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

I have a feeling that a lot is happening in the field of music therapy in developing countries which so far in this regard were not on the first place on the list. Through the exchange of information, greater ease of travel and access to the publications more and more people learn what music therapy is, what are the rules, and under what circumstances it can be effective. I have an opportunity to observe this trend in my country, but also in neighboring countries. Interest in music therapy is growing in the former Yugoslavia (last year Zagreb University started Croatia’s first academic training program for music therapists) and in the countries of the former Eastern European bloc, but there are also the countries in this region which already have a long tradition of music therapy.

There is no single path which leads to the building of a structure for the development of music therapy. Each country has different characteristics, culture, experience, capabilities and problems. Taking my native land of Poland as my example, I will discuss the successes and problems encountered along the way. I think that the situation in Chopin’s homeland could be representative of many countries of the world.

Music Therapy in Poland - A Long Tradition

Music therapy has a relatively long tradition in Poland. The first Polish book presenting various ways of using music in healing dates from 1865. Because of the two world wars, not much happened in the development of this form of therapy in Poland until the 1960s. The turning point came in the 1970s when Tadeusz Natanson and Andrzej Janicki launched Poland's first music therapy academic studies programme. They also began to conduct research on the effects of music on humans and, most significantly, they exchanged information with music therapists from other countries, which was not easy in those days because of the division of Europe. Tadeusz Natanson corresponded with music therapists from the whole world: he was also one of the founders of WFMT in 1985. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of the first decades waned after Natanson’s death. In Poland we had a group of music therapists and even an association of music therapists but lacked leaders who could develop this field of therapy in the country. As a result, international contacts lapsed, more and more publications appeared with the word "music therapy" in the title, but not corresponding to the content. The turn of the century was a time in Poland when many universities established programmes for educating music therapists. I think that the problem was that no one was sure what such education should look like. Too much attention has been paid to theory, separated off from practice. There was also no supervision. At the same time many publications about music therapy were not up to date with what was happening in the development of this field in other parts of the world and did not refer to English language references. As a result, many books and articles were published based on knowledge of the 1970s and depicting the concepts of music therapy with little in common with current knowledge. As Diego Schapira (2013) recently wrote "Research, publishing and exchange constitute the three critical pillars supporting Music Therapy and allowing for its growth": thus the lack of information sharing and the imbalance between the development of theory and practice had a negative impact on the development of music therapy in Poland. And a new danger appeared too. The growing popularity of music therapy and the lack of training standards or formal regulation of the profession enabled musicians and / or psychologists without any formal training in the field of music therapy to start practising “music therapy”. Some "music therapists" even claimed that "curing" a client of autism was a matter of just a few sessions! Music therapy began to be associated with group song singing, and confused with occupational therapy or relaxation with music (mostly conducted by psychologists). Musicians with no music therapy knowledge or training secured work in Community Centres, schools for children with special needs or hospitals and led “music therapy”. Even within universities lecturers teaching music therapy had often never worked with patients or clients, and had no training in this area. Music therapy was regarded simply as a nice way of spending time with music.

International cooperation was limited to a few people who were in contact with music therapists from other countries. There were no common projects and Polish music therapists appeared at conferences abroad only occasionally. This was partly connected with the economic situation: in Poland and probably in many other countries, music therapists are among the lowest paid workers. With low pay and without financial support from institutions employing music therapists, paying for accommodation and conference fees is still difficult and beyond the ability of most music therapists.

A "New Wave" of Music Therapy in Poland Emerges

Hope for change in this situation arose a few years ago due to people with linguistic ability having enthusiasm and wishing to develop services and collaborate with others. In Poland a "new wave" in music therapy started. A group of people started to work towards the preparation and implementation of standards that apply in countries where music therapy is already well-developed.

