Therapeutic Music Intervention Planning
I am getting my head ready for session planning for the upcoming week. I have two different types of sessions - kids with severe involvement and kids with less severe involvement. I see every student in the facility for group treatment - 50 minutes per week - and about 30 of them in individual or small group treatment. In addition, each child receives 60 minutes of multidisciplinary educational enhancement services on Friday (themed discovery learning and problem-solving experiences that involve LOTS of movement).
My session planning is very different from what I was taught as an undergraduate music therapy student. When I was a fledgling, I was required to plan sessions, memorize those plans, and follow my script perfectly. This was a difficult thing for me to do as I have always been more willing to follow where a client leads me than to make a client do what I say. I had supervisors who would check off when I would say what was on my plan, and they would challenge my decisions when I deviated from the plan. I learned quickly to have a reason why I changed the order of my interventions. Most of the time, it was because I didn't feel that the 3-year old that I was working with was ready to sit and complete academic work. He needed to wiggle a bit more.
These days, session planning is more of a strategy planning session. I always have at least one experience/intervention that all of my "blue" groups (kids with severe involvement) and my "purple" groups (the other kids) go through. These are often elements of music education or therapy games that require special materials. After that, I often "play it off the cuff."
I firmly believe that the most effective therapists are client-directed as well as led by clients through musical interventions that are meaningful to the client. Therapists MUST be able to recognize signs and symptoms of avoidance, boredom, disinterest, and excitement in their clientele in order to design and develop meaningful interventions. If you make a concerted effort to use a client's interests, the client is more likely to engage in the intervention. If you insist that a client complete your plan without thinking about the client's interests, there will come a time when the client will refuse to participate. Therapy becomes a chore rather than a learning or healing process.
I write all of my therapeutic musical experience/intervention ideas down. I am starting to delineate the role of music in the intervention as I do so. This process allows me to be more strategy-driven rather than activity-driven within my sessions. I also brainstorm every goal area addressed by each TME and write those down as well. When a TME is changed, adapted, or extended in some way, I write that down. All of these habits have helped me be more strategy-minded and more client responsive.
This week, I think we will look at my woodwind instruments. I haven't taken the clarinet or the saxophone to work with me before, so the new instruments will probably cause quite a stir. After we look at those instruments, I will attempt to make a sound on them both. That will be amusing since I am NOT a woodwind musician but a mighty BRASS musician. Then, we will sing some songs about social interaction, play some instruments, and maybe even play a few games. Who knows?
My session planning is very different from what I was taught as an undergraduate music therapy student. When I was a fledgling, I was required to plan sessions, memorize those plans, and follow my script perfectly. This was a difficult thing for me to do as I have always been more willing to follow where a client leads me than to make a client do what I say. I had supervisors who would check off when I would say what was on my plan, and they would challenge my decisions when I deviated from the plan. I learned quickly to have a reason why I changed the order of my interventions. Most of the time, it was because I didn't feel that the 3-year old that I was working with was ready to sit and complete academic work. He needed to wiggle a bit more.
These days, session planning is more of a strategy planning session. I always have at least one experience/intervention that all of my "blue" groups (kids with severe involvement) and my "purple" groups (the other kids) go through. These are often elements of music education or therapy games that require special materials. After that, I often "play it off the cuff."
I firmly believe that the most effective therapists are client-directed as well as led by clients through musical interventions that are meaningful to the client. Therapists MUST be able to recognize signs and symptoms of avoidance, boredom, disinterest, and excitement in their clientele in order to design and develop meaningful interventions. If you make a concerted effort to use a client's interests, the client is more likely to engage in the intervention. If you insist that a client complete your plan without thinking about the client's interests, there will come a time when the client will refuse to participate. Therapy becomes a chore rather than a learning or healing process.
I write all of my therapeutic musical experience/intervention ideas down. I am starting to delineate the role of music in the intervention as I do so. This process allows me to be more strategy-driven rather than activity-driven within my sessions. I also brainstorm every goal area addressed by each TME and write those down as well. When a TME is changed, adapted, or extended in some way, I write that down. All of these habits have helped me be more strategy-minded and more client responsive.
This week, I think we will look at my woodwind instruments. I haven't taken the clarinet or the saxophone to work with me before, so the new instruments will probably cause quite a stir. After we look at those instruments, I will attempt to make a sound on them both. That will be amusing since I am NOT a woodwind musician but a mighty BRASS musician. Then, we will sing some songs about social interaction, play some instruments, and maybe even play a few games. Who knows?
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