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From: Erika Shira
Date: 19 Oct 2008
Time: 12:33:14 -0500
Remote Name: 66.92.76.147
"I am curious, does a music therapist have to be a part of therapy in order for this to be effective?" Well, I'm not one to say that uncredentialed healers are never helpful, or that credentialed folks are all competent; this clearly isn't the case. I imagine that the African folks using their traditional healing techniques were probably successful on some level, or else the technique wouldn't have endured. And they certainly weren't credentialed in Western music therapy. But on a practical level, unless someone is a music therapist, it's not likely that they're going to have training in things like clinical use of guitar and piano, clinical use of different scales and modes, clinical applications of singing, etc. There are professionals who aren't music therapists who can use music effectively in their work; I think this can be a great thing to add, with the caveat that people don't say they're doing music therapy if they're not credentialed, just as I would never say that I do speech-language therapy. "Also, I believe that this would make a great online activity." This is something I've absolutely never thought of. How would this work? I play around with live video chat quite a bit, but there's a delay, so I can't imagine making music over an online connection. What would you suggest? "Where can we find more information?" I'd probably start with finding a music therapist in your area who is interested in this kind of work. See what you can organize in your community. Good luck, and thanks for sharing the great ideas!