ABSTRACT
Participants identified several practices as supportive of distress and these practices were musical, social, and pedagogical. This chapter describes these practices. Community music therapy literature recognizes the ways that music helps across diverse contexts and needs (Ansdell, 2014; Stige et al., 2010) and participants similarly noticed multiple practices that provided support. First, participants described the importance of connections—of fostering community, building relationships, and being seen and validated in music education contexts. Most of the participants also identified various musicking practices as supportive. Musicking included ensemble experiences, playing or singing, jamming, songwriting, and listening strategically. Pedagogical practices also emerged as important—particularly supporting students across a full range of needs and experiences. These music educators pointed to the Universal Design for Learning, the significance of fostering student autonomy, trauma-informed praxis, and affirming pedagogies as crucial to a music classroom. Finally, participants identified music education spaces as places where music educators might engage experiences of Madness and distress explicitly, as well as providing tools to process emotions. Participants identified these social, musical, and pedagogical practices as supportive for both their own mental and emotional wellbeing and that of their students.
