Types of Termination in Clinical Music Therapy Practice: A Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

To support student learning about clinical music therapy termination processes, a qualitative research method was used to address three research questions: (a) What are the current termination practices of music therapists from multiple clinical settings? (b) What types of termination practices might they describe? and (c) What processes do they move through in their termination practices? Forty-six music therapists were interviewed about their experiences of clinical termination in music therapy. They described 134 termination scenarios that took place in 18 different types of clinical settings. Inductive thematic analysis of the scenarios identified several themes, one of which is addressed in this paper: termination types. Nine types of termination processes are described in the results. The types were described using the salient features of the termination scenarios. Identifying termination types in this way has the potential to provide students and clinicians with ways to think critically and creatively about what it means to effectively terminate a therapeutic relationship and about what effective termination can look like in different clinical settings.