La Diferencia

In getting the information for a different blog post together, something clicked for me and made me abandon that post for the time being because I just had a huge revelation. I have always talked about "bilingual and multicultural music therapy" as if they were the same thing (the title of this blog is a perfect example :). However, in researching today and in some conversations with colleagues, a bolt of lightning hit. Bilingual and multicultural music therapy are two different things and need to be delineated as such! I don't know why it took me so long to separate these two things so solidly in my head and I hope I can explain this concisely...

Multicultural music therapy is what happens when no words are spoken but the musical language of a culture is used in a therapy session.  This concept jumped out of my computer all over my face when I read an article in the Journal of Music Therapy about Juliette Alvin and her contributions to the field of music therapy in Japan.

"Perhaps one of the most valuable aspects of Alvin's clinical practice was that she clearly indicated the therapeutic value of music as a form of communication beyond human diversity. Since Alvin did not speak to the children in Japanese, there was no verbal interaction in the sessions. When reviewing Alvin's report on her sessions at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Welfare Center for Mentally and Physically handicapped in 1969, it was discovered that she carefully explored a common denominator through which their musical communication took place. She used musical sound, which was not organized in a musical form, to elicit psychological and physiological responses from the children. This procedure offered the children a simple means of communication at their own functional levels. She also used flexible resources of music including pentatonic scales, Japanese children's songs, improvised music, and short pieces of composed music while monitoring the children's responses. In this sense, Alvin's  approach included multicultural perspectives. In her report, Alvin stated, 'I made the music speak to them in a language they could apprehend. . . . Wherever and whoever he is, music affects man in the same deep way.' 42" (emphasis added by me).

That whole article is an incredibly inspiring piece that gives a lot of insight into the whole concept of multicultural music therapy, and you should check it out. What jumped out to me is that although Juliette did not speak Japanese to the children, she was conscious of Japanese culture and implemented familiar songs as well as a familiar mode of music to communicate with them and elicit changes.

Bilingual music therapy is what happens when a second language is introduced to the clinical setting by either the client or the therapist. This could happen in several different ways: the client and therapist may speak the same language and the therapist decides to elicit a response from the client using novel musical stimuli. Or, which is the case so often in music therapy, the client and the therapist speak different languages and use both of those languages to achieve music therapy goals.

I was originally going to post about the shifting cultural climate in America, and came across this site from the census bureau. Instead of copy-and-pasting the whole thing into this blog, just go check it out and see if some of those numbers don't blow your mind.

In the music therapy world, two articles - one in 2005 and the other in 2007 - highlight the increasing need for music therapists to be bilingual:

"Of particular interest is that only 16.2% of participants reported being bilingual while 40% of participants reported serving nonEnglish speaking clients. With the growing population of nonEnglish speaking consumers in the United States, it is definitely an advantage to be a bilingual therapist. Perhaps more universities will start to require students to study a foreign language. However, this issue is of particular concern for music therapy educators as music therapy students typically have very little room and flexibility in their schedules for electives such as foreign language." (2005)  

"Respondents also indicated that although most were not bilingual (85.7%), they still worked with non-English speaking consumers (58.2%)." (2007)

Why does that even matter? 

American Music TherapyAssociation's Standards of Clinical Practice defines Spiritual and Cultural Background as “an interrelationship among a client’s musical experiences, personal belief system, and cultural background, which may be influenced by the client’s geographical origin, language, religion, family experiences, and other environmental factors.

2.0 Standard II - Assessment

2.2 The music therapy assessment will explore the client's culture.  This can include but is not limited to race, ethnicity, language, religion/spirituality, social class, family experiences, sexual orientation, gender identity, and social organizations.

2.3 All music therapy assessment methods will be appropriate for the client's chronological age, diagnoses, functioning level, and culture(s). The methods may include, but need not be limited to, observation during music or other situations, interview, verbal and nonverbal interventions, and testing. Information may also be obtained from different disciplines or sources such as the past and present medical and social history in accordance with HIPAA permission regulation.

3.0 Standard III - Treatment Planning - The Music Therapist will develop an individualized treatment plan based upon the music therapy assessment, the client's prognosis, and applicable information from other disciplines and sources. The client will participate in program plan development when appropriate. The music therapy program plan will be designed to:


3.6 Specify procedures, including music and music materials, for attaining the objectives.

3.6.1 The Music Therapist will include music, instruments, and musical elements, from the client's culture as appropriate.

From AMTA's Professional Competencies -  

18. Therapy Implementation

          18.14     Develop and maintain a repertoire of music for age, culture, and stylistic differences.

CBMT has a little bit to say about it as well in its Scope of Practice:

C. Treatment Planning

     9. Consider client’s age, culture, music background, and preferences when designing music therapy experiences.

I could go on and on here - there is a wealth of information within music therapy that supports bilingual and multicultural music therapy. There have been only a couple recent articles that discuss actual clinical practice either with multicultural populations and/or utilizing multiple languages in sessions.  What I want to know is - what have your experiences been? What do you think about all this? Do you think you can do multicultural music therapy without doing bilingual music therapy and vice versa?

 

References (not already linked)

Haneishi, E. (2005). Juliette Alvin: Her legacy for music therapy in Japan. Journal of Music Therapy 42(4), 273-95.

Silverman, M.J., Hairston, M.J. (2005). A descriptive study of private practice in music therapy. Journal of Music Therapy 42(4), 262-272.

Silverman, M.J. (2007). Evaluating current trends in psychiatric music therapy: A descriptive analysis. Journal of Music Therapy 44(4), 388-414.