Hearing myself: Songs and improvisation with inner-city adolescents dealing with sexual abuse history

Abstract

When I was in graduate school studying music therapy, music therapy with adolescents with emotional issues and popular music was exciting and interesting. There seemed to be very little of it discussed in the fi eld’s literature, and I found this peculiar-helping teens cope and fi nd newer, healthier ways of relating with music just made sense to me. I could identify with the needs and the work somehow. Upon completion of classes, I saw an advertisement for a music therapist position in the Jersey City Public Schools—working with elementary andmiddle school children with developmental, emotional, and social issues. And summers off, health bene fi ts, andpension! I took the interview with my hair back in a slick ponytail, wearing a very serious-looking black blazer that I had rushed out to buy the night before. My nervousness and lack of professional experience must have gotten the better of me because I did not get the job. And that turned out to be a wonderful thing.