Study in the Journal of Music Therapy highlights innovative research work at the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy.
The NYU Steinhardt Music Therapy program has published groundbreaking new research in the Journal of Music Therapy, advancing the field’s understanding of music engagement in therapy sessions through the development of the Music Engagement Scale (MES). Building on the original assessment scales of Nordoff and Robbins and developed over more than a decade, the MES advances the field by providing a way to understand deeper levels of music engagement and to examine its role as a mediator or moderator of therapeutic outcomes—supporting the premise that greater engagement in music-making is associated with stronger clinical impact. In addition to its research applications, the MES serves as a clinical tool that sensitizes therapists to how their musical responses can invite and sustain higher levels of client engagement within sessions.
Led by Alan Turry, Assistant Professor; Director of Music Therapy, Principal Investigator and Faculty Liaison to the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy, the team includes: Anna Palumbo, Jacqueline C. Birnbaum, Helene Turry, Mark Spellmann, and Ming Yuan Low.
The study introduces the MES as a single-item, process-based measure designed to assess a client’s level of engagement in music therapy sessions. Grounded in principles of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, the MES captures engagement across a continuum—from attentiveness to active, interactive, and reciprocal music-making—reflecting increasing levels of participation, responsiveness, and collaboration. The research demonstrated that the MES is sensitive to change over the course of therapy and shows acceptable-to-strong inter-rater reliability, supporting its potential for use in both clinical and research contexts. By offering a feasible and theoretically grounded way to quantify music engagement, the MES addresses a longstanding gap in the field and opens new possibilities for examining how engagement functions as a mechanism of therapeutic change.
As a leading center for Nordoff-Robbins music therapy, NYU Steinhardt continues to integrate research, education, and clinical practice. The Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy serves as a hub for innovation in therapy utilizing improvisation, and this publication reinforces its role in shaping the future of the field.
