Music Therapy

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Music Therapy is a growing and rapidly developing field that provides opportunities for an exciting and rewarding career.

“Music therapy is the specialized use of music in the service of individuals with needs in mental health, physical health, habilitation, rehabilitation, special education, self-care or personal growth. Services are rendered to individuals of every chronological age, mental age, and adaptive level of functioning  in a variety of health care, habilitative, rehabilitative, educational, community, and private practice settings. In each instance, the purpose is to help individuals attain and maintain their maximum levels of functioning.” (AMTA Standards of Clinical Practice, 1999)

Music therapists use their music skills and interests to realize therapeutic goals. They work with a wide variety of populations, such as adult psychiatric patients, autistic children, chemically dependent clients and persons with impairments in mobility, vision, hearing or development. From music therapyassisted childbirth to professional work in hospitals, prisons, hospice settings, schools and nursing homes, music therapists play a significant role in the health care field.

By emphasizing traditional as well as innovative approaches to the exciting and growing field of music therapy, Maryville’s Music Therapy program encourages students to pursue their own special interests. The curriculum also is well supported by coursework in applied and theoretical music skills, as well as by studies in psychology, anatomy, special education and the humanities.

Students have excellent opportunities to obtain a wide variety of supervised clinical experiences throughout the greater St. Louis area. Students can observe and work directly in all the representative clinical populations under the guidanceof faculty and board-certified music therapists.

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