Music and Mandala

A Self-Reflective Method to Identify a Helping Professional’s Needs for Self-Care, Supervision, and Personal Therapy

Abstract

It is recommended that music therapists engage in self-care, supervision, and personal therapy to cope with professional stressors. As a result, it is important that they can determine when one or more are needed. The purpose of this paper is to describe a self-administered, seven-step music and mandala method that can be used to determine those needs. Music therapists’ understanding of the purpose of each step will support successful use of the method. Therefore, the description of each step is accompanied by an explanation of the key concept(s) related to it, and a case example. The desired outcome of participation is for music therapists to increase self-awareness and identify their needs for self-care, supervision, and/or personal therapy.