E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Wheeler, Barbara: WMFT Proceedings of the Education Symposium
Structural Aspects of Music Therapy Training
MUSIC THERAPY TRAINING IN CANADA
Connie Isenberg-Grzeda, MM, MTA, MT-BC
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
There are four music therapy training programs in Canada, all of
which, to date, provide entry-level training at the undergraduate or
Bachelor’s level. Capilano College in Vancouver, British Columbia, has been
offering music therapy training since 1976. This training, which had
previously been offered at a diploma level, has been offered within the
context of a Bachelor’s degree through the Open University since 1990.
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) in Montreal, Quebec, has been
offering a Bachelor’s level program in music therapy since 1985. This is the
only French-language music therapy training program available in Canada.
Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, has been offering a
Bachelor’s level program since 1986 and University of Windsor in Windsor,
Ontario has been offering one since 1990. All but the program at UQAM are
four-year university programs. In Quebec, the higher education system
consists of two years of mandatory junior college followed by a three-year
university undergraduate program. The number of years devoted to music
therapy training, per se, however, do not differ among these universities.
Whereas music therapy courses are taught throughout the entire length of
the university program at UQAM, that is, throughout the three years, they
are taught only in the last two or three years of the four-year university
programs in Ontario and British Columbia.
Student Population
The student population is varied. A large proportion of students is
young and inexperienced as is typical of undergraduate students in North
America. Less typically, however, a fairly large proportion of the students is
older, already possesses undergraduate degrees and in some cases, graduate
degrees, has experience in related fields and is seeking a career change.
This reality results in a confounding of levels of training. Whereas the actual
training remains entry-level, the student population is one that lends itself
to more advanced training sometimes resulting in more in-depth work and
some blurring of the boundaries of academic levels of education.
Approval Process
In 1996, the Canadian Association for Music Therapy (CAMT) instituted
its approval process for university training programs, subsequent to the
development of a document entitled CAMT Standards and Procedures for
the Approval of Undergraduate Music Therapy Programs (1995). The faculty
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