'Thinking globally, acting locally': Music therapy in Europe

Welcome to this special issue of Approaches and, indeed, there are various reasons that make this journal issue ‘special’. First of all, this is the first issue dedicated to a rather complex and delicate topic: paths of professional development of music therapy in Europe. As a partnership between Approaches and the European Music Therapy Confederation (EMTC), this issue is also the first of its kind; it is the first collaboration of Approaches with an international professional music therapy
body, while at the same time it is the first journalbased publishing initiative of the EMTC. Thanks to the generous funding of the EMTC, this is also the first issue of Approaches to become available not only online but also in print format. Considering the complexity of the topic of this journal issue (as well as its unusually large size!), we feel the need to write a more thorough editorial; an editorial which does not simply introduce the contents, but more importantly provides a context
for understanding the background and the scope, as well as the limitations and aspirations of this publication.