Today is Tuesday, January 14th, and we’ll be talking about “music therapy types”.
What do I mean by that?
I mean those people… or rather, the kinds of motivations that tend to lead someone to start studying music therapy, or to train as a music therapy practitioner.
So, just for fun, I’ve created six broad types. Let’s be clear: everything you’re about to hear is entirely my own. It’s stuff I’ve observed over the years, and that I can now say out loud with a smile, in the light-hearted style you’ve come to know by now.
Of all these six broad types, the top one is what I call the Integrator.
The Integrator has two sides.
The first one says: “I’m a musician, and I want to bring together my musical dimension with my desire to help others.”
The second one says: “I’m a psychologist — or a nurse, a speech therapist, and so on — and I want to bring together my clinical dimension with my passion for music.”
The second type is the Unfulfilled One.
This is the person who says: “I already have a job, but I’m looking for techniques that can help me when I have to work with particular cases.”
Or: “I have a job where I earn a lot of money, but I don’t feel fulfilled. I want to change my life.”
Or again: “I’m retired, I have free time, and if I don’t do something, I’ll get bored and depressed.”
Then there is the third type: the Wait-and-See Type.
This is the person who says: “One more qualification can’t hurt. As my grandfather used to say, learn a skill and keep it in your back pocket.”
Or: “I’m waiting for the public competition to get a permanent teaching post in school. In the meantime, I’ll study music therapy, and then we’ll see.”
The fourth category, the fourth type, is the Seeker.
This is the person who says: “I’m trying to understand what I want to do when I grow up.”
Or: “I’m doing this for myself.”
Or: “I need to make peace with music.”
Or again: “This is a complicated moment in my life — my girlfriend has left me, I’ve lost my job, and so on — so while I’m trying to clear my head, I’ll take the course.”
The fifth type is the Lazy One, in three different versions.
The first one says: “I don’t have the time or the desire to enrol at university. From what I understand, music therapy is shorter and less demanding, so why not? In two years I’ll become some kind of doctor with music.”
Then there is the other one who says: “Becoming a musician is far too much work. With music therapy, you just strum a couple of things and you’re fine. Surely I’ll find a job.”
And finally: “On the one hand, I love music. I can’t live without listening to it. For me, music is everything. On the other hand, my friends tell me I’m good at listening and giving advice. With this course, I can put the two things together and become a life coach with music.”
The sixth type is the Entrepreneur.
This is the person who says: “In my life, I’m already doing music therapy, and now I just want a piece of paper that gives me the licence. So I’ll take the shortest course, the one closest to home, and the cheapest one.”
Still within the Entrepreneur category, there is also the person who says: “I work in a profession where there are far too many of us. If I want to make a living, I need to stand out. Music therapy seems like the right choice.”
And finally: “I’m a musician, and I struggle to earn a living. If I do music therapy, I’ll definitely earn more. After all, it’s therapy!”
And that was the last type in “the music therapy types”.
Let me repeat, for those who weren’t paying attention: with a few exceptions, what you’ve heard so far is a list of my very personal observations and motivations.
It’s quite likely that each of you has your own. So, come on, people! Make your own podcast, and let’s keep things light!
We’ll meet again next Tuesday with a new episode, where I’ll tell you a little about the questions that anyone who does music therapy will be asked throughout their entire life.