I have been asked by a friends daughter (I’m her second mom) to see if I can find some info on music therapy programs . I have no idea where to start other than a list of schools that I’ve found on this site. Does anyone have a student attending one of these programs? I got my daughter through the Art school acceptance process and 4 years of college, but I don’t know anything about this major. Thanks. I should add that mom is not a helicopter parent but can be very heavy handed and will be pushing to have the daughter remain at home (Florida) and she wants to go to a more northern climate.
This may be a good resource https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=amta2&WebCode=OrgSearch
The two I know about are Berklee and Lesley University (Lesley may not show up on lists but has excellent holistic psychology, and expressive arts degrees with subcategories like music therapy. It is very well respected in Massachusetts and has a lovely campus near Harvard Square.)
Music therapy used to be solely a grad program at Berklee but has expanded. Still an argument could be made in favor of a broader major at the undergrad level, such as psychology or music.
My daughter went to Elizabethtown for music therapy.
Go with the list you can access through the link @compmom included above. In order to get jobs, a degree that is approved by the American Music Therapy Association is very important.
Salaries in music therapy are low so avoiding or minimizing loans is extremely important. If there is an affordable, reputable program in-state, I would recommend investigating that route first–unless the parents are very wealthy and willing to pay big bucks, but it doesn’t sound like their support is unconditional.
Try to find out what percentage of students complete the program and do so in four years, and what outcomes are.
Determine the number of clinical experiences and when they start.
Do the students participate in regional conferences, attending but also presenting the results of their research?
My D has been surprised by what she has learned about other programs. Despite the same accreditation, not all schools seems to provide the same level of education and preparation. My impression of my D’s program was that it was very rigorous and a significant proportion of students who started did not complete the program; but the students who made it through were very well prepared. The name seems to be opening doors.
Some people hear “music therapy” and think it’s something lite. A good program is challenging. Music alone is a time consuming major. Music therapy adds sciences, psychology, theory, clinics, lots of academic writing, research, research methods, etc. It’s really not for the feint of heart. To be successful, a student really needs to be committed.
I have known kids who obtained degrees in Music Therapy and they’ve had a fairly easy time finding employment in the field afterwards. The program at Nazareth College outside of Rochester even has their own facilty on campus where the students get actual work experience. Whatever school she chooses should be accreidted by the American Music Therapy Assc.
https://www.musictherapy.org/careers/
I know a flutist who did performance for undergrad, grad program in music therapy and is now doing a doctorate focusing on research on neuroscience and music. I believe she will end up in academia and research.
I do think her path illustrates the zigs and zags a career can take, and that planning on very specific goals that are long term is not always necessary.
I have worked with a well-known music performance organization in setting up music therapy programs and also volunteered with hospice and an assisted living facility. I would say that much of what happens therapeutically in music therapy has long been on a volunteer basis, but the field has become more established in recent years.
Also the musicians we use, who were paid, had great personalities for working with the populations we were serving but didn’t have any training in music therapy.
As an undergrad major it could be fascinating with its combination of fields ( but as MACmiracle said, salaries might be low).
What instrument(s) does this young woman play? Would she be happier doing performance as an undergrad, instead?
My D18 interviewed for the music therapy major at UMN Twin Cities. We went to the overview presentation of the major and I was very impressed. Because they are in a large metro area the students do their clinicals only with trained music therapist. The program has a 100% placement rate for their graduates. They had 54 applicants for 8 spots.
@compmom Careers can take zigs and zags, and that is a much more normal than a straight career path. But I think if a student is genuinely interested in music therapy as a career, an accredited undergraduate program has it’s benefits.
The cost is one major factor to consider. Were D to have done another undergrad major, she could not have gone into a music therapy grad program immediately without financing it completely with loans. It would not be realistic for her to be able to pay that off on top of her undergrad loans.
Also, the music therapy jobs D is seeing all require certification or a plan to get certification in the near future. As far as I know, you can only get this by graduating from an accredited program, completing the internship (at least six months full-time and unpaid), and passing the exam. There are likely exceptions to this, but probably not many full time positions.
Another thing about music therapy programs is that the required courses and their sequence have little flexibility. It’s very difficult to switch into music therapy or transfer in and graduate in four years. It’s much easier to start in music therapy if there’s a serious interest and switch to something else, like music performance, if it doesn’t work out.
Music therapy is an emerging field with recent progress in certification and in funding. One reason I have seen so much volunteer (uncertified) music therapy type activity is that until recently some organizations saw it as a frill, and did not fund it. We did a pilot program in a hospice, that demonstrated value, and then it was funded and they hired professionals.
We spend time in a traumatic brain injury rehab with a family member, and the people I knew who were using music therapy, hired the person privately. This was a major rehab facility but they had no music therapy.
Psychiatric hospitals have art therapy but I have not seem music therapy on a professional basis.
The assisted living facility I deal with is on a tight budget for vendors and has an activities director whose main focus is getting services for free or cheaply, including musical performers.
I imagine the harp players in hospital lobbies are paid but that is hardly what the training prepares people for.
With all the research on music and neuroscience, and the relatively new professional programs at the undergrad level, I am sure this is changing. It would seem to depend on organizations recognizing the value of music as an essential component of therapy, and therefore funding professional positions.
I am curious where the internships are, what kinds of organizations, and also what jobs people are now getting out of undergrad or grad therapy programs.
One doctor told my daughter to get out of expressive arts therapy if she wants to make a living. I was supportive of the therapy path but my daughter did switch out for a variety of reasons, mainly the narrowness of the focus.
