Unconditional musical regard: The improvising music therapist’s way of being

Introduction Carl Rogers’ necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change have long been used in the field of psychotherapy to describe certain qualities of a therapist’s presence. This essay argues that these ideas are also relevant to music therapy and particularly in music therapy improvisation.Method This essay uses Rogers’ necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change as a starting point to describe the qualities of a music therapist’s presence in relationship with their client when engaged in music therapy improvisation.Results Authenticity, unconditional positive regard, and empathy are argued to be important aspects of an improvising music therapist’s way of being that inform their ability to use a variety of techniques. Each of these is explored in relationship to music and related to the novel concept of unconditional musical regard. Unconditional musical regard is presented as a novel concept which can reciprocally help to describe and guide the practice of music therapy improvisation by focusing on broad qualities of the music therapist’s presence instead of discrete techniques. Unconditional musical regard refers to a music therapist hearing all sounds and silences made by themself and their clients as musical. The suggestion of this essay is that it is this quality that enables improvised music to flow fluidly from a music therapist and invites the same from clients.Discussion The essay concludes with an invitation for music therapists to continue exploring the more fundamental qualities of our presence that inform our use of techniques in music therapy improvisation.