let go of my clients for a little while. I spent the time playing guitar, working on songwriting, and going to therapy( all of which seems rather cliche in retrospect). At the end of the summer I was ready to get back to work. I still felt a bit unsteady, but I needed to know my clients could survive without me. They did. Probably more importantly, I had survived without them.
My own relief notwithstanding, I’ ve been acutely aware, for years, of how many of us do give up and leave music therapy. Supervision helped me to keep being a music therapist, but what would it have taken for other music therapists to stay the course?
The music therapy landscape has changed so much since I was a new clinician! So many young music therapists are in business for themselves these days. Although lots of us still work for facilities, places like mine- state-run institutions- are mercifully closing and most services are happening in the community.
We have way more credibility now. People don’ t say“ whaaaat?” even half as often when I tell them I’ m a music therapist. We have a lot more research to back us up. Music therapy programs have grown significantly( when I graduated in 1987 I was the only undergraduate left out of the five of us who started in the program at Temple University). But we still can’ t provide music therapy to everyone who wants or needs it( at least not in the United States).
Maybe it’ s a good thing some people leave the field. I know I didn’ t think it was a good thing when Judy left, not just because she’ s my friend, but also because she was a good clinician. We need to spend some time looking at ourselves and wondering: why do so many of us leave? What are music therapists facing( or not facing) when they’ re trying to decide whether or not to stay in this profession?
The authors who generously shared their stories in this issue of Music Therapy Clinician work hard to find ways to articulate their experiences, their doubts, their fears, even their shame. They make it clear: nobody leaves music therapy easily. I am grateful to each contributor for wrestling with their profound discomfort and allowing us, as readers, to bare witness, to relate, to reflect and perhaps to feel acknowledged as we confront our own uncertainties.
Contact Roia mindfulmusictherapist @ gmail. com
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