E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Wheeler, Barbara: WMFT Proceedings of the Education Symposium
are able to consult with the student and suggest they disclose the
information to clinical training supervisors. Thus the supervisor is aware of
the student’s needs – e.g., to leave a session suddenly.
Should a student suffer from a psychiatric condition, the issue is more
complicated. If the condition is known and disclosed, a careful selection
procedure needs to be in place to ensure Duty of Care. If the student has
been successfully selected on to the course, and subsequently develops a
psychotic illness during the training, there needs to be provision for
exclusion, or deferral, until the student’s condition is not a danger to the
Duty of Care provision.
Discussion
The question was asked about a person who had emotional problems, but
did not know that they had them prior to entering the program? Denise
responded that the University could not deal with getting the student out
of the program in this case.
In the Aalborg program, they say, “Have you received any intervention
within the healthcare/psychiatric system that may influence your
training?” The UK has this, but it is not written down. At NYU, this
generally comes up within the interview process, often from the potential
student. She discovered recently through a lawsuit in which a student who
had spoken of a disability in the interview and was not accepted to the
program (not due to the disability)that the issue is whether the student
had been ASKED about the disability in the interview. Students applying to
Nordoff-Robbins courses in the UK all have to have a physician’s certificate.
“This is a stringent and professional training. Do you know of any reason
that this person may not be able to complete this training?” The same
question is asked in being employed in the UK; the same thing occurs in
Israel. In Canada, they cannot ask about any illnesses or medication.
On the issue of how people are counseled out of the course, in the UK, they
rewrote information about this. They now have an external examiner
halfway through the program. An analytical psychotherapist meets 1:1 for
an interview; also a music therapist is an external examiner. In Berlin, they
found out that experiential training brought problems out. In two (both)
cases, students brought problems up in the first interview but the faculty
thought they could handle it. (These were before required experiential
training.) One student was advised by the experiential therapist to go to
psychiatric treatment. Another student was able to pass everything and, in
spite of counseling, continued in the music therapy program.
One person suggested having a very objective evaluation for clinical
practice, then a student can be given a low grade on clinical practice,
allowing the instructor to be objective in documenting over a period of
time. Another person said that she and her staff nurture people
throughout, but have started failing students (against natural instincts).
She now feels that it is best to get students who are not suitable for this
346