Where in the world?

By now you may have the idea that music therapy is an extremely diverse and complex concept, and profession, to understand. You may be thinking - "it sounds interesting but I don't know if there are any music therapists in my geographic area?" Rest assured, music therapy is a worldwide phenomena and there are many different areas of the world where music therapy is practiced. The philosophies of practice and actual working out of the music therapy may be slightly different however behind every international group of music therapists, there is the overriding belief that, "music is a powerful medium with a tremendous capacity to introduce positive change in an individual or group of individuals!"

So where can I find out more information? I'm glad you asked! The most important source of reasonably current information about music therapy in different countries, particularly those outside North America, is found in the Voices online music therapy journal. Click on the "Country of the month" link on the title bar. This site also takes you to the content in the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy published three times a year, as well as various columns and discussions. Another site that features information about various music therapy programs and associations in various countries is the website of the World Federation of Music Therapy and the European Music Therapy Confederation. Sadly, the Music Therapy Today e-journal is no longer, although back issues are archived on the MusicTherapyWorld site. In North America, you can find music therapists in your area by visiting either the American Music Therapy Association or the Canadian Association for Music Therapy website.

In addition to websites, there are a number of other resources that you can use to find and contact various associations (professional and student) throughout the world. There are a number of associations and individuals that maintain a presence on Facebook. Rather than searching through all 500 facebook groups that come up in a search of the term "music therapy", here are a few to get you started.

1. American Music Therapy Association
2. World Federation of Music Therapy
3. I Support Music Therapy
4. Top 10 Things Music Therapists Love to Hear
5. Evidence-Based Music Therapy

Facebook is also being utilized to help assist in protesting the proposed closure of music therapy training programs and engage members in the appointment of a president-elect of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). (My apologies to those other music therapy programs facing closure that are not hyper-linked here).

In addition to "music therapy" proper, there are a number of other noteworthy websites/groups that may be of interest. These are generally "specialty" forms of music therapy practice, in the same way that medicine/healthcare has a number of "specialty" areas such as pediatrics, obstetrics, etc.

1. The Association for Imagery and Music (Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music)
2. The Center for Biomedical Research in Music (Colorado State University)
3. Medical Music Therapy (Florida State University)
4. Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy - this is just one of many links to the Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy and centres located throughout the world in countries such as the United Kingdom(Britain), Ireland, and Australia.

These are but a very few of the possible websites that you can visit.

Do you have a link or an internet-based resource that I can feature in future blog postings?

Please feel free to comment or send me an e-mail: jlmt@telus.net/contact me through Twitter (Username: JLisaMT). I look forward to your comments and questions!