The Music Therapy Assessment Manual: A Guide to Data-Based Decision Making

Abstract

Scholars have published ample literature about music therapy assessment. Some of this literature includes journal reviews of music therapy assessment instruments, chapters with assessment overviews, practical guides to music therapy assessment, advanced practice texts in assessment tools and psychometrics, and more overview texts of music therapy assessment. (Isenberg-Grzeda, 1988; Chase, 2002; Hanser, 2018; Jacobsen et al., 2018; Gattino, 2021). While there are publications about music therapy assessment instruments, the importance of assessment, and advanced assessment practices; music therapy assessment has not been examined with a step-by-step guide for undergraduate-level pedagogical purposes in music therapy. Therefore, the release of The Music Therapy Assessment Manual: A Guide to Data-Based Decision Making (Waldon, 2021), is a necessary addition to the literature. The Music Therapy Assessment Manual: A Guide to Data-Based Decision Making is an effective resource for use in undergraduate music therapy curriculum. In the foreword, Dr. David E. Wolfe, Professor Emeritus at University of the Pacific, described this text as bringing together “the essential components of clinical assessment…[with] details of the actual steps that a clinician can take to systematically implement procedures that can be used from the onset of a clinical referral/intake to the final termination stages of treatment” (p. x). This text is accessible to all music therapists and approaches to teaching music therapy, as the data-based decision-making methodology is not bound to one approach, rather it can be implemented in any practice to improve therapeutic outcomes.