Date of Award

Spring 5-3-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Major

Clinical Mental Health Counselling

First Advisor

Leticia Prieto Álvarez, PhD, MT-BC/NMT, LMHC

Abstract

This literature review defines and explores the themes at the intersection of music therapy and mental health counseling techniques and general education practices for classroom management. This work explores how general education teachers, who are not therapists or musicians, might use music to engage students so that their classrooms feel safe (physically and emotionally), productive, and ideally, fun. From recent and relevant literature in music therapy, psychology, and education journals as well as classroom management guidebooks grounded in trauma-informed theory, five major themes emerged: (1) Student Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivation, (2) Student-Teacher Relationships (3) Social/Emotional Learning, (4) Psychological Safety/Well-Being in School, and (5) Teacher Identity and Burnout. An analysis and discussion of these five themes indicated that music therapy-informed techniques and the use of music in general classrooms are potentially powerful tools for motivating and building relationships with students, and that music therapy could be useful for addressing and preventing teacher burnout as well. While more research is necessary to determine the efficacy of music therapy-informed techniques for classroom management, the initial research shows a great potential for the use of music by general education teachers at any grade level.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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