The role of a music therapist exploring gender and power with young people: Articulating an emerging anti-oppressive practice

Abstract

This paper aims to articulate an emerging application of music therapy, drawing on data collected in a broader ongoing feminist research project. The project locates music therapy as an anti-oppressive practice for young people in high school to explore gender and power. This article focuses on how young people conceptualise this approach to music therapy practice. In the last decade, several approaches have emerged in the creative arts therapies that aim to critically explore power, and challenge dominant socio-political discourses. While there has been a dedicated interest in critical, feminist approaches to practice in the music therapy discipline, empirical research into music therapy as a space for exploring gendered narratives with young people is still evolving. Furthermore, we have little sense of how anti-oppressive approaches are experienced by the people of all ages with whom we work in music therapy practice. Foregrounding the participants’ experiences and ideas, this paper attempts to develop specific terminology generated by young people themselves, highlighting whether the ways we conceptualise our role are actually apparent to and understood by them. 16 young people were asked during interviews how they would describe the role of the music therapist in the project. This paper explores the three key salient themes emerging from their responses: that this approach centres on providing a safe and therapeutic space to explore real world issues; that such a role involves a distinct approach to sharing power and holding space; and that this role has both emancipatory potential and complex consequences for adolescent group work.