May 21, 2025
Well, I promised you all Wednesday blogs, so here we go with number two!. It’s so easy to get distracted, isn’t it? You have regular obligations and then others crop up. This blog post will introduce you to my role as the only Associate Editor for music therapy with Psychology of Music, my thoughts about the intersection of politics and music therapy, the role of advocacy for our field and generational relatedness.
With respect to Psychology of Music ( https://journals.sagepub.com/home/pom), the venerable 50+ years journal based in the UK which celebrates the interdisciplinary science of music, I am the only Associate Editor for music therapy. Recently, I have had several submissions to share with reviewers and frankly, those who would be best suited to the minutiae of these articles, primarily submitted by authors outside of the United States, are always busy. So I continue to seek those who might find the time to contribute to these reviews. The review system has a software system which uses a database of recently published publication related to the articles I need reviewers for. This is an ingenious way of locating professionals. Hence my strategy at this point.
Serving as Associate Editor on this journal as well as a reader of other coming publication related to music and music therapy has made me increasingly aware that there are more and more journals popping up for both junior and senior clinicians and researchers to submit to. While this is a positive trend, I am also aware that the editorial and review process may need to be more stringent. Have those submitting new work done an adequate review of literature to ensure that their work is original? Is the writing clear? Are the references in order?
Should journals introduce or avoid bias in terms of the intersection of politics and music therapy? I cite, for example, the guidelines for Voices.. Voices suggests the following: “Voices is an open access, online music therapy forum that was created in 2001 to centralise the values of inclusion and diversity in a music therapy journal, particularly in relation to culture and social justice. “ However in March of 2024, with Dr Claire Ghetti on leave, Hadley and Honig write: “This editorial discusses the roles and meaning of the “political” in music therapy journals and publication processes and calls into question the value and expectation of political neutrality.” So, readers, to what end is this attitude useful? It seems to me that we owe our clients and students political neutrality as they navigate their own personal journeys. Even in this difficult political environment isn’t it reasonable to conduct one’s professional life in this manner? I remember one year in years past when I mentioned my own bias in terms of the current President of the United States. One student was very upset and told me he did not come to school to have a professor insinuate that he should adopt any political bias I had. I agreed with him at the time and now, so many years later, continue to agree. It is only when professional life takes on an attitude that is personally offensive to me that I speak out.
The issue of advocacy continues to be front and center in our field. Some will say that we are a ‘young’ field, having formally started in the United States, for example, in 1950. To me, coming into 75 years is not young! While the field has generated support throughout the entire world in terms of education, training and practice, it remains financially unstable and in need of grassroots advocacy. My advocacy, lately, has been for professional supervision, an area of practice I am dedicated to, writing about (Goodman, 2023) and suggesting to the CBMT (Certification Board for Music Therapy) that they prominently support for continuing education. Please consider applying for continuing education (5 CE) if you sign up with me for my workshop on professional supervision (https://www.emtc2025.de/programme/pre-conferences.html) through the EMTC ‘Bridges’ conference.
The conference will include the work of many professionals, including that of Dr. Monika Smetana from Vienna, who recently published with her colleagues on generational relatedness (Wie können Übergänge gestaltet und moderiert werden? Generationenwechsel in Der Musiktherapieausbildung/ How can transitions be shaped and facilitated? Generational change in music therapy training). This was a matter of curiosity to me as I had transitioned from my 40 years of teaching at Montclair State University to starting my own business, which you see on this website. Was it important for me to maintain professional connection with both entering and senior colleagues? Why? How?
Soon after, in fact this past week, I came across the work of Dr Kate Aitchison, a clinician and researcher from Melbourne, Australia who, along with Dr Katrina McFerran, had published an article in the Spring 2025 Journal of Music Therapy, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Music Therapy Assessment: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis. My own tool on music therapy assessment with emotionally disturbed children (Goodman, 1989) was included in the article. In the course of email discussion regarding the article, Kate writes: “ I hold you in the highest regard and value the foundational role you have played in the practice of music therapy with children and adolescents experiencing mental health challenges.” This is yet another example of generational relatedness.
Have a good week and look for me next Wednesday.