Music and Health in Integrative Care

The Music and Health in Integrative Care micro-credential is designed for graduate students currently enrolled in a healthcare program at Duquesne University. This 9-credit online program runs asynchronously to accommodate the schedule of the full-time student and working professional and can be completed in two semesters. For music therapists who plan to pursue graduate training, the Music & Health micro-credential can provide a smooth pathway for admission and advanced standing credit toward the Master of Music Therapy. 

Courses will provide:

  • Knowledge and skill development that can be directly and immediately applied into practice.
  • Opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in learning spaces that reflect the diversity of practice, philosophy, and approach of an interdisciplinary treatment team.
  • Experiential and didactic instruction about music’s healing properties in a broad range of community and treatment settings.
  • A deep understanding of the role that culture and context plays in how individuals conceptualize and engage with music.

View the 2024–2025 Curriculum

Program Information

Online

Degree

Certificate

School

Mary Pappert School of Music

Academic Department

Music Education and Music Therapy

Duration

2–3 semesters

Required Credit Hours

9

Curriculum

Please note: Students need at least a “B” in each course in order to earn the micro-credential.

Explore how culture, music, and health intersect to inform understandings of health by individuals and communities, and how that intersectionality can inform best practices for music therapy in community-based and medical settings. Students will develop culturally responsive decision-making that honors the heritage of those in need when introducing music to improve health. This course will also provide opportunities for critical reflection about how your cultural traditions have explicitly and implicitly shaped understandings of music and health in your life.
Cultural constructions of music and health can inform and shape culturally responsive and competent clinical practices. This course will examine how communities develop shared musicking, and explore ways of treatment planning by drawing from assessments of patients’ culturally-informed relationships with music.
Individuals receiving medical care across a broad spectrum of inpatient, outpatient, and residential settings are challenged to balance complex interactions across emotional, physical, physiological, social, spiritual, and cognitive health domains. This course prepares clinicians to assess, treatment plan, and evaluate resource-oriented depth-oriented therapeutic processes capable of addressing the holistic health needs of patients in a variety of medical treatment settings.

Why Pursue a Micro-Credential?

A micro-credential shows employers that you're willing to invest time and resources in your professional development. Healthcare systems in particular are increasingly interested in interdisciplinary treatment teams providing multimodal and holistic services, and the Music & Health in Integrative Care training provides the skills necessary to understand how music can fit into your scope of practice and when to refer out and/or co-treat with another team member whose scope of practice is different than yours.

How Can I Learn More?

Our faculty will help you with everything you need to know.

Noah Potvin

BSMT and MMT Program Director; Associate Professor of Music Therapy; Chair of Music Therapy and Music Education

Music Education & Music Therapy Department

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