Date Available

4-28-2017

Year of Publication

2017

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Music (MM)

College

Fine Arts

Department/School/Program

Music

Advisor

Dr. Olivia Yinger

Abstract

As helping professionals, music therapists show compassion to their clients but may lack necessary self-care skills to prevent burnout and promote well-being. Due to a lack of research in this area, this study investigated reported levels of compassion for others, self-compassion, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction among music therapists in relation to age, gender, and years of professional experience. A survey of 575 board certified music therapists in the USA revealed higher levels of compassion for others than self-compassion, low levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress, and high levels of compassion satisfaction. Burnout strongly negatively correlated with both self-compassion and compassion satisfaction and strongly positively correlated with secondary traumatic stress. A MANCOVA revealed significant differences in compassion for others and compassion satisfaction based on gender, with female participants reporting significantly higher scores for both constructs. Additionally, there was a trend related to self-compassion and compassion levels increasing over time. There were strong associations between compassion and self-compassion with burnout and secondary traumatic stress; therefore, it would benefit music therapists to cultivate compassion practices to lower burnout risk.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.187

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