Music Therapy - Postgraduate - MA

R University of Roehampton London

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Approved by the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC), this training leads to a nationally recognised professional qualification as a music therapist.
Work placements organised by the University, the majority with a music therapist on site.
Music therapy course staff have their own current clinical work, and are therefore embedded in current practice and clinical thinking.
The staff team are involved in writing and researching and have a high profile within the UK music therapy profession.
Work as a music therapist to benefit people with a wide range of challenges.
In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, the leading national assessment of quality, 100% of the research we submitted was rated “world-leading” or “internationally excellent” for its impact.
The only institution in Europe to offer training in all of the arts and play therapies, including dramatherapy, art and dance movement psychotherapy, music and play therapy.
Some of the core teaching will take place with peers from across the Arts and Play Therapies programmes, giving unique opportunities for interdisciplinary learning.

Summary

The Music Therapy programme offers training for competent, practising musicians to become therapists, bringing together their skills, education and other life experiences. On completion of the training, graduates are eligible to apply to the HCPC for registration, with the ability and flexibility to practice within the NHS, Social Services, education or private sector.

Music therapists draw on the innate qualities of music in order to support people of all ages and at all stages of life who are facing diverse challenges. Music therapy facilitates positive changes in wellbeing through the engagement in live musical interaction. Essential to music therapy is the relationship between client and therapist. At Roehampton we have chosen to base our Music Therapy training programme on the use of psychoanalytic ideas to inform our understanding of the therapy process and the ways the client works with the environment, the therapist and the music. Broader theories and ways of working are also studied in order to equip students to meet a range of clinical need. Music therapy as practised in Great Britain is largely based upon improvisation, the music being the shared and spontaneous creation of the person in therapy and the Music Therapist. Other styles of music, including song writing, the use of technology and pre-composed music are also used as appropriate to the need of the individual.

The course emphasises your emotional development as a practitioner, together with clinical exploration through critical enquiry. In addition to this, students must be prepared to enter mandatory individual personal therapy for one year of the training.

Music Therapists work within a wide range of clinical settings, individual and group work. They work with people of all ages; from infants and young children through to elderly adults. Music therapy can benefit people with a wide range of difficulties or challenges, including mental health problems, learning disabilities and autism, dementia and neurology, as well as people experiencing serious illness such as cancer or those who have experienced trauma.

Content

The programme aims to encourage a critical and evaluative approach to both theory and practice in music therapy. It is designed to prepare students for work with children and adults with a range of disabilities and illnesses, and placements include work with children and adults in the settings in which Music Therapists commonly work.

Key areas of study include human development and growth and the clinical context for music therapy, clinical improvisation, observational studies, music therapy theory, clinical case work and supervision, introduction to research and your dissertation. Some of the core teaching will take place with peers from across the Arts and Play Therapies programmes, giving unique opportunities for interdisciplinary learning. Personal development and reflection on this is central throughout the programme.

Clinical work is central to the training. After visits to a variety of workplaces which offer music therapy, you will undertake individual and group work in two contrasting settings over six months, January to June (first placement) and September to February/March (second placement).These clinical placements will provide you with music therapy work experience alongside qualified Music Therapists. You will also participate in an experiential group, which gives you an opportunity to develop your own self-awareness and examine personal and group dynamics through verbal and musical processes. In addition, it is a requirement for you to find and fund personal individual therapy outside the course.

Please read the programme information pack thoroughly before applying to this course which includes full programme details.

We also offer introductory courses that provide a useful background to those working in related professions or anyone simply wishing to find out more about the work. No particular level of musical competence is required.

Modules

Full time mode (2 years)

Year 1

Year 2

Part-time mode (4 years)

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Compulsory and Required modules
Compulsory and/or required modules may change when we review and update programmes. Above is a list of modules offered this academic year.

Optional modules
Optional modules, when offered as part of a programme, may vary from year to year and are subject to viability.

Career options

Music Therapists work within a wide range of clinical settings. They work with people of all ages; from infants and young children through to elderly adults. Music Therapists work within statutory services (such as the NHS, education or social services), within charities and private organisations, and in private practice. To find out more, you can join the British Association for Music Therapy.

Short Courses

We also offer weekend introductory courses, 5 day Summer Schools, and 20 week part time evening Foundation Courses which provide a useful background in related professions. For more information, see our Psychology Short Courses.

Level

Postgraduate
Degree type

MA
Number of credits

MA: 240
Duration

2 years (full-time); 4 years (part-time)
Programme start

September 2019
Tuition Fees (per year)

£7,356 (2019; full-time UK/EU)
£613 per ten credits (2019; part-time UK/EU)
Scholarships and funding (UK/EU)

£9,926 (2019; full-time International)
£828 per ten credits (2019; part-time International)
International scholarships

Entry requirements

General entry requirements

Applicants must have read the programme information pack throughoughly prior to submitting their application form.
Applicants will normally be required to hold an honours degree, usually in music. Other clinically related disciplines such as psychology, teaching, nursing, or social work, and graduate level professional qualifications in appropriate disciplines such as the performing arts, Occupational Therapy and Social Work are also considered where music skills are demonstrably sufficient.
Applicants need to evidence that they can meet the academic demands of a Masters degree and will be required to prepare and submit a written personal statement to support their application.
A professional standard of proficiency on an instrument or voice, together with some keyboard skills (of at least grade 5) where piano is not the first study, and confidence with voice. The potential to use musical skills in professional Music Therapy practice and the ability to communicate musically.
It is expected that applicants will have extensive experience either having worked professionally or having practiced extensively within their specific arts modality.
An understanding of the nature of music therapy as a distinctive discipline (in particular as practised in the UK).
Applicants should demonstrate a maturity of personality and self-awareness compatible with training as a therapist. Applicants need an appropriate degree of psychological mindfulness including the capacity to form and maintain appropriate empathic relationships with clients. They should also demonstrate emotional literacy, robustness and an ability to be self-reflective. This is addressed through a combination of assessments, including a health screening form, searching questions at interview related to different parts of the training course and experiential work at interview/audition.
Applicants will be expected to have appropriate clinical experience of having worked within a setting and with clients relevant to the programme. This might include working with children, adults or older adults in the areas of learning disabilities, mental health, hospice care, dementia care, neuro-disability, homelessness etc (this is not an exhaustive list). This work can be undertaken either on a voluntary or employed basis.
Applicants whose first language is not English will need to provide evidence that they can achieve an IELTS score of 7, with no element below 6.5 at point of graduation.
Applicants will be required to supply the names of two referees, normally one of these should be able to comment on the applicant’s academic suitability and the other the applicant’s clinical suitability for the programme. References are always taken up prior to offering a place.
In addition to these requirements, all students must be prepared to enter mandatory individual personal therapy. Payment for therapy is separate to course fees.
All successful applicants will need to complete an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Payment for this is separate to the course fees.
We also offer 20 week evening foundation courses which provide a broad oultine and introduction in the arts and play therapies.

Further Information

Tessa Watson
tessa.watson@roehampton.ac.uk
+44 (0)208 392 3423

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