Conventions, confrontations, compatibilities and collusions: How can music therapy research be compatible with practice in contemporary UK?

Research is generally considered an essential aspect of professional development. Research helps to develop practices relevant to contemporary society: seeking to test and develop methods of practice; to ensure that reported outcomes and claims have robust evidence bases; testing that music therapy is worth the resources expended on its provisions; and hopefully making the world a better place.

At what cost, to whom?

This panel addresses the dilemmas about the nature of the link between practice and research, through questions that include: What kinds of ‘real world’ questions would help inform music therapy research? What kind of research might best serve funders, commissioners and sceptical managers?
How representative of practice are large studies that are considered ‘gold standard’ by funders and the scientific community? How can practices best be served by research conventions that isolate and reduce the complexity of music therapy to outcome measures – that may be imported from other fields of practice? What kind of violence do research and practice do to one another? (When and how do research (methodological) imperatives compromise practice?) How might clients’ wellbeing best be enhanced through research? Since no research approach can serve multiple purposes, what kind of focussed approaches should we be considering for what purposes?