Session Contour - One of Those "Important, But Difficult to Learn" Things
I hopped over to Music Sparks, JoAnn Jordan's very engaging website, this morning to read about her ideas for developing session plans for challenging times. I was heartened to read that her ideas are very similar to my own when it comes to planning sessions - check it out - and her post started me thinking about what I do when it comes to session implementation. What do you after you have designed the plan?
So, this is kind of a continuation of the ideas that JoAnn shared.
What do you do after you've designed the plan, the session has started, and the client is sitting in front of you, waiting for the next thing to do?
One of the things that I like about music therapy is that the therapeutic medium itself, music, is easily adapted to fit many different situations, responses, and needs within the moment. Many music therapists instinctively alter musical elements in order to assist their clients in engaging with the medium during each session. We often play our music at tempi that match indicators displayed by our clients. We slow down when our clients appear to need slower tempi. We speed up when our clients show us different behaviors. We match our music to their moods, behaviors, and requests. I call this practice "session contour."
Like I said, many music therapists do this instinctively. You walk into a room filled with clients who seem tired. Your session plan includes dancing to upbeat music. At this point, you have several paths you can take when implementing your session. You can run your session, using the upbeat music exactly as planned, and see what your clients do. You can change your session plan completely, abandoning what you had prepared. You can alter the music for dancing, still using the ideas of movement, but maybe slowing down the tempo and maybe adapting the targeted movements. All of these examples are part of session contour.
Session contour includes all of the musical elements that are available to us as musicians, therapists, and the lovely combination of the two, music therapists. When I sit in front of any client, I have many decisions I can make regarding pitches, tempi, melodies, harmonies, chord progressions, rhythms, meters, modes, lyrics - all of these elements affect my session contour. The image below demonstrates my thought process when I start to adapt the music to fit the client.
When I start to change these elements, I am affecting how my client experiences the music we are making. I can adapt music to make it more accessible to my client. I can adapt music to make it less accessible for my client. Changes in these musical elements provide the foundation for session contour.
Session contour is closely related to the ISO-principle - the act of making music match indications that clients display during interactions. You use the ISO-principle to construct your session contour, looking both at where the client is when it comes to behavior indicators and where you want the client to be at the end of the session on those same behavior indicators. (If you are not someone who feels that behavior is an indicator, please know that we all read behavior from our clients in some way. You do not have to be a behavioralist in order to look at how people present themselves, communicate, and engage.)
At the end of all of this, you have to remember that all of the session plans that you can write are, at the end, simply suggestions or possible strategies until the client walks into the therapeutic space. I can plan any and every session under the sun, but the client is the one who determines what I do during my sessions... AND THAT'S THE WAY IT HAS TO BE! If I walk into a session with my beautiful plan and do not spend time adapting that plan to my client, the session is a wonderful performance, but may not have as much therapeutic relevance as it could.
For me, music therapy is half structure and half improvisation.
I have to have a plan when I organize my music therapy day. This is where session planning is essential. BUT, I also have to incorporate the interests, attitudes, long-term goals, and immediate needs of the client who walks into the session from their own experiences and with their own plans. This is where improvisation (flexibility) comes in. Without the foundation of a plan, therapists may not address long-term goals (which, to be perfectly honest, is the only reason that anyone goes into therapy to begin with - completing long-term goals) and leave the client without opportunities for growth.
In my opinion, the best therapists I have ever known have been able to find a balance between therapist-direction and client-direction during a session. It is something I strive for during every session. Sometimes, I accomplish a good balance. Sometimes, I don't. I continue to strive.
Thank you, JoAnn, for your stimulating post. Thank you, everyone else, for reading. Feel free to comment on any and all thoughts presented here...
So, this is kind of a continuation of the ideas that JoAnn shared.
What do you do after you've designed the plan, the session has started, and the client is sitting in front of you, waiting for the next thing to do?
One of the things that I like about music therapy is that the therapeutic medium itself, music, is easily adapted to fit many different situations, responses, and needs within the moment. Many music therapists instinctively alter musical elements in order to assist their clients in engaging with the medium during each session. We often play our music at tempi that match indicators displayed by our clients. We slow down when our clients appear to need slower tempi. We speed up when our clients show us different behaviors. We match our music to their moods, behaviors, and requests. I call this practice "session contour."
Like I said, many music therapists do this instinctively. You walk into a room filled with clients who seem tired. Your session plan includes dancing to upbeat music. At this point, you have several paths you can take when implementing your session. You can run your session, using the upbeat music exactly as planned, and see what your clients do. You can change your session plan completely, abandoning what you had prepared. You can alter the music for dancing, still using the ideas of movement, but maybe slowing down the tempo and maybe adapting the targeted movements. All of these examples are part of session contour.
Session contour includes all of the musical elements that are available to us as musicians, therapists, and the lovely combination of the two, music therapists. When I sit in front of any client, I have many decisions I can make regarding pitches, tempi, melodies, harmonies, chord progressions, rhythms, meters, modes, lyrics - all of these elements affect my session contour. The image below demonstrates my thought process when I start to adapt the music to fit the client.
Session contour is closely related to the ISO-principle - the act of making music match indications that clients display during interactions. You use the ISO-principle to construct your session contour, looking both at where the client is when it comes to behavior indicators and where you want the client to be at the end of the session on those same behavior indicators. (If you are not someone who feels that behavior is an indicator, please know that we all read behavior from our clients in some way. You do not have to be a behavioralist in order to look at how people present themselves, communicate, and engage.)
At the end of all of this, you have to remember that all of the session plans that you can write are, at the end, simply suggestions or possible strategies until the client walks into the therapeutic space. I can plan any and every session under the sun, but the client is the one who determines what I do during my sessions... AND THAT'S THE WAY IT HAS TO BE! If I walk into a session with my beautiful plan and do not spend time adapting that plan to my client, the session is a wonderful performance, but may not have as much therapeutic relevance as it could.
For me, music therapy is half structure and half improvisation.
I have to have a plan when I organize my music therapy day. This is where session planning is essential. BUT, I also have to incorporate the interests, attitudes, long-term goals, and immediate needs of the client who walks into the session from their own experiences and with their own plans. This is where improvisation (flexibility) comes in. Without the foundation of a plan, therapists may not address long-term goals (which, to be perfectly honest, is the only reason that anyone goes into therapy to begin with - completing long-term goals) and leave the client without opportunities for growth.
In my opinion, the best therapists I have ever known have been able to find a balance between therapist-direction and client-direction during a session. It is something I strive for during every session. Sometimes, I accomplish a good balance. Sometimes, I don't. I continue to strive.
Thank you, JoAnn, for your stimulating post. Thank you, everyone else, for reading. Feel free to comment on any and all thoughts presented here...
Thanks for the shout out. The balance point is key. The ability to adapt a plan on the fly is key to achieving meeting that balance point and supporting our clients in meeting their goals.
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