Making Advancements on our Strategic Plan: Music Therapy Research Around the World

As I am sure you are aware from prior website postings and blogs, the WFMT has been working hard on our 3 year strategic plan (2014-2017). As we are coming close to the end of year 2 (June 2016), I am pleased to say the Council has made advances on a number of our top priorities and goals.Today I am writing about one initiative in our 2nd goal area: Building Community Awareness. One of the identified tasks in helping us achieve this goal is to develop videos as resources for all WFMT members and persons who visit our website. I am pleased to have been the first person to be interviewed in a series that Dr. Katrina McFerran is spearheading for the WFMT.Dr. McFerran holds a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne and is a Registered Music Therapist living in Australia. Her research has focused on the therapeutic uses of music with young persons in a variety of settings including hospital, school, and the community. She is a qualitative researcher, whose studies have included phenomenology, grounded theory, and action research. At present, Dr. McFerran is Professor and the Head of Music Therapy at the University of Melbourne.In this 2-part video on research, I speak about the investigations I have undertaken, methodologies I have implemented, and some of the challenges in conducting research. I also discuss how my studies relate to other inquiries taking place around the globe and the research trends. Further, I provide my thoughts on the importance of music therapy research and collaborating with other healthcare professionals. If you are new to research, or you want to learn more about trends in our professional discipline, I encourage you to watch these two short videos (click here to view).Also, please keep your eyes peeled on the WFMT Education Center for the next video in this series on music therapy research around the globe, featuring Andeline dos Santos (South Africa), to be debuted later this month!Warm Regards from Canada,Amy Clements-Cortes, PhD, RP, MT-BC, MTAFellow of the Association for Music and ImageryPresident, WFMT