Voices ResourcesA website for the worldwide community around the journal Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy

We live in a single world, but we also live different experiences, in different parts of the world. Like the visionary he was, Borges wrote about parallel realities many decades ago. The wonderful chance of contacting and sharing information so easily between distant places, only adds to the harshness of this situation.

As I read over the Voices columns written by different colleagues, it is outstanding how we sometimes share the same experiences, while some other times we face up scenarios that are far apart from the life of music therapists in other regions. Sometimes the differences lay on cultural issues, others in academic ones, or on the professional exercise, or the social, economic, theoretical, legal issues, or… there are many aspects in which we can be distinct, but if we recognize and accept the differences, we can also do something to come closer. I would like to make it clear that I do not intend to eliminate the cultural differences. Moreover, I love those differences, and I really enjoy the culture and identity of each place. I think that music therapists should seek to preserve each place’s cultural identity, since it is one of the foundations of mental health of societies, as it is for any particular individual. I am referring to the approach concerning academic, social, economic and legal issues. From my point of view, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to develop music therapy in these areas, and it would be absolutely necessary that we worked a great more deal in that direction through universities, professional associations and regional organizations.

COLFUM, a great opportunity

The V Latin American Congress of Music Therapy took place in Bogotá, Colombia, last July. Lia Rejane Mendes Barcellos told us about it on her last column. What I want to share is that, during this Congress, eight directors of Music Therapy training courses from Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina got together in order to create the Latin American Commission of University Education (Comisión Latinoamericana de Formaciones Universitarias en Musicoterapia [COLFUM]). It now consists of fifteen graduate and post graduate training courses, with the clear intention of creating an exchange network that allows us to build the closeness we so need. Even within Latin America there are great differences among countries, and it is a huge step that we have decided to “stand shoulder to shoulder” to encourage mutual growth.

We have agreed to:

• Promote mutual understanding of the instances of university training programs in Music Therapy in Latin America, whether they are undergraduate or postgraduate courses;
• Build a network between universities, institutes and/or university centers in which these courses take place, considering the uniqueness and particularities of each one of them;
• Promote exchange of knowledge between institutions, both at general level as between related subjects;
• Build formal channels that allow the support of the different courses that comprise it;
• Encourage and/or support potential exchange agreements;
• Encourage and/or support research projects in Music Therapy;
• Provide sponsorship for Music Therapy events that the Commission considers relevant;
• Provide support for instances and/or actions concerning the inclusion of the discipline in appropriate legal framework in each country;
• Provide support for instances and/or actions of each member institution, related to the development of the discipline in itself.

In my role of coordinator of COLFUM, together with Silvia Andreu from the Universidad de Chile, I feel great joy to see that these objectives are slowly beginning to be fulfilled. In fact, we have supported a joint research project between the post-graduate courses of Colombia and Chile, and there was also a proposal between Argentinean courses to create a national commission of university courses in Music Therapy. This journey is just beginning. I hope that this idea can go beyond the boundaries of the region, and that training courses in Music Therapy from different regions of the world can come together. Maybe, we can help some realities to become less parallel.

How to cite this page

Schapira, Diego (2011). COLFUM: A New Possibility to Keep Growing. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 13, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=fortnightly-columns/2011-colfum-new-possibility-keep-growing