A descriptive review of the impostor experience to support the health of music therapy students and professionals

Abstract

The impostor experience (IE) is an inaccurate self-assessment negatively impacting a person’s internal sense of success despite objective evidence to the contrary. IE commonly occurs in a variety of students and professionals and is associated with negative affective states as well as occupational burnout. The purpose of this descriptive review was to survey the existing IE literature and describe, normalize, and mitigate IE specific to music therapy students and professionals. I conducted a descriptive review of the IE literature to determine how IE might manifest itself in music therapy students and professionals as well as potential ways to mitigate IE. IE is highly prevalent and may be especially widespread in students, healthcare professionals, musicians, academics, and people who are from communities who have been marginalized. Music therapy students and professionals may be at heightened risk for IE because they exist at the intersection of a small creative arts profession within various larger healthcare systems. Resultant of the review, I developed a model to name and normalize IE for music therapy students and professionals and provided specific recommendations for mitigating IE to augment the health and wellbeing of music therapy students and professionals. Through exposure to the IE scholarly literature and unpacking unique challenges that music therapy students and professionals encounter, I hope that IE can be named, normalized, and mitigated. Implications for academic and clinical training, limitations of the literature, suggestions for future research, and recommendations for continuing education to prevent and mitigate IE are provided.