TME Tuesday: Fostering Creativity

I love a good music therapy challenge. I like the community and the camaraderie of getting to be part of a group of fellow therapists doing something together. Right now, I'm part of a seven-day creativity challenge sponsored by Briana Reichgott Priester over at the Music Therapy Marketplace. If you're interested in something to help you actively think about creativity and its role in your life, join us. We're only on day two!

Anyway, beginning this challenge has made me think a bit about how I approach creativity with my clients. Many times I find that my clients have never been encouraged to be creative with filling up their leisure time or trying new things to do. They seem to find that the only thing that they can do during their leisure time is to play video games or watch television. When that gets boring, they fall into past patterns of entertainment - often the things that get them into 24/7 active treatment to begin with. There are other options, but those options don't seem obvious to my clients.

Two of my groups will be pursuing personal music therapy goals during part of their sessions this first semester. I've asked them to choose a personal goal (that has a bit of music education as well). Some are learning about drums. Others want to play the trumpet. Still others are working on songwriting. Some will be making videos, and the rest are learning to play the keyboard. Trying to choose was challenging enough for my clients. We start this week with the individual learning process and being creative is going to be part of what they are learning.

Back to the original thought and idea for this post. How do you foster creativity in someone who has never been able or allowed to be creative before?

I start with the concept that there is no "wrong" way to make music; any and every sound can be part of musical expression. We do lots of improvisation incorporating the sounds made by clients into a structure. Students who get told to stop screaming every place else are encouraged to make their own sounds, are echoed, and placed into a musical product - even the screams.

I also make sure that everything we write is written in pencil. The benefit of this is the eraser function. Nothing is wrong, and everything can be changed. I can start one way and then decide to go a completely different way. There is no wrong, so there is no song that cannot be changed to something else.

Is this fostering creativity?


I hope so. 

I hope the next time one of my clients is faced with some leisure time, they think about some of their music therapy practice and homework. I hope they are able to find some leisure time filled by creativity. We shall see.

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