Multicultural music therapy: developing cultural competency for students and young professionals

The concept of multiculturalism in music therapy is becoming increasingly relevant in the United States. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze multicultural content in undergraduate programs approved by the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), and evaluate the Multicultural Counseling Competencies, in order to develop an educational tool to foster multicultural competency in undergraduate music therapy students. The research questions addressed in this analysis were: (a) what are the current multicultural education practices for undergraduate music therapy students in the United States, and (b) what aspects of multicultural counseling education can provide a framework for multicultural education in music therapy? Within music therapy education, there seems to be no standardized method of delivering multicultural content. Based on the findings of this content analysis, the author combined content from current multicultural music therapy and multicultural counseling education to develop a lecture series for undergraduate music therapy students. Results included the curricula of 68 AMTA-Approved undergraduate music therapy programs. 327 multiculturally related courses were identified. Coded course categories in order of frequency were ability, age, language, Non-Western music, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, spirituality, sexual orientation, religion, and general

culture. These results are consistent with existing publications remarking on the state of multicultural education in music therapy.