Break into this break-out field
Let’s face it, the current American job market is a scary thing.
As the topic of psychology quickly becomes less and less stigmatized by the day, more people want to study yet. This is, for the world, a very good thing. The more people who understand psychology, the more respect people tend to have for each other's less physical issues. This increase in interest and public acceptance of psychological topics, though, has created an unfortunate effect on the psychology industry. It has become completely over-saturated. While this is currently a massive problem in fields like computer science, psychology has the benefit of being much more versatile, so the crisis is generally lessened. It is still, though, the sixth most common major currently studied in colleges.
Even though there are so many different careers in psychology, the ones that have the least competition and pay the most tend to be in the hyper-specialized fields of the subject. One of these paths that has seen a recent, very much deserved, increase in interest is music therapy.
Music therapy is a type of clinical therapy that involves the use of music in helping another person work through their issues. This can encompass several different activities the music therapist designs for the client. They tend to include rhythmic movement to music, lyrical analysis, playing an instrument, or simply listening to a curated playlist. A music therapist should have a masterful understanding of music genres, and some knowledge of music education. Above all else, a music therapist should know how to play music. Music theory and instrument playing or core to play music therapist’s knowledge.
The first thing you’re going to need is a degree. This specific degree you will want to seek depends on your resources. There are a few universities in the United States that offer a dedicated music therapy major. This is the absolute ideal because of study, but most colleges don’t offer it. If you know from the start that you want to go into music therapy, then you should be focusing your applications towards the schools that offer music therapy programs. If you don’t have a local university that offers music therapy, and do you want to stay closer to home, maybe if you already have a home and a family, you could also work to take 2 majors at once: psychology and music. While this would not be the absolute most optimal path, this could be enough to set you up to get a lower-level job in the field of psych and go to grad school at a university that offers a Music therapy program. After having obtained the initial degree, you will have more freedom to move around.
While it is possible to get into clinical music therapy with just a bachelor's degree, those who go the whole way to the masters will inevitably be more trusted by their patients, which is an absolute necessity for someone working in clinical psychology. Those with a master’s degree will also generally make more money right out of the gate. A masters degree will also be necessary if you took the non-specialized double major route from the beginning. Those are the rules of the certification board for music therapists.
In order to practice music therapy, you first need to obtain a certification from the CBMT. The Certification Board for Music Therapists is the governing body that sets the standard for who is able to be a Music therapist. Upon obtaining a degree in music therapy, either bachelors or masters, you gain the ability to take the CBMT certification exam.
The CBMT won’t leave you hanging, though. Not only do they administer the tests at around 200 in-person locations worldwide, but they provide practice exams on their website. The CBMT exam is designed to test potential music therapists on five key domains:
These are all essential skills for any music therapist to have. The two most important of these are the second and third categories. Domain two, the section about assessment and treatment planning, is particularly important to the beginning of your time as a Music therapist with an individual patient. Part of your job as a music therapist is to listen to the client about their music taste, and get a sense of what kinds of problems you need to tackle. Your ability to interpret and synthesize all of the information your client gives you is more necessary than most skills. The only thing that really beats section 2 section 3, which pertains to the act of administering treatment. The exam has 150 questions, all multiple choice, that test your knowledge of the field.
Something else to keep in mind is state-specific qualifications. This only applies to certain states, so you’ll want to check the official list of extra steps by state that may pertain to you, depending on where you want to practice. Most states have no extra qualifications beyond passing the CBMT exam, but several will require an extra action. For example: Wisconsin has its own registry list of music therapists allowed to practice in the state. In addition to the board certification, you also have to be registered with the state government to practice music therapy. The requirements for registration are the same as the requirements for certification, but you have to sign up with them before you can do anything in that state, so check your local laws.
There is also a less tangible requirement: practicing music. Not only should you be able to read and understand music, but you also need to know how to make it. Any music degree will automatically require learning instruments. Generally, a music degree requires a base-level learning of one instrument from each main group, like orchestral strings, woodwinds, or brass.
So what is the practice of music therapy actually like from the therapist’s side? First there’s the pay. Generally, a music therapist in the United States is going to make, on average, between $50,000 and $60,000 a year. The exact mean of the salary depends on the state. The salary depends on what you charge hourly. A $60,000 per year salary would generally require an hourly rate of around $30. As you start to progress in your career, though, you could start to charge upwards of $40 an hour.
In general, the field of music therapy is progressing at a fairly steady rate, with the demand for music therapists increasing by about 4% per year, which is fairly average.
A session routine can change drastically day to day for a music therapist. There is no one size fits all approach to music therapy, or any therapy for that matter. The exact tactics a music therapist uses depends on each individual patient. A patient who has been playing the guitar for 20 years is not going to have the same understanding as someone who has never touched an instrument. A singer won’t feel the same way about music as a harpist. Some people won’t respond to lyrics with deeper meanings the same way as others. For many people, dance isn’t quite their forte.
This is why the initial assessment is so important. As a music therapist, you have a bit more work to do than a regular therapist. You don’t just have to get the client’s vibe and figure out what particular problems they might have. You also have to get a complete understanding of their skill, knowledge, and feelings about music.
You also won’t necessarily always be dealing with the same kinds of people. Music therapy is recommended for people of all ages. It can help young children develop their fine motor skills or a teenager with cognitive development. On the other end of the spectrum, it can help adults with substance abuse disorders work through those problems, and older people with dementia recall positive memories.
Overall, music therapy is a very diverse field with many paths to appropriate treatment, so the two most important things for a music therapist to learn are how to interpret a client's musical needs quickly and understand music theory.
