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Hello, my name is Jeehoon Kim. I am a Korean South African who has lived in South Africa for the last 16 years. After finishing my honours in psychology, I came across a master’s course in music therapy which was offered at University of Pretoria. This was a two year course that consisted of research, theory, skype lectures, contact lessons and work at six different placements. I worked at an old age home, a special needs school, a paediatric oncology unit, psychiatric hospital, community placement and a school for autism. Due to working with such a variety of clients, I learned where my strengths lie and who I was the most comfortable working with. Also it reaffirmed that music was a medium could connect people regardless of their cultural background, age or ethnicity.
Since I first came to South Africa, I had difficulties in finding a balance between being a South African and a Korean. This is why I chose to do an autoethnographic journey of exploring identity through the use of musical improvisation in a music therapy process for my dissertation. Through receiving music therapy, for the purpose of my dissertation, it assisted me in starting my journey of finding my balance. Overall, music therapy offered me a chance to not only provide therapy for clients, but to explore my own repressed emotions and memories. It helped me to both grow as a therapist and a person.
Jeehoon Kim
MT in South Africa
March 2018
