Karen D. Goodman is an internationally recognized music therapy educator, therapist, supervisor, author and editor. Born in New York, New York she received a Bachelors degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, music therapy certification training from Montclair State University, Master of Science in Special Education from City University of New York- Hunter College, post graduate training in neurology, developmental psychology and music from New York University and a PhD in Music Therapy from Aalborg University, Denmark, all with scholarship support.

During her formative years as a clinician, educator and supervisor in the New York City area, Professor/Dr. Goodman had the opportunity to work with and to be mentored by several gifted psychiatrists: Dr. Silvano Arieti, M.D., Dr. Judith Kestenberg, M.D., Dr. Stanley Greenspan, M.D., Dr. Daniel Stern,M.D., Dr. Cynthia Pfeffer, M.D., and Dr. Shale Brownstein, M.D.. In the United States, she is qualified as a music therapist, a licensed creative arts therapist (State of New York), a certified special educator in the State of New Jersey and State of New York, a developmental specialist for the NJEIS, New Jersey Early Intervention System and the first music therapy provider of DIR (Developmental, Individual and Relationship based) services.

Professor/Dr. Goodman has worked at multiple facilities, including Creative Arts Rehabilitation Ctr, NYC, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, White Plains, NY (see first published music therapy assessment tool for emotionally disturbed children, IMTAC) and in private practice, serving child and adult psychiatric populations as a music therapist since 1976. As a full time professor during the years 1978-2018 (longest serving music therapy educator, State of New Jersey, in the first academic program in the Northeast), Professor/Dr. Goodman developed and taught 31 undergraduate and graduate courses in music therapy, music and psychology at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey. She served in key  administrative positions at all levels of the university including the music therapy program (Director) , the John J. Cali School of Music (i.e. Program Assessment for all units) , the College of the Arts Ii.e. Chair, Curriculum) and the University (i.e. Middle States Accreditation), . With a wide range of publication (see Research Gate), her books include Music Therapy Groupwork with Special Needs Children: The Evolving Process (2007), Music Therapy Education and Training: From Theory to Practice (2011) and the edited volumes International Perspectives in Music Therapy Education and Training: Adapting to a Changing World (2015) and Developing Issues in World Music Therapy Education and Training ( 2023) , all published by Charles C Thomas. Her books circulate in over 70 countries (WorldCat). Her doctoral dissertation, The Music Therapy Supervisor: Developmental Perspectives, a Qualitative Study including Systematic Reviews and Interview Study Utilizing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (May 2023), completed through Aalborg University in Aalborg, Denmark, is published at the following link: https://www.communication.aau.dk/phd-thesis-by-karen-goodman-n78890

To date, she has presented nationally and internationally at over 45 conferences on topics related to her clinical work in child and adult psychiatry, as well as scholarship on training and education. Former Editor of Music Therapy- Journal of the American Association for Music Therapy, she was recently appointed as an Associate Editor, Psychology of Music and serves on the editorial boards of The International Journal of Clinical Medicine and Higher Education, Teaching and Learning, the journal of HETL (Higher Education Teaching and Learning). She is an internal reviewer for Routledge and Oxford University Press, a grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Institute of Health, is a consultant for ranking academic music therapy programs in the United States and an evaluator for Pearson Education. Her work has been supported by 32 grants, primarily by Montclair State University in New Jersey, where she was honored as a Professor Emerita in October 2018. Please see all consulting services on this website, Services.