Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-10-2025

Identifier

DOI: 10.1093/jmt/thae024; PMCID: PMC11718509

Abstract

Therapist attributes are known to contribute to positive therapeutic outcomes and are important to effective training and clinical practice. Although well researched in psychology and play therapy, few studies have directly explored music therapist attributes. To explore and understand these descriptions, we conducted a secondary analysis of parent interview data from a multisite trial investigating a music therapist-delivered intervention for young children with cancer and their parents. We used qualitative descriptive analysis to identify music therapists' attributes as described by parents who participated in the intervention. Our inductive analysis of 28 interviews revealed 135 descriptors of music therapists. We discovered that these descriptions grouped naturally using essential therapist attributes of supportive, attuned, and nonjudgemental, as identified in the extant literature. This analysis highlights music therapists' attributes perceived as central to their work with parents and young children in cancer settings.

Journal Title

Journal of music therapy

Volume

62

Issue

1

MeSH Keywords

Humans; Music Therapy; Parents; Female; Male; Neoplasms; Child; Qualitative Research; Adult; Child, Preschool; Professional-Family Relations

PubMed ID

39791492

Keywords

music therapist attributes; oncology; pediatric

Comments

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Publisher's Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/thae024

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