“Taking Time”: Exploring Music Therapy Student Self-Care Definitions and Practices

Abstract

Abstract The concept of self-care for music therapists is not a new topic in the literature, yet music therapy students’ perspectives have largely been excluded from formal discussions and research studies. For this reason, this study aimed to examine music therapy students’ conceptualizations of self-care and identify practices that students frequently engage in for self-care. As part of a national survey, music therapy students currently enrolled in an academic degree program for music therapy within the United States defined self-care and identified up to three of their most frequent self-care practices. We analyzed the student self-care definitions and self-care practices using inductive content analysis. Two primary categories emerged from the student definitions—the Act of Self-Care and the Desired Outcomes of Self-Care—with several more detailed subcategories. Additionally, we grouped participants’ most common self-care practices into 10 categories and identified two emergent areas for exploration: self-care practices done with others/done alone and engaging in self-care practices that intentionally do not involve anything related to academics/coursework/clinical work. Together, these findings indicate that students’ conceptualizations of self-care and their self-care practices have similarities and differences with music therapy professionals’ perspectives and practices. We discuss these findings in depth and provide recommendations for future self-care discussions that emphasize the need to prioritize students’ perspectives and to expand conceptualizations of self-care to include contextual and systemic impacts and factors that influence the individual self-care experience.