A PILOT STUDY EVALUATING A TRAINING FOR MUSIC THERAPY STUDENTS ON CONSIDERATIONS FOR LGBTQ CLIENTS

Music therapists are expected to understand the influence of gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation on the therapeutic process, yet may not be receiving education that adequately prepares them to support LGBTQ clients. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of a one-hour educational training for music therapy students on considerations for working with LGBTQ clients. The presentation included information about terminology, discrimination, healthcare discrimination, music therapy research, musical considerations, and additional resources provided as a handout. The minority stress theory and queer theory informed the development of the presentation. Exploratory analysis revealed that participants (N = 5) demonstrated significant improvement in perceptions of their preparedness to support LGBTQ clients following the presentation, Z = 2.03, p = .042, r = 0.91, particularly regarding terminology and healthcare disparities. Although changes in knowledge did not reach statistical significance, measures of central tendency indicated some improvement following the presentation. Music therapy students made positive statements about knowledge gained from the training and expressed wanting to learn more about LGBTQ advocacy and discrimination in healthcare. Results suggest that a one-hour training may be useful for increasing music therapy students’ perceptions of preparedness to work with LGBTQ clients