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Authenticity in Music Therapy

by voices | Sun, 05/31/2009 - 23:00

The Asian Symposium of Music Therapy held in Japan, March 9th, 2009 served to be a meaningful opportunity to bring together people directly and indirectly involved in the field of music therapy. Those from countries who are just starting to establish the foundation for developing the concept of music therapy anticipated gathering facilitative ideas, practical information, and facts about that of other countries. It was indeed a place for interaction and network building among music therapists and other related professionals.

Outside of the symposium, we were able to engage in informal dialogs regarding music therapy in different countries. There was a strong sense of excitement as we visualized how music therapy would build up and potential clients would benefit from the clinical experience of music. Along with this anticipation, I felt some concerns as well. It seemed for those who are already aware of how music can be powerful prior to the launching of music therapy introduced by the western-trained music therapist, had strong will that they should use the "old wise music" which has therapeutic essence in order to preserve or strengthen authenticity. By authenticity I mean cultural and traditional heritage, identity, ethnicity, etc.

Pertaining to these issues, what came to my mind was, "does accepting West-born music therapy affect or threaten the authenticity of the music or the traditional or cultural identity it carries?" As I was exploring this question, I realized that the confusion or misunderstanding might be about how we would apply the term authenticity to music therapy. I also thought about that issue in relation to the definition of music therapy. It goes back to the Bruscia's (1989) definition of music therapy: The following four elements are crucial in defining music therapy and I want to briefly discuss how authenticity might be applied to each of them:

  1. Music and Musical Experience: If music can be selected from the client's culture and tradition, personal memory, or anything that helps building the relationship between the client and music, then it would be essential. Maybe authenticity can also be applied to the process of making music in certain way, such as ethnic or ritual methods, if applicable. Also the music idioms, scales, rhythm patterns or instrumentations can have strong authenticity as well.
  2. Client: How can authenticity apply here? Maybe when the clients suggest or bring personal music, relate to their own musical world, engage their inner world musically, reflect their needs, then that may constitute authenticity.
  3. Therapist: Again, this is another controversial issue, in terms of how an authentic therapist is, as opposed to a music therapist. In music therapy, the therapist must have specific knowledge, skills, and clinical experience to promote health through an official course of training and education. When the therapist is trained in the West, this might be an issue; however, considering the fact that music therapy was first established as an academic field/training in the West, being trained in the West is what counts to be the authentic training.
  4. Systematic Process: I think this is the most difficult aspect. Music has been used therapeutically in various ways in every country. When we talk about music therapy, we refer to the purposeful use of music and musical experience based on a clear clinical rationale and logical insights. When this is ignored, then it falls outside of the music therapy, perhaps in the realm of music healing and remedy. Therefore, if something is called music therapy, then it is requisite to consider the process it takes towards clinical direction and evidence-based progress.

This gives me a clear idea of what we mean when we talk about authenticity in music therapy. With music, it utilizes authentic scales, musical idioms, styles or forms as necessary. With clients, it involves helping clients to come into sessions in a genuine and transparent attitude. Therefore, even though music therapy that has Western origins is introduced to a nation where the people tend to conserve their own musical resources, it is perfectly fine and safe.

So we should no longer be concerned about "What is ours" and "What is not ours". In fact, the traditional music and musical resources serve to be valuable assets in music therapy.

As I was contemplating this, I had a realization. In Korea, the music therapy community is somehow closer to the Western music society, rather than to the Korean traditional music society. It is also true that some of them have a prejudice that music therapy was developed in the West and therefore uses the Western music mostly. It may be our (music therapists) fault for not communicating the fact that traditional music, such as Samulnori (Korean traditional percussion circle) and Sori (Korean traditional vocal music), can be used therapeutically, and how they offer such profound and deep experience.

Music therapy is process-oriented. In order to make the process more meaningful, selecting music and musical experience in the context of authenticity is for the best of the client. Therefore, just because music therapy was conceptualized and developed in the West, it does not mean it hinders authenticity of their traditional music. In contrary, music therapy will facilitate the therapeutic salience of the traditional music and its authenticity.

How to cite this page

Chong, Hyun Ju (2009). Authenticity in Music Therapy. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 11, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=colchong010609