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

Area of Science:

• Music Therapy
• Student Well-being
• Healthcare Education

Background:

• Self-care is a recognized concept among music therapy professionals.
• Music therapy students' perspectives on self-care are underrepresented in existing literature.
• Understanding student self-care is crucial for academic and clinical training environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine music therapy students' conceptualizations of self-care.
• To identify frequent self-care practices among music therapy students.
• To compare student and professional perspectives on self-care in music therapy.

Main Methods:

• A national survey of music therapy students in the United States.
• Students defined self-care and listed up to three frequent practices.
• Inductive content analysis was used to analyze definitions and practices.

Main Results:

• Student definitions of self-care categorized into 'Act of Self-Care' and 'Desired Outcomes of Self-Care'.
• Student self-care practices were grouped into 10 categories.
• Emergent themes included self-care practiced alone/with others and practices unrelated to academic/clinical work.

Conclusions:

• Music therapy students' self-care concepts and practices share similarities and differences with professionals.
• Student perspectives are vital for informing self-care strategies in music therapy education.
• Future research should consider contextual, systemic factors influencing student self-care.