Professional Perspectives of Music Therapy: A 30-Year Retrospective Introduction

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it... -George Santayana, The Life of Reason [1905-1906], Volume I, Reason in Common Sense, Chapter 12, 1906. In 1976, the United States was celebrating its Bicentennial, Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, and the Olympics were being hosted in Montreal. Disco fever was rampant, the movie, Rocky, was awarded best picture at the academy awards, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show won an Emmy for best comedy series. In 1976, schools across the country were gearing up to implement PL94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which called for a free and public education in the least restrictive environment. The National Association for Music Therapy (NAMT), then located in Lawrence, Kansas, had recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, and Dr. Charles Braswell served as NAMT's president. The American Association for Music Therapy (AAMT), then located in New York City, was celebrating its 5th anniversary under the leadership of Leo Shatin. At the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, Dr. Himie Voxman (director of the School of Music) had received a letter from the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) notifying him that the music therapy curriculum proposed by Dr. Erwin Schneider had received formal authorization. The Music Therapy Program at The University of Iowa was now "open for business." For the youngest cohort within our profession, these events may seem like little more than desiccated facts once memorized for a test in Orientation to Music Therapy. For those of us old enough to retain vivid memories of 1976, these events may seem as if they happened just yesterday despite the torrent of societal and scientific changes that have influenced us these past three decades. Anniversaries such as the 30th Anniversary of the Iowa Music Therapy program offer opportunities for us to reflect upon and honor past events and contributors and to see how the past has influenced current practices. At moments such as these, we move beyond the tyranny of daily deadlines and reflect on lessons learned and cherished traditions. These reflections can help us to take stock and see the big picture, which, in turn, helps us move more judiciously in future directions. In honor of the 30th Anniversary of the Iowa Music Therapy Program, we commissioned a series of presentations for the 2006 Midwestern Regional Conference of AMTA, which were delivered on March 30th-April 1st. This group of presentations, which we also refer to as "The Iowa Anniversary Lectures," was possible thanks to financial support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at The University of Iowa. Subsequently, each presenter has prepared their verbal presentation into a written form that now appears as the following collection entitled, "Professional Perspectives in Music Therapy: A 30-Year Retrospective." While one might presume that this series is essentially of local relevance (that is, relevant to Iowa alums), nothing could be further from the truth. The purpose of this lecture series, which was an integral part of the 2006 Midwest Regional Conference, was to create an opportunity for music therapists to think about the big picture-where our profession has been, where we are now, and where we should we be headed. We asked a group of music therapists, each of them an expert in a particular area of our field and whose collective professional experiences comprise over 250 years, to prepare papers on the past, present, and future as it relates to their own subspecialty. By reflecting on their past experiences, they bring into sharp relief important professional issues that shape music therapy practice today. …