Unscripted Journeys: An Exploration of Music Therapy Practitioner Perspectives on Improvisation Within and Beyond Clinical Application

Improvisation is a phenomenon used often in music settings, clinical settings, and in life in general. Within music therapy settings, clinical improvisation is one of the most common and useful skills music therapy practitioners use to help clients achieve their therapeutic goals. Proper acquisition and implementation of this skill is therefore crucial to the aspiring music therapist’s education. While many approaches to clinical improvisation are outlined within current literature, less literature exists regarding how the background and lifestyle of a music therapy practitioner may affect their development and implementation of clinical improvisation in session. Through qualitative data collection via seven interviews with current music therapy practitioners, information regarding the impact of practitioners’ personal, musical, and clinical background was gathered and analyzed to determine how and if said backgrounds influenced their development and usage of clinical improvisation. Through content and thematic analysis, this research concluded that those with more experience tended to gravitate toward spontaneity in general and clinical contexts, though the concept of spontaneity was valued by all. Accordingly, most pre-professionals tended to gravitate more toward the concept of structure. Additionally, it appeared that those with a more strict music background and education tended to gravitate more heavily toward structure in general and musical settings but not necessarily clinical settings. With these understandings, educators may gain a better understanding of how to help future music therapy students better develop clinical improvisation with the understanding that certain aspects of one’s background may affect their preference or aversion toward spontaneity.