Experiencing Race as a Music Therapist: Personal Narratives

by Sophia Khan, Ellen Bass

A compilation of critically engaging narratives that grew out of conversations with 17 music therapists living in different parts of the world, from various racial groups, about their experiences of their racialized identities in the therapy setting. The therapists describe the raced contexts in which they were born and lived at various times in their lives, and experiences of their racialized identities when they were studying music therapy and later in their professional lives. The narratives depict how our life experiences shape our understandings of ourselves and others, our assumptions and biases, and the effort with which we form relationships with different groups. These narratives are shared in the hope that we can learn to sit in our discomfort, without judgment, lowering our defenses, to learn more about ourselves and others, in order to deepen our understandings and our relationships across racialized lines.

222 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2013