Building a Therapeutic Relationship
Yesterday, I had a breakthrough in not one but two sticky therapeutic relationships. Let me explain further...
I have an extremely large classroom group made up of students with a variety of diagnoses and levels of functioning. This is the classroom where the oldest kids with diagnoses on the autism spectrum have been placed. There has been lots of change in the classroom - new students, new staff members, new environment, and new academic expectations - all in the last 6 weeks.
Now, music therapy at the beginning of this change looked a lot like mass chaos. Imagine 12 large teenaged kids rocking, trying to walk in circles, yelling to gain attention, plus 4-6 staff members, 1 music therapist, assorted rhythm instruments and props in a room designed for approximately 10 people (maximum).
As the therapist, I found it very difficult to communicate with my clients - the familiar clients and the new clients. I couldn't get a chance to know my new folks because I had too many relationships going on in the session.
In my weekly talks with the Art therapist (something we started this year that I really enjoy, but that's a different post all together), I found that she was having similar difficulties. Now, some of her issues with the classroom group was their level of autism, but her art therapy room is smaller than my music room, so all of those bodies were crammed into a very small space. She was not feeling like she was able to address any type of therapeutic outcome because she was trying to keep kids in a very small space.
We became proactive rather than reactive and went to the principal with a plan.
We proposed splitting the classroom into to two groups. We had to rearrange our schedules to add an additional session, but we were able to do so.
Our first week of split sessions concluded yesterday. On Monday, six students arrived in the music room for music therapy. These students have a variety of diagnoses - not all of them are on the autism spectrum, but they all have some interest in playing instruments and singing. They completed my session plan and appeared to enjoy playing the YouRock Guitar (another shameless product promotion). We had a successful session. Yesterday, the other group arrived in the session. This is the group that has diagnoses on the autism spectrum and are most of the new students in the group. These are the folks that I have not had a chance to get to know. Yesterday, I did.
By the end of the session, the two clients who always sat with their iPods in an attempt to mask sounds were not wearing their iPods. They were engaging in the improvisations that I was leading, they were completing all requests, and were communicating with me about what they wanted to hear on the stereo. I even got a kiss on the cheek from one of them (he surprised me, but still!).
I now have a chance to build therapeutic relationships with these clients - folks who have attended music therapy for a while now, but have not interacted with much due to the constraints of the previous sessions. I am looking forward to next week's sessions.
I have an extremely large classroom group made up of students with a variety of diagnoses and levels of functioning. This is the classroom where the oldest kids with diagnoses on the autism spectrum have been placed. There has been lots of change in the classroom - new students, new staff members, new environment, and new academic expectations - all in the last 6 weeks.
Now, music therapy at the beginning of this change looked a lot like mass chaos. Imagine 12 large teenaged kids rocking, trying to walk in circles, yelling to gain attention, plus 4-6 staff members, 1 music therapist, assorted rhythm instruments and props in a room designed for approximately 10 people (maximum).
As the therapist, I found it very difficult to communicate with my clients - the familiar clients and the new clients. I couldn't get a chance to know my new folks because I had too many relationships going on in the session.
In my weekly talks with the Art therapist (something we started this year that I really enjoy, but that's a different post all together), I found that she was having similar difficulties. Now, some of her issues with the classroom group was their level of autism, but her art therapy room is smaller than my music room, so all of those bodies were crammed into a very small space. She was not feeling like she was able to address any type of therapeutic outcome because she was trying to keep kids in a very small space.
We became proactive rather than reactive and went to the principal with a plan.
We proposed splitting the classroom into to two groups. We had to rearrange our schedules to add an additional session, but we were able to do so.
Our first week of split sessions concluded yesterday. On Monday, six students arrived in the music room for music therapy. These students have a variety of diagnoses - not all of them are on the autism spectrum, but they all have some interest in playing instruments and singing. They completed my session plan and appeared to enjoy playing the YouRock Guitar (another shameless product promotion). We had a successful session. Yesterday, the other group arrived in the session. This is the group that has diagnoses on the autism spectrum and are most of the new students in the group. These are the folks that I have not had a chance to get to know. Yesterday, I did.
By the end of the session, the two clients who always sat with their iPods in an attempt to mask sounds were not wearing their iPods. They were engaging in the improvisations that I was leading, they were completing all requests, and were communicating with me about what they wanted to hear on the stereo. I even got a kiss on the cheek from one of them (he surprised me, but still!).
I now have a chance to build therapeutic relationships with these clients - folks who have attended music therapy for a while now, but have not interacted with much due to the constraints of the previous sessions. I am looking forward to next week's sessions.
Thanks for reading!
ReplyDelete