Music Therapy

Skills

Music therapists draw on the innate qualities of music in order to support people of all ages and at all stages of life who are facing diverse challenges.

Music therapy facilitates positive changes in wellbeing through engagement in musical interaction.

Essential to music therapy is the relationship between client and therapist. At Roehampton we have chosen to base our Music Therapy training programme on the use of psychoanalytic ideas to inform our understanding of the therapy process and the ways the person in therapy uses the environment, the therapist and the music.

Supporting theories and ways of working are also studied in order to equip students to meet a range of clinical needs, including an infant observation which assists students in developing their observation and analysis skills.

Placements

Clinical work is central to the training. 

After visits to a variety of workplaces which offer music therapy, you will undertake individual and group work in two contrasting settings over six months, January to June (first placement) and September to February/March (second placement).

These clinical placements will provide you with music therapy work experience alongside qualified Music Therapists. You will also participate in an experiential group, which gives you an opportunity to develop your own self-awareness and examine personal and group dynamics through verbal and musical processes.

In addition, it is a requirement for you to find and fund personal individual therapy outside the course. 

Career

Music Therapists work within a wide range of clinical settings.

They work with people of all ages; from infants and young children through to elderly adults. Music Therapists work within statutory services (such as the NHS, education or social services), within charities and private organisations, and in private practice.