New to URI, the Music Therapy major achieves a balance between psychology and music. Photo from adahome.care.
Over this past year, the University of Rhode Island department of music has begun teaching courses for a new bachelor’s degree in music therapy. The music therapy major balances both music and psychology classes in a way that makes students proficient in both fields.
“Music therapy is a field that is new to URI, but has been around since the 1950s,” said Nicole O’Malley, who teaches music therapy classes at the Fine Arts Center. “The degree program took us about four years to propose the course structure that was needed to be accredited by [National Association of Schools of Music] and approved by the American Music Therapy Association.”
Students in the major take courses that are associated with the major in music, such as music theory and courses on instruments like piano and guitar. They will also take part in ensembles and other performances.
In addition to those courses, they also take courses in psychology and human anatomy. These include classes on basic introductions to psychology and personality disorders.
Most importantly, they have classes combining the two fields, including assessment and treatment planning. The courses are aimed at a wide range of topics, such as mental health to social justice and the impact of music on these subjects. Due to the heavy workload and requirement of a musical internship, the major is a five-year program.
“They have 1200 hours of clinical work over the five years,” O’Malley said. “Most of that time is in their fifth-year internship where they can go anywhere in the country and work under a music therapist.”
The department is built to work with the culture of URI, which is described by O’Malley as rich and diverse. The department just submitted their first research proposal, a collaborative project with both the pharmacy and engineering departments.
O’Malley said that, like everyone, the program did struggle a bit with the major first starting to be offered in the pandemic. Yet she thinks it helped the program in some other ways, as it supported growth and innovation in a brand new program to campus.
Being just in its first year, the major currently has eight students, all freshmen, who are excited to learn more about the interesting subject.
“We’re still just barely touching the surface on what we will be doing,” said music therapy major Joey Peavy. “There is so much you can do with music in a therapeutic setting.”
Another student in the major, Carrie Sullivan, feels that the work involved in the major can be misunderstood.
“I think what people don’t realize about music therapy is that it is really about the intersection of music and neuroscience and psychology in the brain,” said Sullivan, “There’s so much abundant research on that in different fields and it’s really exciting.”
Both Peavy and Sullivan said that the amount of work that is done in the major can be overwhelming, but it is worth it to learn more about a major that is truly interesting to them.
The program is looking to expand in the upcoming years and more information can be found on the URI music department’s webpage.