An image of Dr. Hakeem Leonard standing outside in a city

Keynote Presentation: Bending the Therapist Genre: Exploration of Reflexive Shifts in Music Therapy

Presented By: 

Dr. Hakeem Leonard, Ph.D., MT-BC
When we define music therapy in a way that emphasizes personhood and utilizes music as a resource, it naturally leads to shifts in our roles and the nature of therapeutic relationships. In recent years, music therapists have increasingly practiced clinical and cultural reflexivity, gradually informing perspectives and decision-making processes. Some meaningful aspects of this reflexivity relate to how resources, roles, and relationships are understood in therapy. In this session, we will examine this reflexivity, focusing on these three elements, and explore what they mean for how we define our work and hold space in music therapy.
The name of this session is derived from an article titled ‘Genre-Bending’ by Banzon and Leonard (2023), which introduced the concept of “Bending the Therapist Genre” to highlight important shifts in clinical understanding of roles and expansions in reflexivity. Our exploration into this therapeutic genre bending will also be informed by other scholarship and experiences that shed light on this subject. Some of the questions we will explore together include: What are the foundational contexts that help us better understand these shifts? How does this inform our definition of music therapy? What scholarly and clinical elements are building on this understanding? How do we continue to cultivate reflexivity that maintains the therapeutic genre we know while embracing the bending of that genre?

Session Start

February 1, 2025 12:15 am GMT

January 31, 2025 7:15 pm (New_York)

Session Length

90 minutes

Presenter Bios: 

Dr. Hakeem Leonard is Associate Professor of Music Therapy and Assistant Provost for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, in the United States. Prior to becoming a faculty member, he ran a music therapy private practice in Tallahassee, Florida where he engaged with, supported the experience of, and advocated for multiple client communities. Both his social positionality and roles are informed by continual meditation on justice and belonging and a disposition to move through the world with cultural humility. He is passionate about student learning, holistic professional development, resource-oriented approaches to teaching and therapy, and lifespan development and growth. He is also intent on employing a global perspective with the unifying value of music as a human right. His music therapy scholarship has ranged topics such as equity, anti-colonialism, Hip-Hop, music technology, aesthetics, pain management, and global MT practices. As a speaker, he enjoys offering his experience, knowledge, and his own questioning to invite collaborative sense-making and transformative learning.