Survey Results: What Music Therapists Want

About a month ago, I asked my music therapy readers to fill out a short survey. I was hoping 30-35 people would respond. But I was blown away by the response–106 music therapists filled it out!

I’ve been meaning to share the results with you for awhile, but “life” gets in the way sometimes. Better late than never, right?

So, here are some of the interesting things you said in the survey:

• The top two issues or challenges you face as a music therapist involve Finding Work (from “how to start a private practice” to “will I have a job?”) and Promoting our Field (such as educating others about music therapy).
• You are most interested in learning about music and the brain and in learning new intervention ideas. You also seemed comfortable with your basic music skills–you didn’t care much about learning autoharp techniques or intermediate guitar skills.
• 42.5% of you liked the idea of networking with and learning from other music therapists. Almost as many (37.7%) were interested in regular trainings that teach strategies, procedures, and tricks.
• Finally, 82.1% of you liked the idea of having instant access to information. You were also much more interested in receiving digital products (such as ebooks and digital audio or video files) instead of physical products (such as CDs, DVDs, and print materials).

In conclusion, through this survey you’ve told me you’re interested in online Education and Interaction. I’m getting close to creating a new service for you that will:

• Connect you with like-minded music therapists
• Build a successful music therapy program or private practice
• Make learning about the brain fun and clinically-functional
• Promote and educate others about our field

But as with most surveys, I’m left with even more questions that when I started! So if you want a say in helping to develop this new, yet-to-be-named service, please take a couple minutes to fill out this short follow-up survey:

Click here to take survey

I would greatly appreciate your feedback. Thank you!

P.S. I am VERY excited to share with you a new project I’m doing with fellow music therapists Rachel Rambach and Michelle Erfurt. We just launched a brand-new music therapy podcast, The Music Therapy Round Table. Someone has said “It’s like ‘The View’ for music therapists.” You can find us on iTunes (just search for “Music Therapy Round Table” to find it) or listen to our first episode on our blog.

Tagged as: community, music therapists, Survey