Music therapy and Nursing Degree

Not really an expert here, but my wife studied music therapy before branching off into teaching piano.

I think it would be more beneficial to get your nursing degree first, that way you can have a solid income while you're in school for MT. Also, if you start nursing in a rehabilitation clinic, long term care, etc, you can establish yourself and perhaps move into MT when you graduate from that program.

Just my $0.02.

There are many rehab facilities and long term care facilties that use music therapy... Grab your Rn, minor in music therapy and go to a wide open area.... Good luck.
Zoe

My school offers a degree in MT...it is quite a different field from nursing. Do you want to do both or do you really want to to just MT?

I studied music therapy at the graduate level. Perhaps I can shed some light on this highly misunderstood allied healthcare field. According to the American Music Therapy Association:
Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.
In order to call yourself a music therapist, you have to complete at minimum fours years of college at an accredited music therapy school. The course work is very intense- you have to take lots of music theory classes, music history classes, music literature classes. You need to audition on your major instrument, whether it is voice, winds, piano, strings, etc. You need to learn how to play every orchestral instrument and demonstrate proficency on them, including piano and guitar. You need to be able to sight-sing, which is a complex skill in which you sing on sight and command an unfamiliar piece of music. You need to be able to hear a piece of music and write down all of the pitches and rhythms on a score. In addition to course work in which you master all of these skills, you have a weekly clinical in which you conduct music sessions in a group setting. Each session plan takes at least 8 hours to prepare and has to be approved by your clinical supervisor. Finally, after completing your course work, you are required to complete a 6 month, full time and usually unpaid internship. The internship sites are very limited an almost always require students to relocate to the other side of the country. Finally, after the internship you sit for a national exam and earn you earn the following credential: MT-BC (music therapist, board certified). Only then can you call yourself a music therapist.
There are so many uninformed people and organizations out there calling themselves music therapist and what they do music therapy. If you do not hold the MT-BC credential but call yourself a music therapist, you are slapping the face of every music therapist who spent years in school, thousands of dollars on tuition, instruments and spent all that unpaid time in clinicals and internships. Please do not do it. I know of plenty of organizations that falsely market themselves as providing music therapy when all they really have is an unlicensed assistive person with a boom box and elevator music. Think about how hard you worked for your nursing credentials and be sure to give the same respect to your allied healthcare professionals. This information holds true for Art Therapists, Dance Therapists and other creative arts therapists.

I encourage every nurse to familiarize themselves with each of these wonderful treatment modalities!

:Melody: Good Afternoon.
My daughter is currently a music therapy student at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. I have been a nurse specializing in Geriatric care for 12 years. Last week, she called me crying. It seems that the university's Provost, or in other words decides who gets money, has decided that the music therapy program is going to be ended after the present graduates are finished. Mansfield University is home to the "Pride of Pennsylvania Marching Band". They are known for their excellance of music students and their graduates. Yet, the "powers that be" have decided that it was not in the bst interest to continue the program. No reasoning, no explanations, just this is how it is going to be.
Music therapy is used in geriatrics and autistic children and has shown more and more promise as the therapy programs continue to grow. We need YOUR help. We need to contact the university and let them know that the program is tooooo important to discontinue!!

i need a certified music therapist for advice... where having a thesis about the effect of music therapy of geriatric patients. pls send me a message i you can lend a hand. thanks!!