Love Me Tender
On Thursday, I had a meeting that kept me busy during the first half of a targeted goal group session. My interns, on their own, went and got our students for the group and engaged them in music making. I finished my meeting and hurried down to the music room.
When I entered, everyone was engaged in music making in one way or another. One client was playing the conga drum, one was playing the guitar, and the third client had chosen to listen to an Elvis karaoke CD and was mouthing (his form of communication). When I entered, I greeted everyone and asked them to tell me what we were doing.
Elvis's song, Love Me Tender, came on the stereo. I asked the young man who simply mouths for communication if I could sit next to him. He started smiling and moving his mouth rapidly, indicating that I could. I found my fake book, sat next to him, and started to sing the words to the song. He leaned towards me and kept moving his mouth along with the words. The song ended, and we repeated the process with All Shook Up. His smile, the sounds from the other two clients making music, and the music itself made for a perfect music therapy moment.
We were all engaged in active music making in our own way. Folks from all over the spectra of development, psychiatric health, cognitive function, and motor development were working together to make an unique experience. Every sound that we made fit within the experience and was accepted as part of our shared happening.
It is moments like this one that keep me fiercely advocating for music therapy. There are just times when music can elicit responses and experiences that nothing else can replicate. The joy of being a music therapist is that I get to be in those moments - sometimes I even get to facilitate them!
When I entered, everyone was engaged in music making in one way or another. One client was playing the conga drum, one was playing the guitar, and the third client had chosen to listen to an Elvis karaoke CD and was mouthing (his form of communication). When I entered, I greeted everyone and asked them to tell me what we were doing.
Elvis's song, Love Me Tender, came on the stereo. I asked the young man who simply mouths for communication if I could sit next to him. He started smiling and moving his mouth rapidly, indicating that I could. I found my fake book, sat next to him, and started to sing the words to the song. He leaned towards me and kept moving his mouth along with the words. The song ended, and we repeated the process with All Shook Up. His smile, the sounds from the other two clients making music, and the music itself made for a perfect music therapy moment.
We were all engaged in active music making in our own way. Folks from all over the spectra of development, psychiatric health, cognitive function, and motor development were working together to make an unique experience. Every sound that we made fit within the experience and was accepted as part of our shared happening.
It is moments like this one that keep me fiercely advocating for music therapy. There are just times when music can elicit responses and experiences that nothing else can replicate. The joy of being a music therapist is that I get to be in those moments - sometimes I even get to facilitate them!
I hope you have lots of music therapy moments in the next several weeks.
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