Research in use – cultures of relating: Round table

To make music therapy known outside the field, dissemination of the research and collaboration between clinicians and researchers on documentation are both necessary.

Some music therapy researchers are active clinicians, but if they have full time positions at universities, they cannot at the same time be part of the interdisciplinary clinical culture found in institutions with a main focus on a certain client group. Here the music therapy clinicians can be the golden link between the research culture and the local clinical culture. At the same time, music therapy clinicians are not (usually) employed to spend time on research, and may also have difficulty translating research results into an understandable language for their colleagues from other professions.

Dissemination of research
Internationally conducted or published research has a good reputation, but is hardly known by ‘users’ of music therapy (broadly seen). In addition, research conducted in another clinical setting than the local/national, as well as the dominance of English publication language, are barriers for spreading knowledge about music therapy – to clients/relatives and professionals, as well as employers.

Collaborative documentation
Locally based projects involving clinical music therapists as well as researchers are an effective way of spreading the use of and knowledge about music therapy, and can also be a basis for later data collection on a greater scale.

Starting from web-based examples, this round table will present, share and discuss different possibilities, knowing that the specific format for dissemination and collaboration will always depend on the local context and national issues.