Experiencing Race as a Music Therapist: Personal Narratives

Experiencing Race as a Music Therapist: Personal Narratives is 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 music therapists describe the raced and cultural contexts in which they were born and describe the racial demographics of the places they have lived at various times in their lives. The countries in which the individual music therapists spent their formative years include Australia, Canada, Iran, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, with many of them also having traveled to other countries. The music therapists discussed their specific experiences of their racialized identities when they were studying music therapy and how they experienced their racialized identities in their professional lives. Many of them also described the differences they were aware of in terms of how they experienced themselves as raced or how they experienced the therapeutic relationship when they were working with people of their own race compared with working with people who were from a different race. From these narratives, we can see that our life experiences shape how we understand ourselves and others, our assumptions and biases, and the effort with which we form relationships with different groups of people. The music therapists in this book have shared their experiences in the hope that we can learn how to sit in our discomfort, without judgment, lowering our defenses, in order to learn more about ourselves and others, so that we can deepen our understandings and our relationships across racialized lines.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Autumn Leaves: Gabriel Yancy

Introduction: Let's Talk About Race:  Susan Hadley

Narrative One: Living and Working between Worlds: Carolyn Kenny and Susan Hadley

Narrative Two: Reflections on the Complexities and Paradoxes of Identity: Aaron Lightstone and Susan Hadley

Narrative Three: This Skin I am In : Helen Oosthuizen and Susan Hadley

Narrative Four: Reflections on Race in a Shifting South Africa: Andeline Dos Santos and Susan Hadley

Narrative Five: The View from the Floor: Getano Bann and Susan Hadley

Narrative Six: Well, Just Shut Up and Bloody Listen!: Anja Tait and Susan Hadley

Narrative Seven: Changing Levels of Comfort: Living and Working in Different Communities: Meagan Hunt and Susan Hadley

Narrative Eight: He Hikoi (The Journey): Dennis Kahui and Susan Hadley

Narrative Nine: Trying to Escape the Shackles of White Colonialism: Sarah Hoskyns and Susan Hadley

Narrative Ten: Creating a Path in the Middle: Frances Smith Goldberg and Susan Hadley

Narrative Eleven: Why Do I Care about Race?: Theresa Merrill and Susan Hadley

Narrative Twelve: Bringing My Asian Identity to Light through Acculturation: Seung-A Kim and Susan Hadley

Narrative Thirteen: Direct Encounters: Challenging My Sense of Self as a Good, Moral Person: Michael Viega and Susan Hadley

Narrative Fourteen: Seeing through Both Lenses: As told to Susan Hadley by a Japanese Music Therapist

Narrative Fifteen: Does Your Family Drive Camels?: Roia Rafieyan and Susan Hadley

Narrative Sixteen: You Don't/Look/Sound/Act Puerto Rican: Experiencing Myself as an Exception: Magdaliz Roura and Susan Hadley

Narrative Seventeen: Lessons Learned through Growing and Listening: Allison Cross and Susan Hadley

The Continuous Journey: Susan Hadley