A qualitative study of Korean music therapist's turnover experiences

• The lack of recognition of music therapy contributed to music therapists’ turnover decision.
• Music therapists value professional incentives rather than financial incentives.
• Collectivistic and vertical relationship attributes of the Koreans played an important role on music therapists’ interpersonal relationship in their workplace.

Nine Korean music therapists’ turnover experiences were examined using consensual qualitative research. Five domains and 24 categories were created from the cross-analysis of the data. The domains of this study were: (a) factors contributing to turnover; (b) burnout; (c) turnover procedure; (d) changes after turnover; and (e) factors contributing to retention. Based on the frequency label of each category, three types of categories were generated: general (8–9 cases), typical (5–7 cases), and variant (2–3 cases). The result showed that the lack of recognition for music therapy among administrators, supervisors, and peer therapists contributed to music therapists’ turnover decision. However, it was found that these participants had a strong sense of professionalism, which was expressed through their work, regardless of the various challenges posed by environmental conditions. In fact, financial sources such as work conditions and salary were only categorized as variant whereas the professional incentives were identified generally across participants in this study.