LAUSR

How relevant is music therapy research for practitioners? This is a question that Eric Waldon and Barbara Wheeler ask in this issue (p. 395). A “gap” between research and practice has been lamented and discussed for decades in many areas, in psychotherapy at least as much as in music therapy. In their survey of more than 1000 practitioners worldwide, Waldon and Wheeler found this same gap again, dependent on the respondents’ proximity to academia. However, respondents also felt that research in general was relevant to them. The question can be viewed from two sides: practitioners may not always see the relevance of research without appropriate guidance; alternatively, the research itself may not be sufficiently relevant for practitioners. Research on effects is far away from the daily and moment-to-moment decisions of practitioners, but is connected to the ultimate goals of therapy. In contrast, research aiming to provide insights about processes can be close to the daily work, but may fail to explain what helps in the longer term. The National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins, together with opera singer Renée Fleming, recently outlined the achievements and challenges of music therapy research as follows: