QMU hosts 12th European Music Therapy Conference
In June, Scotland’s vibrant capital city will play host to the 12th European Music Therapy Conference. This conference, hosted by Queen Margaret University, will be the largest gathering of music therapists Scotland has seen.
The conference will bring together music therapists from around the globe and aims to offer a space for critical conversations and connections to break new ground in music therapy research and practice. Organised by the British Association of Music Therapy, the event itself is breaking new ground by being the first hybrid European music therapy conference.
This prestigious triennial conference is marking its 30th anniversary and this is the first time back in the UK since the inaugural conference was held in Cambridge.
Dr Philippa Derrington, Programme Leader of the MSc Music Therapy at Queen Margaret University, is co-chairing the conference. She explained: “We are incredibly excited to be welcoming over 500 delegates to the University and engaging with more than 200 delegates online. Along with a diverse programme of papers, the conference is going to push the boundaries of our ways of working and thinking. It is going to be amazing to connect with so many people.”
Dr Giorgos Tsiris, Senior Lecturer in MSc Music Therapy and conference co-Chair explained: “The conference ethos is around disrupting or ‘disturbing’ normative thinking and practice in music therapy and we’re using the term ‘shoogle’ to illustrate a kind of shaking up of the music therapy profession in different ways.”
Professor Fiona Coutts, Dean of the School of Health Sciences at Queen Margaret University, said: “We are really proud to be playing a leading role in the development of music therapy. We have a highly experienced music therapy team, each of whom either has a PhD or is working towards their doctorate. They are highly skilled researchers, educators and practitioners who are making a positive contribution to the sector both within the UK and internationally. Our Division of Occupational Therapy and Arts Therapies has a reputation as an educational trailblazer due to the development of Scotland’s only Arts Therapies programmes including MSc Dramatherapy, and our new collaborative MSc Music Therapy which runs at Metropolitan College Athens.”
Professor Coutts concluded: “We look forward to making a positive contribution to the recovery from the pandemic by delivering an exciting hybrid experience which will significantly advance the profession of music therapy at an international level, and improve the lives of thousands of individuals who will benefit from this progressive therapy in the future.”
The 12th European Music Therapy Conference will take place at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh from 8-12 June 2022.
Full information on the conference can be found in the events section of our website.
Notes to Editor
For further media information contact Lynne Russell, Communications Manager, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, E: lrussell@qmu.ac.uk; M: 07711 011239, Gavin McNee, Media Relations and Content Officer, E: gmcnee@qmu.ac.uk, or E: pressoffice@qmu.ac.uk.
