Creating an Apprenticeship Music Therapy Model Through Arts-Based Research

Abstract

Newly graduated music therapists often feel isolated within their practices. They leave the university’s structured educational environment to be on their own. Some of them miss the time they were improvising together, supporting each other, and sharing their struggles and successes through classes and group supervision. This paper addresses some of these issues by proposing an apprenticeship model using arts-based research to support new music therapists entering the profession. This study reinforces the importance of mentoring apprentice music therapists to assure that the next generation will feel confident and well-prepared to enter into and develop the field. A group of five music therapy interns and I participated in a co-researcher group using phenomenological arts-based research (ABR) and participatory action research (PAR) in order to explore principles and foundations for a future apprenticeship model. The findings show that an immediate need of apprentice music therapists in their direct experiences and lifeworlds is to identify support for their work through meaningful, trusting relationships among peers and with mentors.

Using Aesthetic Response - A Poetic Inquiry to Expand Knowing, Part I: The Rx6-Method

“…Branded. ticipants in the research according to Vaillancourt (2011). The ABR-experience, in our case, opened up to shared creativity and tenderness.…”

Performative, Arts-Based, or Arts-Informed? Reflections on the Development of Arts-Based Research in Music Therapy

“…They defined ABR as a form of inquiry where the arts are primary to the investigative process and are used in "response to raw data, to create new data or lift the analysis to another level or to gain access to otherwise unavailable material" (Austin & Forinash, 2005, p. 459). Since then, other music therapy researchers have drawn on Austin and Forinash's work to support their own artistic methods of inquiry (Estrella & Forinash, 2007;Ledger, 2010;Ledger & Edwards, 2011;Lindvang, 2013;McCaffrey, 2014;Schenstead, 2012;Vaillancourt, 2011;Viega, 2013).…”

“…He used expressive writing and the creation of a body cast of his hand using these processes to reflect on his work with the client. The experiences of qualified or trainee music therapists have also been investigated through ABR (Beer, 2015;Ledger, 2010;Vaillancourt, 2009Vaillancourt, & 2011, while other studies have focused on self-inquiry (Lindvang, 2013;Schenstead, 2012).…”

“…While a number of authors have not explicitly mentioned theoretical orientation as background information to the ABR process, an observable cohort align with a music-centred approach, for example Aldridge (2008), Beer (2015), Gilbertson (2013) and Viega (2013). Other approaches include Community Music Therapy (CoMT) (Vaillancourt, 2009(Vaillancourt, & 2011 and recovery-oriented music therapy (McCaffrey, 2014).…”

“…Other music therapy researchers have approached their topic with the intention to use an arts process to explore an issue or gain new insights (Gilbertson, 2013;Lindvang, 2013;McCaffrey, 2014;2009& 2011. The term arts-based reflexivity was used in both McCaffrey's (2014) and Schenstead's (2012) work in which gaining insight was an explicit goal.…”