Making Sense of Self: An Autoethnographic Study of Identity Formation for Adolescents in Music Therapy

Abstract

Abstract Told through my experiences of working with three teenagers who had mild and moderate developmental disabilities, this autoethnographic study considers identity formation as a core concept in music therapy clinical practice. In doing so, I explored theories of identity formation, including those described by Erikson (1950, Childhood and society, Norton), Marcia and colleagues (1993, Ego identity: A handbook for psychosocial research, Springer), and Crocetti, Rubini, and Meeus (2008, Journal of Adolescence, 31(2), 207–222), relating these concepts to each of the teenagers I worked with. This article, therefore, chronicles the ways in which my clinical thinking shifted from a skills-based approach to one that considers the client’s identity as a whole, leading to suggestions of ways to integrate identity formation theory into clinical practice.