First View – Article (published on 20 March 2022)
Music therapy in Slovakia: Contexts and current practice
Jana Halmo
ABSTRACT
Music therapy has its own historical roots in today’s Slovakia. As early as the 18th century, information about music healing had already appeared. Nowadays, music therapy is becoming more widespread in our country. Therefore, it is deemed important to clarify music therapy as a contemporary profession and to focus on current events. This article focuses on the historical underpinnings of music therapy as well as the current situation, legislation and personalities who strongly influenced the development in this area, as well as organisations and providers who played an important role in music therapy developments in Slovakia. The article also provides basic information about my own research, presenting findings of a survey questionnaire and two brief interviews with music therapy experts in Slovakia.
KEYWORDS
Slovakia, music therapy, history, present, research
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jana Halmo is a doctoral student at the Department of Musicology of Comenius University in Bratislava. She graduated from this department in 2018. Between 2015 and 2017, she completed music therapy courses guaranteed by the Music Therapeutic Association of the Czech Republic under the guidance of Matěj Lipský. She is active in the field of music therapy in children with health disabilities and focuses especially on children with autistic spectrum disorders. Her academic interests encompass history of music therapy in Central and Eastern Europe, including Slovakia, and modern methods in music therapy treatments of children various disabilities. [strpkovajanka@gmail.com]