africa@wfmt.info
Music therapy in South Africa sits in an interesting and important place. On the one hand, it is firmly established: in South Africa, music therapy is formally recognised and a regulated healthcare profession, registered through the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). On the other hand, it is still a relatively small field, continuing to grow, and advocating for wider access and relevance.
Professional training is based at the University of Pretoria, which has offered a Master’s programme in Music Therapy since 1999. In 2024, the programme celebrated 25 years, a significant and milestone. This anniversary marked far more than longevity; it reflected sustained commitment to developing music therapists who can work meaningfully within the complex social, cultural, and political realities of South Africa. Given the challenges facing higher education, healthcare, and the arts, maintaining and growing a programme over a quarter of a century is no small undertaking.
Importantly, the University of Pretoria has opened a PhD programme to its students. The first cohort of PhD music therapy students in South Africa are now well into their studies, signaling a deepening of research capacity and critical inquiry within the profession. This development opens space for locally grounded theory-building and for South African music therapists to contribute knowledge that emerges from this context, rather than relying solely on imported frameworks.
In practice, music therapists in South Africa work across NGOs, schools, private practices, hospitals, and community settings, often responding to experiences of trauma, inequality, exclusion, and marginalisation. While this has fostered innovative and responsive practice, it also highlights a persistent gap: music therapy is not yet embedded within the public healthcare system through funded posts. As a result, access to services remains uneven and frequently dependent on private means or external funding.
A defining feature of music therapy in South Africa is its growing critical consciousness. There is increasing attention to questions of power, culture, and whose music and knowledge are centred in therapeutic spaces. Many practitioners and researchers are engaging with anti-oppressive, community-based, and participatory approaches, and are in ongoing dialogue with Indigenous African music and healing practices. This work challenges the profession to move beyond replication of Eurocentric models and towards practices that are ethically responsive and contextually grounded.
Research emerging from South Africa is contributing meaningfully to global conversations around decolonisation, cultural humility, and arts-based inquiry. These contributions reflect a profession that is not only clinically engaged, but also willing to sit with discomfort, complexity, and transformation.
Overall, music therapy in South Africa is a field that is rooted, reflective, and still becoming. The celebration of 25 years of training at the University of Pretoria, alongside the emergence of doctoral-level scholarship, marks an important moment to pause, take stock, and imagine what the profession could continue to offer—particularly if access, public-sector integration, and social justice remain central to its future.