@compmom maybe there are regional differences. I was surprised by your comment of it being an “emerging” area as in Minneapolis/st Paul it emerged awhile ago. My aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over 15 years ago. She went in less than 4 months. Her hospice services allowed for music therapy. We asked what that was - a guitarist would come to her home for an hour to provide comfort from isolation and depression. She didn’t choose it but did choose a massage therapist. My mother and I were at the home during his first visit to assure it was comfortable for her. We talked with him and he was trained to work with terminally ill patients. He was really an amazing person and only worked with terminal patients. He provided weekly sessions at her home and eventually at the hospice center. I assume the music therapist would have done the same.
I have had two friends with children with eating disorders. One kid did get an art degree and her mother talked about her interest in art therapy as she had access to that during eating disorder treatment. I did a quick check on- line and both major ED clinics list specialty therapies including music therapy.
Also a quick check on umn music school site says that the music therapy internships are done through the umn health system (a large system of hospitals and clinics throughout the metro area). One of the ED treatment sites is affiliated with umn.
And a harpist in a lobby is not a trained therapist working directly with patients. A music therapist works directly with patients. However I do think available positions are limited (and I’m not sure they are full time staffers or maybe contracted). That is probably the reason for the low acceptance rate at umn to assure students get placement. Note umn has a very good medical school that coordinates with other dept (such as nutrition) so I would guess the music therapy work is demanding and placement good @oboemom65 indicates.
The hospice I worked with has only volunteers doing music with patients, mainly singers. As I wrote before, our music organization tried to demonstrate benefit in a specific program for pediatric palliative care, by first providing music on a volunteer basis. Music therapy became part of their “complementary care” program but later was dropped.
We spend many months in a facility for traumatic brain injury with no music therapist in sight, and this is a major facility in a major city. (The private music therapy mentioned above did a world of good for one of the patients.)
An extended family member had art therapy in a psych. hospital but no music.
I am interested in this and glad to hear more is happening in some locations. Not sure what is going on here, but there is indeed a well-known music therapy program in my city.
I include music in my Tai Chi in assisted living- as a volunteer! I have all the respect in the world for the training in this field as I struggle to learn what little I can as a lay person about the residents in my class.
Thank you for all your insights. Like I said before, I know next to nothing about this field. Having a daughter in the Twin Cities (she attended MCAD), and working at the VA, I’ll have to ask her if they have music therapy there.
Looks like this website is a good starting place for her!
I know MCAD. Great art and design school!! But no music. I think umn in the twin cities may be the only one doing music therapy as umn has the medical school resources for the research and clinical side of the degree. Here is more info on what one school offers and then you can start comparing it to others.
https://cla.umn.edu/music/undergraduate/areas-study/music-therapy
Yes, my D went to MCAD, majoring in illustration. Right now the friends D likes UMN because of the internship and training there, but we can’t figure out how she’d qualify for instate tuition. She has a mom in Florida, and relatives in Canada, but that’s it. Very low income family and OOS tuition is not an option.
I would still maintain that music therapy does not mean great odds for a well-paying job, at least not yet. It sounds like the field is progressing but I still see lots of volunteer involvement or part-time private work ahead. I think there is even an argument to be made that studying music as a liberal art might be a better path for future outcome for a lower income kid- broader options ahead.
I looked into music therapy several years ago for my daughter. She was an elementary ed major with a music concentration, not a music education major because she didn’t want to teach music, she wanted to be a special ed teacher. She could have done a grad program but she would only have gotten credit for a couple of her college classes. The program we looked at was an online program that would have required her to spend about two weeks over 2 summers and a long weekend or two on campus. Ultimately, she decided not to pursue the advanced degree because she left teaching but she still works with some private special ed students and she uses a lot of music with them. One little boy, who is visually and physically impaired, loves to play his tiny ukulele, which is helping with his fine motor skills and his hand eye coordination.
I think your daughter is typical of many who do music therapy without any degree in that specific field.
Yes, that is true. However, she doesn’t market herself as a music therapist. She uses music as an adjunct to her special ed training. At this point, she is only working with the one little boy I mentioned, whose parents pay her to come over and engage in therapeutic play with him during a respite for them. She has even brought her bf, an amazingly talented cellist, to play music for the child. She has sent me videos and you can see his face lighting up when he hears the music. I honestly thought music therapy was hokey until my D began sort of doing it. Now, I feel differently. I would probably enjoy music therapy more than something like pet therapy.
If she’ll look as far north as SC, D1 had a friend from HS who majored in this at Charleston Southern in Charleston. She now works in a nursing home setting in Connecticut. I remember her mom saying that it was challenging to find internship placements. I remember she also was accepted at Queens College in Charlotte NC for same major.
@redbug119 : My son has an audition this weekend for the last school on his Music Therapy list (he applied to 6 schools, 5 of which require auditions. The other one requires an audition Sophomore year instead). One of the best things your friend’s daughter can do it find a music therapist in her area, make contact, and ask to shadow a therapist. Hopefully for a full day or at least for a few sessions.That is really the absolute best way to see what a trained and certified music therapist does.
My son volunteered and played music in a hospital, at art shows, etc… none of that is music therapy. Think of a music therapist more as someone like a physical therapist, or an occupational therapist, but instead of working directly with muscles they try to work the mind and the body with music as a therapeutic tool and with measurable goals. Classwork (depending on which school) involves anatomy, psychology, therapeutic methodologies, etc. My son shadowed a therapist working with oral-deaf children, high social anxiety children, children with autism, etc. Some was one on one, some was in groups.
After your friend’s daughter understands what it really is all about, then she can then research colleges. Some schools are much more music based, some are much more therapy based. And the five auditions have all had slightly different requirements. Some schools you have to pass the music audition before you can do the therapy interview, some are all incorporated as a whole. Music therapy uses voice, guitar, piano and percussion. I strongly suggest that if she does audition, to make sure she has a basic proficiency on piano assuming it is not her primary instrument.