The “new wave” people started by bringing knowledge together. In 2007 a book about Polish music therapy publications was published. Two years later we created a public (free access) magazine / web portal "Therapy through Art" (www.arteterapia.pl), promoting music and art therapy and allowing the exchange of information between therapists. All arts therapists can publish on it. Among the writers are students of music and art therapy, practitioners, and recognized experts - all those who have something interesting to say. Information on conferences and workshops is also disseminated. In Poland there was also a huge need for a music therapy handbook which would systematize up-to-date knowledge of music therapy. In 2012, after a few years of work, two books prepared in cooperation with the best specialists from Poland and abroad were ready: Podstawy muzykoterapii [Fundamentals of Music Therapy] and Modele, metody i podejścia w muzykoterapii [Models, methods and approaches in music therapy]. In addition to chapters by Polish authors there are also texts by Simon Procter, Barbara Wheeler, Thomas Wosch, Benedicte Scheiby, Rolando Benenzon, Leslie Bunt, Clifford K. Madsen, Nicole Rivera, Christoph Schwabe, Ulrike Haase and Melanie Voigt, among others. After a few weeks on the market the books have become bestsellers in Poland, which shows how much these publications were needed.

To develop the field of music therapy it is essential to organize transparent trainings, based on international standards and led by competent professionals. An important step (but still a novelty in the education of music therapists in Poland) is a requirement to practise under supervision – such study programs are available at the Music Academy in Katowice and Maria Sklodowska-Curie University in Lublin, but it is still challenging to find places where music therapy students can develop their practical skills through observation, participation, co-leading and leading music therapy sessions with the support of experienced professionals. Also for this reason, through the cooperation of various music and art therapists, the Art Therapy Centre, based in Lublin (south-eastern Poland), was created. This is a place where treatment is carried out with a variety of clients, where therapists are trained and where research is conducted.

An integral part of the development of music therapy education is the provision of seminars with international experts organized in several universities in Poland. Particularly satisfying for me is that students are more and more active in this field. They have already organized several international conferences of music therapy students!

In order to consolidate these activities, in 2012 a new Polish Association of Music Therapists (PSMT) was created. One of the main goals of PSMT is to establish good standards in music therapy and to prepare the certification process of music therapists to be realized by an international certification board. Obtaining certification is not mandatory in Poland, but it is a statement of qualifications to practise as a music therapist and also a means of recommending board certified music therapists to the workplace. We hope that this will send an unambiguous message to health insurance companies and to the government that this form of therapy is being taken seriously. We believe that through the certification process and all the other actions already mentioned, music therapy will be able to gain status in Poland and will also be recognized and acknowledged by specialists in other fields.

The growing of value systems does not come easily and so perhaps it is inevitable that the process of professionalization of music therapy in Poland has encountered various difficulties. Not all academic centres are interested in co-operating in the exchange of knowledge and experience. Despite the existence of the journal "Therapy through art", it is still difficult to encourage people to publish - experienced professionals often prefer to publish in foreign journals because they receive a greater number of points, which are counted at the university, while students and young music therapists fear that their knowledge and experience are not enough to warrant sharing with others. Solid critical reviews of Polish music therapy publications are rare because people don’t feel comfortable publishing these. Maintaining an open, national discussion on music therapy and perspectives for its development still remains an aspiration on some levels. However, we believe that in time, all of these problems can be overcome.

In our age the world demands evidence – scientific justification of everything we do. A great deal depends on our ability to provide such evidence – whether music therapy is recognized as a field of therapy and thus taken seriously or whether it is seen more as a shaman who has strayed into the modern world. This is why it is so important to work together for the future of this field of therapy. There is a need to emphasize the importance of cooperation because the development of music therapy is not possible without cooperation, whether on micro levels (e.g. between individual people) or macro levels (e.g. between organizations and countries).

References

Schapira D. (2013) Do not Believe in Mirages. “Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy” Fortnightly Columns, 4 March 2013.

Stachyra K. (Ed.) (2012) Podstawy muzykoterapii. Lublin: UMCS Publisher.

Stachyra K. (Ed.) (2012) Modele, metody i podejścia w muzykoterapii. Lublin: UMCS Publisher.

Stachyra K., Grudziewska E. (2007) Muzykoterapia i terapia przez sztuki plastyczne w piśmiennictwie polskojęzycznym. Lublin: UMCS Publisher.

How to cite this page

Stachyra, Krzysztof (2013). In Search of the Golden Mean - Our Way to Music Therapy. Voices Resources. Retrieved January 14, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=fortnightly-columns/2013-search-golden-mean-our-way-music-therapy