E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Wheeler, Barbara: WMFT Proceedings of the Education Symposium
allowed. There is a ”Don’t disturb” note on the door, which is
highly respected by everyone.
All ETMT teachers are subject to professional confidentiality
according to the ethical code for professional music therapists.
That means no personal information must be made public. At the
same time ETMT teachers, in their role as employees of the
university, are obliged to report specific difficulties which may be
identified as problematical for further development as a
professional therapist.
All sessions are recorded or videotaped for several reasons. The
students have a responsibility to reflect on their own process as an
added learning process to the therapeutic process they
experience. In case of disagreements regarding ”serious
problems” between the student client and the ETMT teacher, a
neutral third party (supervisor) can listen to the tapes to try to
double check the evaluation of the ETMT teacher.
Supervision is compulsory for the ETMT teachers.
Taking part in ETMT differs from a purely personal, individual music
therapy process. Some special circumstances have to be taken
into account:
The student client cannot just choose her/his therapist – (s)he can
express wishes about the sex of the therapist and this wish will be
accepted if in any way possible. There are, at the most, three
therapists available, two females and one male therapist.
There are a prescribed number of sessions available – no matter
where you have come to by the end of ETMT. (If the student
wants, or needs, to go deeper into her/his personal process (s)he
must consider obtaining personal, individual therapy outside the
training program).
The development of the therapeutic process will be subject to
current evaluation
concerning future professional work.
Learning Processes and Ways of Understanding Steps of Progression in
ETMT
In the first two years of training where the student is in the client
role there is no formal evaluation except for the responsibility of the
therapist to be aware of the potential for serious problems for future
professional work.
For the ETMT teachers to be able to orient themselves in the
direction of this therapeutic process, we have developed the following
working schema of learning processes which has evolved through the years
to be representational for a wide range of personal ‘stories’ that emerge in
the ETMT:
learning to see/experience intimate relations/parents in the way
they are and the way you want them to be (distinguishing ideal
from reality)
learning to contain and accept pain, disappointment, aggression, joy
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