CBMT and Musicianship

[MT-PRO Music Therapy List]

In a message dated 10/27/99 11:04:50 PM, Jim Hiller wrote:
 
<<The AAMT competencies were well thought out and have been, in large part, 
incorporated into the old NAMT and new AMTA competencies. This was a great 
evolution, and even 
though the CMT is not a "credential" persae, the emphasis on musical 
competence requirements for 
completing an AAMT program went a long way toward addressing the current 
problem at hand.  
Certainly a good deal of learning- musical learning, takes place at the 
internship, and supervisors should 
critically evaluate each student's musical skills- and insist on remediation 
for skills that are inadequate 
before approving their exit from the internship. What do others think? 
Clinical supervisors? It sounds like 
a natural, but we all realize (AND APPRECIATE) how busy clinical supervisors 
are. Its a tough problem.
>>
 
Just a couple of points from the CT perspective ..... first, we do not 
currently have a document that is known as the "AMTA Competencies".  As a 
result of the unification process, several documents have remained entitled 
as they were earlier, including the "NAMT Clinical Training Guidelines" and 
the "NAMT Professional Competencies"; these documents have also not been 
available for any revisions, etc., during the transition phase.  Other 
documents, such as the "Code of Ethics" are indeed now the "AMTA Code of 
Ethics", and have already been through an initial revision as the process of 
unification progresses.
 
As a member of the Clinical Training Committee since 1987, I have had the 
opportunity to become familiar with new and existing internship training 
programs across the country, and most particularly in my region 
(Mid-Atlantic).  It has been my experience that the sites that are 
consistently given the highest ratings by interns (the clinical training 
directors' "consumers") are those that are truly clinical TRAINING sites.  
While educators and clinical training directors (CTD's) generally agree that 
students frequently arrive at internship with weak functional/clinical musicia
nship skills, the most impassioned CTD's view training in this area as an 
integral part of their role.  This should ideally be reinforced by the fact 
that, as an employee of a facility, all CTD's are ultimately responsible for 
the quality and efficacy of services being provided to their agency's 
consumers; I do not allow my interns to work with certain individuals at my 
facility, as they (generally) do not have the clinical technique or emotional 
maturity to deal with certain processes.
 
The CT Guidelines specifically outline the areas of musical abilities, 
professional qualities and characteristics, therapeutic skills, and verbal 
and written skills as the broad strokes of competency that all interns must 
be evaluated on.  Pairing the NAMT Professional Competencies with this can 
assist CTD's and interns in focusing quite specifically on what skills the 
entering intern possesses and what needs to be accomplished by the end of the 
training.  As we design and implement individual-specific treatment plans for 
our clients, so should we "customize" our training processes for each intern. 
It is our responsibility to the future integrity of our profession, as well 
as the clients who continue to await services.  
 
 
Donna W. Polen, MT-BC
-- MT-PRO Music Therapy List, mtpro@multipro.com on 10/29/1999 at 7:18:13 AM


   *********************************************************
   To UnSubscribe, point your browser to
   http://users.multipro.com/clark/mtpro/
   or send mail to mtpro@multipro.com  asking to Unsubscribe.
   *********************************************************-
--

Administrative requests (including unsubscribes and retrieving archives) for
the mt-pro list should be mailed to majordomo@lists.shsu.edu (send the
command "help" for a list of commands).  The owner may be contacted at
owner-mt-pro@lists.shsu.edu.