Music Therapist

Music therapists use music and sound to help people with a wide variety of problems.

Music therapy helps people to make positive changes in their lives and to improve their emotional well-being. It can also relieve stress and improve confidence.

A music therapist's clients or patients might include people who have:

• physical disabilities
• learning difficulties or mental health problems
• speech and language difficulties
• emotional and behavioural difficulties
• eating disorders or addictions
• serious illnesses, such as cancer or AIDS (it can assist with pain relief).

Music therapists work closely with other professionals such as nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists, teachers and social workers.

Music therapists working in schools, hospitals and prisons usually work Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Full-time and part-time work is available. Those with private clients might work in the evenings or at weekends. They work in a variety of settings including hospitals, schools, day centres, hospices and the prison service.

Salaries range from £22,886 to £70,000 a year or more.

Music therapists need:

• to be knowledgeable about music and/or be skilled musicians
• excellent communication skills
• to be able to relate to all kinds of people
• to be able to motivate people
• to have an interest in people and their individual physical and emotional problems.

There are opportunities in the NHS, local education authorities, social services departments, the prison service, and with some charitable and voluntary organisations. Some music therapists are self-employed.

To qualify as a music therapist it is necessary to complete a postgraduate training course approved by the Health Professions Council, and then to register with the council. All final music therapy training is required to be of Masters degree standard. It is a state registration requirement that registrants must be at least 23 years old.

Students applying for music therapy courses need a minimum of three years in higher education with a degree or diploma, usually but not necessarily in music. All applicants will have to demonstrate a high level of musical skill. Course selectors will also assess their personal insight and suitability for training.

It is possible to progress to roles that are more senior or to head of department.

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For More Information:

Association of Professional Music Therapists

The Association of Professional Music Therapists (APMT) was established in 1976 to support and develop the profession. The association’s members are qualified Music Therapists who have undertaken a recognised post-graduate training course in Music Therapy. The association holds a current register of practising Music Therapists. In June 1999, Music Therapy, along with other Arts Therapies became a State Registered profession.

The British Society for Music Therapy was founded in 1958 by Juliette Alvin and her colleagues under the name of 'Society for Music Therapy and Remedial Music' with the object of promoting the use and development of music therapy.  This is still, in 2005, our aim.  The BSMT is a Registered Charity, Number 260837.

At that time music therapy was scarcely known as a profession, although music had been acknowledged as a means of healing for thousands of years.  The BSMT was vital in supporting the work of the early pioneers and in helping the developing profession to gain the respect and status which it now enjoys.  The BSMT has grown into an organisation which reaches people with an interest in music therapy all over the UK and worldwide.

The BSMT acts as an advisory body and is a centre of information and dissemination on services, training, bibliography and research, receiving from home and abroad a vast number of enquiries on all aspects of music therapy.

Membership of the British Society for Music Therapy is open to anyone interested in music therapy.  The international membership of the BSMT (currently around 800 people) represents many different professions including music therapists, musicians, medical and para-medical personnel, teachers, social workers, parents and students.  Since 2000 members of the Association of Professional Music Therapists have automatically become members of the BSMT.

www.bsmt.org 

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