Luke Annesley talks to Dr Catherine Carr about music therapy research in general, and some of her own research in adult mental health in particular. They discuss the relationship between research and training and some of the challenges that the music therapy researcher faces. Is research inevitably reductive, or are there ways of doing research in music therapy which meet the requirements of evidence-based practice, whilst also capturing the essential details of the work? Perhaps most importantly, what can and should clinicians do to stay up to date with the latest research developments?