I mean, duh, right? I am a music therapist, therefore, the music should be the primary thing that I think about. Interns give me a good perspective on how far I have come in my profession - many times, interns are focused on the activity level of music therapy - music accompanied educational applications. The music is not the driving force of the session, it is the thing that should keep the client paying attention.
The therapeutic use of music is something that I find interns have studied, but do not really understand. They have sat through psychological influences of musical behavior but have not internalized the important ways that music can be used to shape behavioral responses. They do not understand the iso-principle, the concept of entrainment, and the ways that therapists can change the music to affect behavioral changes. It is also difficult to express this concept to novice therapists who are just worried about finding the correct chords to their chosen song. However, I feel that this is one of the most important skills that I can impart to my students.
I call this skill "client-direction." Is is my not-so-creative term for watching the clients and using the iso-principle to engage them in appropriate interventions. It requires flexibility, creativity, observation, and continual client assessment. Many of my students do not understand this concept.
My interns start their tenure with me on the script plan. They are often required to write and follow a session plan during their practica. I remember being chastized by one of my practicum supervisors for not following the plan as I wrote it. I was able to justify my changes. and she listened - fortunately. Many of my interns have had little to no opportunity to get away from a plan during their practica. This leads to therapists who are very plan oriented rather than client-directed. Interns appear to not feel comfortable with deviating from their plans - they also wonder why clients have different behaviors around me then when they lead the sessions.
I have one intern who is in the beginning stage of her internship - she is plan oriented. I have another intern who is in the latter stages of her internship - she is starting to utilize the concept of "session strategy" rather than "session plan." She is starting to adapt her musical structure to accommodate client behaviors - changing her volume, timbre, pitch, tempo, meter, lyrics to engage client attention and participation. This has led to a wonderful change in her behavior management skill. She is changing behaviors before they get started...with music!
I guess this started as an entry for music as a therapeutic agent and ended up as an entry about my interns - music, therapy, and me. There you go.
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