"Taking Time": Exploring Music Therapy Student Self-Care Definitions and Practices.

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.

Using Contextual and Visual Cues to Improve Sung Word Recognition in Hearing Aid Users.

Older adults commonly experience hearing loss that negatively affects the quality of life and creates barriers to effective therapeutic interactions as well as music listening. Music therapists have the potential to address some needs of older adults, but the effectiveness of music interventions is dependent on the perception of spoken and musical stimuli. Nonauditory information, such as contextual (e.g., keywords, picture related to song) and visual cues (e.g., clear view of singer's face), can improve speech perception. The purpose of this study was to examine the benefit of contextual and visual cues on sung word recognition in the presence of guitar accompaniment. The researcher tested 24 community-dwelling older adult hearing aid (HA) users recruited through a university HA clinic and laboratory under 3 study conditions: (a) auditory stimuli only, (b) auditory stimuli with contextual cues, and (c) auditory stimuli with visual cues. Both visual and contextual nonauditory cues benefited participants on sung word recognition. Participants' music background and training were predictive of success without nonauditory cues, and visual cues provided greater benefit than contextual cues. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that music therapists increase the accessibility of music interventions reliant upon lyric recognition through the incorporation of clear visual and contextual cues.

A Survey of Music Therapy Students' Perceived Stress and Self-Care Practices.

High levels of stress and burnout are common among professional music therapists and researchers suggest that guidance related to self-care during clinical training may influence professional success and strain. Currently, little is known about music therapy students' perceived stress and levels of self-care engagement. The purpose of this study was to examine music therapy students' perceived stress levels and self-care practices to inform future research in this area. Music therapy students (n = 371) who were currently enrolled in an academic degree program for music therapy within the United States completed this study. Instrumentation included Perceived Stress Scale and a researcher-modified Student Self-Care Scale (SSCS). Academic program directors distributed the online survey to students. Results indicated that both scales had adequate-to-good internal consistency. An exploratory factor analysis of the SSCS revealed that music therapy students' self-care includes eight factors related to academic and personal self-care practices. The average level of perceived stress reported across music therapy students is higher than previously reported levels for adults in the United States. More specifically, undergraduate music therapy students report higher perceived stress than undergraduate students in general. Lower frequency of self-care engagement, particularly in regard to self-awareness and physical self-care practices, was associated with higher levels of perceived stress. This study provides previously unreported student data of interest to educators and supervisors in music therapy. Continued investigations should focus on the music therapy students' experience and educators' concerns, both of which may generate new curricular approaches to addressing stress and self-care.