In July 2021, I publicly shared on my blog that my theoretical Music Therapy and Harm Model (MTHM) had been plagiarized in an article published in the Journal of Music Therapy (JMT) entitled, “It’s…Complicated: A Theoretical Model of Music-Induced Harm” written by Dr. Michael Silverman, Dr. Lori Gooding, and Dr. Olivia Yinger. In that blog post, I outlined the undeniable similarities between my theoretical model and the Music-Induced Harm (MIH) model presented in Silverman et al.’s paper. My post included a screenshot of an email in which Dr. Silverman acknowledged consuming my ideas before th ..read more

Brea Murakami, MM, MT-BC A pdf of this post can be accessed here: https://www.imamusictherapist.com/wp-content/uploads/What-We-Owe-Each-Other-As-Music-Therapists.pdf In June 2021, I published my first solo-authored journal article about the Music Therapy and Harm Model (MTHM), by which music therapists can delineate sources of harm in music therapy practice (Murakami, 2021). I’m very proud of the paper, which highlights a defining issue in clinical music therapy: how to identify and respond to harm. But, the joy of this milestone has been tainted by the actions of Michael Silverman, Lori Goodi ..read more

When I first started supervising music therapy practicum students, I really wasn’t sure how to help them get the most out of our debriefing time after the session. Over the last few years, though, I’ve developed a list of questions and conversation starters that have helped to start a lot of interesting, deep-dive conversations in the clinical seminar class I teach, or when I’m supervising individual students. The full list of the 75 Music Therapy Supervision Prompts is below, divided into several categories including: Session Observations Leadership Skills Relating to the Client Relating to ..read more

I’m an introvert through and through, with the test scores to prove it: I scored in the 12th percentile for the Extraversion trait on a version of the Big 5 Personality Test. I’m very capable and happy to spend a lot of time by myself (even in public of all places) and being an introvert is something I’ve written and spoken about on several occasions. When I give talks about the advantages of being an introverted music therapist, several people usually stop me in the hallway and share how much they needed to hear that their introversion was valid within the music therapy profession. What I wro ..read more

I’m currently in my third year of teaching and it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve taken to my self-imposed title of being an “academic.” One big clue is that if you opened my closet, you’d find three fashion capes that I’m super excited to wear to school now that it’s fall. While I like to have fun with my sartorial choices, one of the inescapable parts of being an academic is that there’s always something else to do. Another round of grading, another lecture to prepare, another email to respond to. And even when the routine parts of my teaching responsibilities are under control, the guilt of ..read more

This is the second of a two-part blog series outlining continuing education options for music therapists. Check out Part 1 with free and free(ish) options HERE. Paid educational courses are a very common way to get recertification credits and are offered in several in-person and self-study options. The amount of money you’ll pay for taking workshops, advanced trainings, or online CMTEs can vary widely. I’ve decided to list in my blog post the cost per individual credit rather than the total cost of courses which start at 3 credits. From my research, it seems as though $16/credit is about av ..read more

Below is an outline of free and free(ish) ways to earn music therapy continuing education credits. This blog post is intended to be an overview, but be sure to double check the CBMT Recertification Manual (HERE) for the most accurate details. For paid CMTE Options, check out Part 2 in this blog series. Completely Free CMTE Options Some very generous CMTE providers offer FREE online CMTE options like Music Therapy Ed’s Professional Success Course (3 credits), Music Therapy and Neuro Ed’s Disaster Preparedness Course (10 credits), and the Spiegel Academy’s discussion about working with tra ..read more

I’m in my seventh year of being a board-certified music therapist and it’s just about that time in my 5-year recertification cycle when I start actually thinking about how I’m going to get the required 100 continuing education credits (called CMTEs in music therapy jargon). During my first cycle, I did the most lazy, cost-efficient option available to me: citing two of my grad school classes that made up 97% of my needed CMTE hours. This time, I’ll probably need to actually keep track of my credit hours as I earn them (unless I end up doing my doctorate before 2022).  As most music therapi ..read more

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I found a brilliant conversation starter on twitter last year that I’ve used from everyone to family members to complete strangers and I always get an interesting answer. The question, “What’s something about your job that seems obvious to you that isn’t obvious to the general public?” In my role as an educator, my answer would be something like: my job is so much more than showing up for class. So many of my responsibilities happen outside of the classroom, and often go beyond my formal job description as the Clinical Coordinator of Music Therapy. Even though I’ve spent eight years in hi ..read more