From the article, “Music Therapy in Taiwan, 2003-2006,” I compared the knowledge I knew from music therapy to the knowledge I have learned at the Georgia College & State University as a music therapy student. I am glad to see the music therapy that has developed in my homeland, Taiwan. However, the research of the music therapy is limited, and some health care professionals in Taiwan still don’t have concepts of music therapy as part of the treatment team.
Taiwan is located in a unique position in southeastern Asia that cultivates music in great cultural diversities. Special musical features with aboriginal people, old generations of dialect songs, and new generations of popular music all provide music therapists to build repertoire. Unfortunately, music educators still focus on the importance of performing classical music instead of performing and implementing our original music as a therapeutic tool. Therefore, above phenomenon hinders the development of the music therapy. Although, some schools currently are offering classes related to music therapy, we still relied on music therapists who have studied oversea to build up our systems.
“Music therapy Association in Taiwan (MTAT)” translated the name to “Applied Music Association of Republic of China” to address the usages of music therapy in a wide range of settings. In this official website, it offers information regarding to various lectures that address different populations of clients and the latest news related to music therapy in different organizational settings.
Lee (2003) mentioned that people in Taiwan gradually understand the concept of music therapy. However, people still misunderstand the idea of music medicine or a profit-making CD. Many articles gave misconceptions of definitions and the “pseudo” music therapy services that gave businessmen opportunities to earn profits. For example, I had actually seen a display of CDs which declared usages of music therapy in an exhibition with educational materials. As a result, certified music therapists still need to put more efforts on providing correct information to the public.
Music therapy was not included in the health insurance, and therapists could only receive private clients or work for a non-profit organization as a part-time job in Taiwan. Currently, a few hospitals established “Expressive Art Therapy” as a combination that includes music, art, drama, and dance therapy in order to fulfill the needs of clients. Low-incomes families can receive treatments for half price or free in these specific organizations which is a great progress in therapies. In the future, I believe these services would increase the populations they serve, and establish authorized music therapy education in order to provide well-trained music therapists.
MTAT website: http://www.chinamusictherapy.org/