Ειδικό Τεύχος 7 (1) 2015, “Music Therapy in Europe: Paths of Professional Development” – Article
A process of two decades: Gaining professional recognition in Austria
Elena Fitzthum
Abstract
The following article describes Austria’s long process to get a professional recognition for music therapists. Within this law, from 2009, music therapy is defined as an autonomous, scientific-artistic-creative and expressive therapy. As early as the run up to negotiations, the collaboration with universities, hospitals, the Austrian Association of Music Therapists (ÖBM) and the Ministry of Health needed to be structured very cautiously. In addition the Austrian Psychotherapy Law from 1992 was relevant to this process.
Keywords
Ministry of Health; music therapy law; professional association; psychotherapy law; collaboration
Biography
Elena Fitzthum, Dr. sc. mus., is a music therapist, psychotherapist (Gestalt) and supervisor. She is Head of the private institute WIM (Viennese Institute for Music Therapy) as well as co-founder and co-editor of WIM’s book series ‘Viennese Contributions to Music Therapy’ (Wiener Beiträge zur Musiktherapie). She is lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and at the Zurich University of Arts, Switzerland. In her theory classes she focuses on the history of music therapy and the implementation of psychotherapy in music therapy. She is the Austrian delegate for the EMTC and board member.
Email: fitzthum@aon.at