Week 4: Forensic Psychiatry and More

This past weekend has been a major highlight in my career as a student music therapist. I was given the priviledge to gain insight into a population that I had been interested in investigating ever since I began my studies.

On Monday we drove to the suprisingly beautiful Bedburg-Hau. I say surprisingly, because it didn't feel like any kind of "institute" but more like a community welcoming healing. We were given a crash course in the clients/populations we would be interacting with, which was forensic psychiatry. The Germans have divided this population into two categories: general psychiatry and substance abuse. I was so excited to see if this was really what I wanted to pursue in my music therapy career.

We were given so many opportunities to observe different group sessions within this week. In these group sessions, I was able to join the music making and lead some interventions in the sessions. The clients invited me into their world for a breif moment, and I felt a great sense of acceptance amoung them. This feeling was so empowering and thrilling to me as a student music therapist, because it allowed me to test where I was with building initial rapport with clients. Also, it just felt good because these are the moments we live for in this profession!! We were also offered workshops to help dive into what these populations were like specifically in music therapy as well as how to use different techniques to accomodate the uniqueness of this population. It was truly a remarkable experience. I now know that I love this population and I hope to have more interactions with this population in the near future.

We were also qukcly submerged into yet another culture, the Netherlands. While we were collaborating at a site in Germany, our hosts were located in Nijmegen. The color and life of Nijmegen was just phenomenal. Our hosts were amazing and the atmosphere was relaxing. I really enjoyed being able to immerse myself in this unique culture.

Now we are at the 14th World Congress of Music therapy in Krems, Austria. The expreinces I've had thus far have been incredible, and I cannot wait to learn more about world music therapy.