Abstract

Told through my experiences of working with three teenagers who had mild and moderate developmental disabilities, this autoethnographic study considers identity formation as a core concept in music therapy clinical practice. In doing so, I explored theories of identity formation, including those described by Erikson (in Childhood and society. New York, NY: Norton, 1950), Marcia and colleagues (in Ego identity: A handbook for psychosocial research. New York, NY: Springer, 1993), and Crocetti, Rubini, and Meeus (in Capturing the dynamics of identity formation in various ethnic groups: Development and validation of a three-dimensional model. Journal of Adolescence, 31(2), 207–222, 2008), relating these concepts to each of the teenagers I worked with. This article, therefore, chronicles the ways in which my clinical thinking shifted from a skills-based approach to one that considers the client’s identity as a whole, leading to suggestions of ways to integrate identity formation theory into clinical practice.
adolescents, disabilities, music therapy, qualitative research
Issue Section:
 Research
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