Bulgaria

Bulgaria is known as the land of the musical figure of Orpheus. In our country the music therapy association (Bulgarian Association for Music Therapy/BAM) was founded in 1995, when Josef Moreno from the USA made a macro-seminar in Sofia and this event united people from different professions, who had already tried to do something in the same direction in connection with their individual training and personal creativity.

BAM is concerned with organizing workshops and seminars for skills in music therapy and popularization of this approach in our country.

From 1999 till 2004  extramural training was delivered by the following guest lecturers from the Art Therapy Institute of San Francisco:
Frances Goldberg, Virginia Clarkson, Dag Korlin and Edith Maria Geiger.

Three national conferences in music therapy have ben held by BAM: in 2005, 2007 and the latest one in 2012.

Click here to read Lilia Ahtarova’s article, “History and Development of Music Therapy in Bulgaria. Music therapy specifics”.

The phenomenon of people from support professions and music teachers trying to use music for therapeutic purposes, without the required qualification and ability is typical in Bulgaria.

The tuition program at BAM, giving the qualification of a Music Psychotherapist started in 2009. The board of directors of the program consists of Liliya Ahtarova, a music therapist and family therapist and Nadejda Vitanova – music therapist, psychodrama therapist and Jungian psychotherapist.
Tuition is 4-years long and encompasses: personal experience in a group and individual sessions, theoretical and practical seminars and work under supervision, with a total of 1100 training hours.
In 2013 Music Therapy Institute-Sofia (MTI) was established. It is now the instituition responsible for the tuition programs. Two new branches have been introduced: a training for psychologists, and a training for professionals already certified in one of the main psychotherapeutic paradigms.
Since tuition is built on the basis of seminars, enrolling in the program is possible anytime during the school year, after passing the introductory interview.

Additionally, BAM and MTI organize workshops led by international tutors and Bulgarian professionals, who have graduated and have their own practices in several European countries.

Attached to the association there is a Chamber Ensemble, which performs concerts with cultural and educational goals, aimed at children in the care system and people from elderly care homes.