What Is a Music Therapist?

Music therapist is a new profession that emerged in Europe and the United States in the middle of the last century. This profession began to be introduced to China in the 1980s. However, in the first years, music therapy was only used as an emerging discipline and emerging research basin for researchers in some related fields. However, there are not many professional music therapists as professional occupations. In the past 30 years of development, Chinese music therapy has shown a vigorous development and has gradually penetrated into the field with its characteristics of widely infiltrating disciplines and other fields of application. Relevant medical, health, education, social work, and other large fields.

Music therapist

Music therapist is a new profession that emerged in Europe and the United States in the middle of the last century. This profession began to be introduced to China in the 1980s. However, in the first years, music therapy was only used as an emerging discipline and emerging research basin for researchers in some related fields. However, there are not many professional music therapists as professional occupations. In the past 30 years of development, Chinese music therapy has shown a vigorous development and has gradually penetrated into the field with its characteristics of widely infiltrating disciplines and other fields of application. Relevant medical, health, education, social work, and other large fields.

Chinese name

Music therapist

Foreign name

Music Therapist

Classification

New career

Field of work

Prison, physical disability, psychotherapy, etc.

Music therapists apply music and other methods to treat visitors in the fields of medical and health, psychology, rehabilitation, education, rescue, and social work. From 1944 and 1946, special music therapy courses were established at the Michigan State University and the University of Kansas in the United States to train specialized music therapists. The world's first music therapists were born. From the sixties to the seventies, some European countries, such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and East and West Germany, Australia, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Canada, established specialized institutions or therapeutic associations for music therapy. After the 1950s, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Japan, New Zealand, Israel, Finland, Italy, Poland, Spain, South Africa, Portugal and other countries have established music therapy majors. So far, 150 universities in 45 countries around the world have established music therapy programs. Music therapy has developed into a social profession in developed countries in Europe and the United States. There are more than 6,000 registered music therapists working in psychiatric hospitals, general hospitals, geriatric hospitals, children's hospitals, special education schools, and various psychological clinics in the United States alone.

From this development perspective, music therapy around the world has gradually emerged mainly in economically developed regions.

More than 6,000 music therapists in the United States work in the following areas:

prison	AIDS	Speech delay	Sexual abuse and sexual abuse assistance
obstetrics	Mental illness	Nerve injury	Musician on stage
Visual impairment	Home therapy	Detox / Alcohol	Parkinson
school	premature baby	Sex offender	Alzheimer's disease
Physical disability	Brain injury	Juvenile delinquency	Sequelae of stroke
asthma	RETT disease	Surgery	Normal adult psychotherapy
burn	Hospice	Learning Disability	Post-traumatic stress syndrome
Spinal injury	language disability	Hearing impaired	Child psychotherapy

Chinese music therapy began in the 1980s. In 1988, the China Conservatory of Music established a junior class in music therapy, which was taught by Zhang Hongyi, an expert in early music therapy in China. Later, due to faculty and other reasons, this major was quickly discontinued. However, it was marked by the enrollment of the first Music Therapy major in 1988 by the China Conservatory of Music and the establishment of the Chinese Music Therapy Society in 1989 (Zhang Hongyi: Music Therapy in Development, Journal of the Central Conservatory of Music, 2000, No. 2). Chinese music therapy has begun a formal professional development path. The development of music therapy in China is very similar to the original model of music therapy. It was also the primary development and research object of the auxiliary treatment of the medical and rehabilitation system. Then in the 1980s, the research field of music therapy in China expanded to the research field of the development of children's mental retardation and child autism, and obtained many results in this field. In addition, it is about the development of traditional music therapy. During this period, the research and excavation of traditional music therapy theory became the basis for the development of a Chinese-Western combination of music therapy with Chinese characteristics. The Chinese Music Therapy Society, established in 1989, holds an annual conference every two years. And organize music therapy clinicians in various fields around the world to conduct academic exchange activities and promote research and development of music therapy. Under the active organization of the Chinese Music Therapy Society. Numerous music and medical workers are engaged in the research and exploration of music therapy. However, although many medical institutions have conducted research attempts on music therapy during this period, most of them have simply adopted the form of playing a "music prescription" for patients. In the late 1980s and early 1990s. The development of music therapy has been hampered by certain limitations. In 2003, the Central Conservatory of Music began to recruit undergraduates. In 2004, Sichuan Conservatory of Music began enrolling undergraduate classes in music therapy. In 2006, Jiangxi College of Traditional Chinese Medicine began enrolling undergraduate nursing classes in music therapy. Subsequently, China's music therapy professional education has risen one after another. Vocational Education Development

Since the beginning of the development of Chinese music therapy, the professional name of music therapist has often been mentioned. Music therapy has been developed in China for more than 30 years. It can be said that, regarding the legalization of the professional qualification of music therapists, formalization has almost become the dream of a generation of music therapists.

According to the development track of foreign music therapy. In many countries, every hospital, every community psychological clinic, and the corresponding social service agency is equipped with a music therapist and studio. The development of this profession represents the degree of medical needs of a country to some extent. For example, at this stage, the expectations of people in our country for medical treatment are still in the state of getting sick and then treating them, but in many countries they have entered the era of medical care from prevention to demand. In other words, occupations related to people's spiritual needs, such as music therapy, will arise in large numbers. In many developed countries, almost every hospital has a music therapy room. Music therapists in these places use music as a means for visitors in psychology, rehabilitation, anesthesia, childbirth, hospice care, cancer rehabilitation, hospital living environment, pain control. And maintenance of mental and physical diseases. In addition to the medical fields mentioned above. Music therapists also have a wide range of employment opportunities in education. In addition to psychological education in ordinary schools, special education institutions are more common. Music therapy is very meaningful for life improvement and growth assistance for children with autism, language impairment, visual impairment, etc.