Music Therapy Equivalency

View 2025–2026 Master of Music Therapy Equivalency Curriculum

If you have a foundation in music (preferably a bachelor’s degree in music) and wish to become a music therapist, the equivalency program will provide you with the foundational coursework, internship, and graduate studies necessary to earn a Master of Music Therapy degree.  Scholarships are available.

  • Our MMT Equivalency is designed to supplement your foundation in music with the undergraduate and graduate coursework necessary for you to become a board-certified music therapist in just three years.
  • On-campus undergraduate coursework and online graduate coursework allow you to continue your established professional career while you work toward the MMT and board certification.
  • With a focus on community-engaged practice and medical music psychotherapy, you will learn how to provide specialized intensive psychological, emotional, and psychospiritual support to patients in various medical settings such as cancer centers, neonatal intensive care units, and hospices.
  • Explore how to provide ethical, culturally responsive healthcare services that engage patients as active collaborators and stakeholders in their health journeys.
  • Learn to become an adaptive and resilient healthcare professional in a rapidly evolving healthcare ecosystem.

Admission Overview

Admission to the graduate division for Music Therapy requires the submission of an Audition Portfolio as well as the completion of a formal interview.

Program Information

Optional Licensed Professional Counselor Track

Program Type

Major

Degree

Master's

School

Mary Pappert School of Music

Academic Department

Music Education and Music Therapy

Duration

3-year

Required Credit Hours

27 Equivalency credits; 32 Masters credits - total of 59 credit hours

Modality

Hybrid

MMT Equivalency Program Director

Meng-Shan Lee

Assistant Professor of Music Therapy

Meng-Shan Lee headshot on a gray background.

Learning Outcomes

Equivalency

  1. Students will demonstrate functional music skills related to voice, piano, guitar, percussion, conducting techniques, and movement.
  2. Students will demonstrate basic knowledge related to the clinical foundations of music therapy practice and music therapy practice as set by the American Music Therapy Professional Competencies.
  3. Students will demonstrate professional, ethical, and cultural reflexivity in clinical and educational settings.
  4. Students will use their music skills, their music therapy knowledge base, reflexivity, supervision, and the scholarly literature to engage in clinical music therapy practice.

Masters

  1. Students and graduates will apply philosophical tenets and clinical techniques of humanistic, psychodynamic, and ecological approaches as an advanced practice in a variety of healthcare settings.
  2. Students and graduates will develop a cultural reflexivity cultivating a culturally humble professional identity and ethical, responsible partnering with individuals across healthcare settings.
  3. Students and graduates will develop specialty in music psychotherapy and community-engaged practices.
  4. Students and graduates will develop the capacity for critical assessment, evaluation, and development of advanced music therapy practice in complex systems.
  5. Graduates will be positioned to become leaders in the field and in their respective communities and healthcare systems by assuming one or more of the following roles: advanced practitioners, clinical supervisors, patient advocates, clinician-researchers, and clinician-educators.