The role of the EMTC for development and recognition of the music therapy profession – Hanne Mette Ridder, Adrienne Lerner & Ferdinando Suvini

Special Issue 7 (1) 2015, “Music Therapy in Europe: Paths of Professional Development” – Article

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The role of the EMTC for development and recognition of the music therapy profession

Hanne Mette Ridder, Adrienne Lerner & Ferdinando Suvini

 

Abstract
The rapid development of music therapy in Europe is reflected in the increasing number of trained professionals, music therapy positions and research publications. A development of the discipline implies increased requirements regarding the skills and competences of music therapy clinicians, and therefore the training of students, continuing education and research. This leads to a further demand for recognition of music therapy as a profession and for regulation, registration and governmental recognition. Looking back over the past 60 years, we are able to define some common paths of development in relation to the music therapy profession throughout the European countries. With this as a starting point, as well as our own engagement in the European Music Therapy Confederation (EMTC) for more than a decade, we will explore the innate complexity of the profession and formulate our views for the future directions of the music therapy profession in Europe and the potential role of the EMTC in this development.

Keywords: music therapy; profession; recognition; association; definition; types of knowledge; ethics; mutual respect

 

Biographies

Hanne Mette Ridder is Professor, MA in Music Therapy, and certified clinical music therapy supervisor. She is Head of the Doctoral Programme in Music Therapy at Aalborg University, and since 2010 President of the European Music Therapy Confederation (EMTC). She serves on advisory editorial boards for the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education and Music & Medicine, and has published widely on music therapy, especially in dementia care.

Email: hanne@hum.aau.dk

 

Adrienne Lerner, Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, trained music therapist and psychotherapist. Vice-President Secretary of the European Music Therapy Confederation (EMTC). Board member of the Fédération Française de Musicothérapie (FFM). After many years’ experience in public institutions working in an adult psychiatry unit, a paediatric unit and in a private placement centre for mistreated children, Adrienne is currently self-employed.

Email: adrilerner@wanadoo.fr

 

Ferdinando Suvini, MA music therapist, trainer and supervisor. Head of the Florence Music Therapy Training Course. Music therapy Professor in the Conservatorio of L’ Aquila and in Ferrara (MA). President of the Italian Music Therapy Professional Association (AIM) and Vice-President of the EMTC. Italian coordinator of Time-A research project on music therapy and autism (Principal Investigator C. Gold). Suvini’s publications on music therapy are particularly in autism.

Email: ferdisuvini@libero.it