The Making of a Theme - Thoughtful Thursday

I am still on the same old song - a theme about themes. Perhaps this is more of a variation on a theme. (Boo-doom-boom, ching!) I know, the puns are lame, but that's what you get the day before Winter Break.

I've spent lots of brain power on thinking about themes this week, all started by a post on one of my social media feeds. I've thought about why I like them, why I don't like them, why I encourage others to both use and not use them, and placing the concept of themes into my clinical model. (If you'd like to read those posts, click here and then here.) Today's post is all about how I organize therapeutic music experiences, materials, and session strategies into thematic programming.

Here's how I put together my themes (when I use them in clinical work)...

My thematic planning starts when I write a therapeutic music experience (TME). When I put a TME down onto paper (in a digital format, but still...), I think about all of the clinical outcomes that are addressed by the TME. If my clients have to hold onto an instrument, I list fine motor skill development as an outcome. I also add in things like breath control, oral motor development, and articulation of various sounds when we sing...at all. It is not unusual for my documents to have 14 clinical outcomes for each and every plan. I do this because there are times when a client who is in music therapy is referred for fine motor development and sits next to a client whose goal is to increase social engagement with peers. If I have already determined that a particular TME offers opportunities for both fine motor practice and social engagement, I can offer both clients goal-oriented treatment at the same time! I have lots of thoughts about goals and TMEs, and they are somewhat relevant, but way too complicated to put down on this blog today, so I'll write them down for my book...

So, I have this database of TMEs that I've collected over my years of being a music therapist. (In the interest of all things honest and true, it is not a perfect database, but I am always working on it and trying to figure out how to make it better.) I can go through my database to find an entire list of TMEs that address specific goals, and that helps me with writing my session strategies.

I can also pull together TMEs that have a common subject. I have loads of songs written by various people about things like frogs, for example. I have picked out all of the goals that I am addressing when my clients engage in each particular experience, so I know that this particular frog song addresses gross motor development, number recognition, game play theory, social engagement, symbol recognition, creative expression, and sensory exploration. This other frog song works on some of the same things but also addresses impulse control and offers opportunities for executive function practice. I can then look at my clients and select a TME that meets their clinical goals. If I don't have a TME that meets all of those goals, then I can adapt the original ideas to accommodate those other goals. 

There are times when I manufacture a theme to bring in something that I've fallen in love with and just can't wait to use with my clients. I have some wonderful bendy plush flowers (I don't have some, I have about twenty of these things). So, I went a bit extravagant at the Dollar Tree some years ago and bought twenty of these plush flowers. I was able to think of things I could do with these things, so I made the purchase. TMEs came out of my purchase - I thought about all the goals that I had and how I could use these flowers to practice some of those skills, and the ideas just came flooding out!

My favorite TME from this process is called "The Birth of a Seed Ballet." (It's included in the sing about nature edition available through my website!) It includes these flowers and creative movement and listening for auditory cues and science knowledge and lots of other things. This one prop became the base for an entire theme - plants. There are lots of other themes where this TME fits - being outside, nature, science - biology, ballet, movement - the list could go on and on, but I'm not going to do that right now...

I now have a folder for each of my theme ideas. In that folder, I write a list of TMEs, materials, and ideas that fit with the theme. When I am in need of some inspiration, I go to this file folder drawer and pull out a folder. I can find all of my materials because I've written down where they are stored, and I am ready to go (with some adjustments to fit the TMEs to the clients that I will be serving). Bigger items are grouped based on theme or month (in the boxes in my closet). I know that I can go to the March box and find file folders, books, ideas, and toys for Spring, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and Drop Everything and Read day. 

Is it lots of work? Somewhat, but I've found that doing things this way helps me organize from the very beginning. Then, I spend a little bit of time putting the TME pieces together into session strategies, and off I go into the wild world of music therapy!!