Beginner’s Forum at the 19th JMTA conference

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The Japanese Music Therapy Association (JMTA) held its annual conference in Osaka between September 20-22, 2019, and more than 2000 people attended this year. A number of pre-congress seminars, symposia, and oral/poster presentations covered a variety of important issues and unique topics including research methods in music therapy, interprofessional collaboration, music therapy and Japanese cultural environment, and tele-intervention in music therapy, but I would like to spotlight Beginner’s Forum today.

It was probably the first time a forum for beginners was organized at a national music therapy conference in Japan. Professionals who they consider themselves less-experienced as well as students were welcomed to participate. The congress president stated they were inspired by Hiyoko and Hinadori (“chick” and “young bird” in Japanese) Forum, a place where young professionals report their work, held at a regional conference in Kanto area (eastern part of Japan, where Tokyo is located) and also student events held at the 15th WCMT in Tsukuba, Japan. Since this was the first try, the organizing committee was not sure how many participants they would have. However, we had more than 70 participants in total!

The forum was very well organized. Based on the questionnaire they had prior to the conference, they decided to focus on three most common concerns beginners are likely to have - concerns regarding 1) self-employment, 2) collaborative work with other professions, and 3) session planning or practical skills in session.

Three representatives of beginners shared their concerns with the audience first, and then the participants were asked to choose one from the three. They sat in a circle with people who had the same concern. There was a facilitator who had more clinical experience in each of 6 talking groups (2 groups in each topic). The facilitator led the discussion and asked beginners to share their concerns or ideas to deal with the difficulty. After 30 minutes of free discussion, a representative of the group shared what they discussed with the audience.

The most impressive point I found was that probably every participant had a chance to talk, which does not always happen in our culture. Some people prefer being quiet, but everyone seemed to be actively involved in the discussion in this forum. This is partly because they knew others would have similar concerns and so felt safe to express their feelings. There are thousands of things to learn from experts, of course, yet there are things only peers can do also. The unexpected number of participants indicates how much beginners are looking for the place to network with peers and share their concerns. In addition, this forum provided an opportunity for them to find out a conference is not only the place to sit and listen to great researchers’/professors’ presentations but also the place to actively participate and learn by doing.

Students and young professionals around the globe!! Come to the 16^th World Congress of Music Therapy in Pretoria, South Africa and join exciting student events! You will experience something you can never forget. Fly to SA and dig out a treasure for life!

Kumi Sato

WFMT Executive Assistant 2017-2020

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