Clinical Training Guide forthe... Student Muaic Therapiat mp Barbara L. Wheeler Carol L. Shultis Donna W. Polen A\ eccoIntroduction: How to Use This Book We are pleased that you are reading this book, Clinical Training Guide for the Student Music ‘Therapist, and hope and expect that it will make your joumey toward becoming a music therapist, stimulating and, thus, enjoyable and rewarding. This book is designed for use by music therapy students at all levels of training. We recognize that clinical training progresses,as students move through their education and clinical experiences, and that students have different needs at each level, On the other hand, many of the same issves must be dealt with at each level. To attempt to meet these needs, we have divided the levels of involvement into three. areas: (a)'observing, participating, and assisting; (b) planning and co-leading; and (¢) leading. We expect students to be able to use the book in different ways at each level and have stritctured the chapters to facilitate this, including progressive assignments and suggestions of related readings. ‘These three levels are designed to reflect the gradually increasing involvement and levels of responsibility of students as they progress through their music therapy training, from the fist clinical observations through the internship. The amount of time spent in each, though, will be up to individual instructors and students, Students beginning their clinical experience will generally enter at the first level of involvement: observing, participating, and assisting. During this time, they learn what professional music therapists do in a session. They may do this through observing Ressions or may participalé in the sessions and assist in various ways. Assisting iypieally includes helping clients with their placement or positioning in the session, with positioning or playing instruments, with finding their page in song books, or in other ways that facilitate their involvement. When students move to the second level of involvement, planning and co-leading the session, they gain skills in planning and may co-lead with either the supervising music therapist or another student therapist. Students begin to gain the skills necessary for leading music therapy sessions but still do this with considerable support from their —co-therapist, whether that is another student or the music therapist, Finally, at the thitd students are leading the music therapy session. At this point, they have the skills needed to m the decisions involved in leading yet are slill receiving considerable support from theit supervisor and probably from faculty and student peers. It is up to individual instructors and students to determine how quickly students will move through these three levels. Considerations include the structure of the university program, the student's slrengths and confidence, whether or not a music therapist is available as an on-site supervisor, and whether and how much a faculty member is available to supervise. Due to these considerations, which will be different for each student, it is not possible for the authors to suggest the rate at which students will move through the levels, Because many of the issues that a student or therapist deals with are the same at each level of involvement, we encourage students to go through the book several times, focusing differently with each level. To help with this process, the assignments at the end of each chapter are divided into each of the three levels mentioned above. Students are expected to do different assignments depending upon their level of involvement CREERERERELRFELEKEKLKRLARAARRARARARBRRERRELREE201 Ginical Training Guide Faculty will, of course, decide exactly how to utilize this book and each chapter. We suggest, though, that chapters be read and discussed several times as the student moves through the clinical training process, with different emphases at each point. ‘This book is designed to meet the needs of music therapy students in the United States, although it may be used by students in other countries, provided that philosophies of training are similar. Graduates of music therapy programs in the U. 8. are expected to mect the AIMTA Professional Competencies (American Music Therapy Association, 2003), Material throughout the book will help students to meet these competencies. Because music therapy students must he prepared to work with any population, this book is designed to be used with a diverse array of clientele. In some paris of the book, examples are provided for specific clientele. In others, the student, clinical supervisor, and instructor will make the specific connections. Some terms and conventions are different from: setting to setting. Knowing that this is the case, we have tried to address these differences in some areas, but in others the adaptations will have to be made by the reader. In general, we have used client and clients to refer to the people with whom music therapists work; exceptions to this are when those receiving services are referred to in a different way in a particular setting (for example, patients ina medical setting) We hope that this book will be your companion on your exciting journey toward becoming a music therapist, and that it will help you to acquire the skills that you nced to make this joumey as productive and positive as possible. ineyraben coy jes ecouo