Divide and Conquer

Yesterday I had a session that I was dreading. Last week it was total chaos as kid after kid started screaming, cussing, and had to be bodily removed from the music therapy room. We didn't get ANY music therapy done. I couldn't even start singing as every time I tried to get something started, the level of noise in the room increased to riot stage and took over.

I woke up yesterday with the idea of taking a sick day in my mind, but I know that avoidance does not solve a problem. So, I went into work.

During my entire commute, I tried to approach the group in different ways in order to figure out something to do and a strategy to follow if things went absolutely kerfluffity.

I couldn't solidify my plan until later in the day. I decided yesterday to run Instrument Memory Games in small groups - not music therapy, but essential to observe group interactions and to work on the therapeutic relationship with this group. The previous session included three new kids, no teacher in the classroom, and a therapist who was getting sick - all contributing factors, I'm sure, to what happened. I was hoping that the classroom had settled a bit, but I wasn't sure if they had.

I set up the music therapy room very carefully. I divided the 10 students into 3 groups, each with a staff member to provide oversight. I sorted the groups very specifically, placing each of the students who had to be removed from the previous session close to the door, but not close to each other. I placed each of the new kids in groups with kids who know what music therapy is and who seem to like the process. (I was hoping my allies would help with the group engagement. It's important to have allies, especially when working with adolescents. Get one influential client on your side, and it's much easier to engage the others!) I stood by the door and waited.

The first two clients to make it to the door had left their group to go through the Discovery Center. (I don't blame them, the Discovery Center is pretty cool - a play place, and one that I was wary about being outside the music therapy room from the design process - I knew there would be times when a bright, sunny, big space would be much more attractive than the small, dark, gray-walled music therapy room where we have to do things that we don't want to do! I wish someone had listened to me - it would have made my current life MUCH easier!) These two kids were two out of the three that had been brand new the previous week and had been removed from the session. They had to go back and try the commute again - setting event! (By the way, that was not my decision.) I asked the others to find their assigned places and sit down.

We skipped an opening song - I wanted to get the group into activity as quickly as possible. My allies started to play the game with their small groups. So far, so good. The other two entered and started to protest that we didn't wait for them. Of course we didn't wait - there are consequences for not following directions that continue into the next thing. Got those rumblings settled down and everyone was engaged in the game.

We had 40 minutes of engagement until the first significant behavior - two out of the three from the previous session and one more that had been absent last week. One left the room, under his own steam, SCORE! The other two were able to remain in the session.

I was able to award positive star points for this session. Only two clients received full points, but everyone got at least something.

It was a much better day (for me - I don't know if it was better for the clients outside of music therapy, but it was much better for me!)

Next week, we will spend time in small groups again. We still won't be doing much therapy (though I can find a therapeutic benefit in almost everything), but we will see if the strategy of divide and conquer works again. If so, wonderful. If not, ugh, we'll go back to the strategy development process.

So, the tip for this post?

Don't give up. Go back to what you know works. Try, try again.