Multicultural issues encountered in the supervision of music therapy internships in the United States and Canada

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which multicultural issues are being addressed in music therapy internships in the United States and Canada. Internships are pre-professional, supervised clinical training programs required for certification or accreditation as a music therapist. Music therapy internship supervisors (N = 104) completed an online survey on demographics, multicultural training and experiences, cross-cultural issues encountered in internship supervision, and the extent to which multicultural issues are addressed with interns. Analysis of the data revealed that although the majority of supervisors had supervised interns from diverse cultural backgrounds, many had little or no formalized training in multicultural music therapy. It was also found that multicultural issues were not being consistently addressed within the context of music therapy internship supervision. Implications for supervisor training, music therapy internship supervision practices, and further research are discussed.