10 learnings from internship:

  1. You have more time than you think. I used to think that 5 minutes wasn’t enough time to accomplish anything. In internship, I learned that you can use any amount of time to be productive. Whether you submit data, eat a snack, or take a cat nap, you can use whatever time you have to your advantage. It is all about your perspective.
  2. SLEEP! In college, I could try to stay up late studying, but in internship that does not fly. I learned that I need at least 7 hours of sleep to make it through each day. Internship requires so much of your body, it is imperative to rest!
  3. Less talk, more rock. This may seem obvious, but I learned to use music to drive everything in the session. The more time you spend talking, the more time your client’s engagement can derail.
  4. Be selective with your energy. Sometimes it pays off to go the extra mile in planning sessions or working on editing projects for your clients. However, an intern’s energy is stretched to the limit. It is important to balance with self care.
  5. Communication is key. It is critical to communicate with everyone you work with: supervisors, therapists, clients, clients’ families, facility staff, etc. So many problems can be avoided by checking in on a regular basis.
  6. Give yourself grace. The purpose of internship is to get supervision and feedback. it is a LEARNING PROCESS. A music therapist isn’t born overnight.
  7. Be adaptable. While adaptability is one of my greatest strengths, I have seen it pushed to its limit throughout internship. Being able to jump in and lead at any moment is a huge asset to the team and gaining valuable experience.
  8. Make music for fun! This is a key learning from my university program that has only become more relevant. It is so important to play your preferred music and instruments for self care in your free time. Don’t let yourself forget why you love music!
  9. Be present. The days go by so quickly and there are so many distractions and stressors that can steal your focus. Being present with your clients is the key to building rapport, adapting to their needs, and giving them the best services possible.
  10. Take risks. It might feel scary to try learning a song on the fly or adapt an intervention in the moment, but this is what music therapy looks like! You have to step out of your comfort zone to make music therapy possible. In the end, you will learn so much more from taking a risk than you would playing it safe.

I’ve enjoyed reflecting on everything I’ve learned throughout this amazing experience. I cannot believe this chapter of my life is coming to a close. I am beaming with gratitude for the education and experience I have gained. Thank you for everything MTCCA!

Much love,

Emma

The Yakety Yaks, a band of six teens and young adults with autism, has undertaken an exciting long-term project: a music video! The first step to creating their music video is making an outstanding audio track. We are using Garageband to record and edit the Yakety Yaks’ version of “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” by Wham!

Audrey, one of our full time therapists, and I co-lead the Yakety Yaks through rehearsals and projects. We began with recording our keyboard player’s track. In order to ensure the group’s recording came out as professional as possible, we needed to make sure our foundational track was on tempo. Audrey and I implemented a pre-recorded drum beat to keep a steady pulse throughout the song. After a few tries, we got an excellent recording of the keyboard and first vocal track!

One by one, we recorded each of the vocal tracks. As we recorded, we made some creative choices about the mix. Instead of having all six voices singing all at once for the entire song, we decided that each member should have their own vocal solo during the chorus! There are also some moments where just two vocalists are heard on the track as well. These solo and duet moments will provide opportunities to spotlight each member in the music video!

Audrey has taken on the daunting task of editing the song to make it sound as professional as possible. In order to keep some vocalists singing on tempo, she cut up some of their recorded audio to move it to the proper part of the beat. After a lot of hard work, the audio track is finally complete! The Yakety Yaks sound like total rock stars! We are excited to hit the ground running with filming in the next few weeks!

– Emma

I have the unique opportunity of completing my internship during a pandemic. Before my internship, I didn’t have any experience leading music therapy sessions virtually. I am thankful to be working with music therapists who adapted quickly to making music therapy happen through screens and speakers.

One of the ways the Music Therapy Center of California has adapted to virtual music therapy is by piloting a virtual jam session program. Our Summer Sounds program is for teens with special needs. Every Wednesday night July-August, they learn social skills through music.

Making live music over Zoom can be challenging due to the delay of sound. To accommodate for that, we ask our clients to keep themselves muted while the music therapist is leading. In drum circles, we begin with the therapist leading the beat and demonstrating various hand signals for how to play (ie. start, stop, loud, soft). Next, we give an opportunity for clients to use the hand signals to conduct the drum circle. When they are leading, we spotlight their video so that they are the focus of the Zoom call.

Virtual jam sessions require a team to ensure the program runs smoothly. Typically, one therapist facilitates while the other supports by screen sharing the visual slide show, controlling which person is in the spotlight, and muting/un-muting individuals as they speak to the group.

A unique aspect of hosting jam sessions over Zoom, is that we can use virtual polls for the group to vote on their song preferences. Adjusting to virtual music therapy can be challenging; however, if you embrace the technology you can use it to your advantage!

For more information about virtual music therapy, visit a previous intern’s blog post on the topic.

-Emma