TME Tuesday: Brainstorming

I don't have a therapeutic music experience (TME) to share today, but I do have some thoughts on process.

DISCLAIMER: This is not the ONLY way to develop therapeutic music experiences, this is just MY way to develop therapeutic music experiences. Find your own way into using music as a therapeutic medium. All set?

So, how do I get my ideas for TMEs? I brainstorm. There are often two entries into this brainstorming process - object and goal. They start off a bit differently, but end up going through the same pattern of development, which I will try to illustrate here...

Object-based TMEs - I start with an object of some sort. This is usually an object that I come across in a store or on Pinterest and is something that I can hold in my hands.

Goal-based TMEs - I start, of course, with one of my client goals. Right now, most of my clients have emotional regulation goals, impulse control goals, and relationship goals as their music therapy focus. As a result, I often start with an idea about how these goals can be met with music and musical instruments.

I have the beginning place. Now the brainstorming starts. Here are the questions that I ask myself:

1. How can I use/address this? What can I do with this that I haven't thought of yet? I put hands on the object and go through the sensory information that I receive from holding onto the object. OR, I spend time thinking about each one of the nouns in the goal. Then I spend time thinking about each one of the verbs in the goal. Parsing the goal elements helps me to think about what I am trying to do. WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN!
2. What can I do with this object/music that will directly address the reason the client directly in front of me is in music therapy? (That's my primary goal for doing the TME).
3. What other benefits will the client in front of me gain from doing this TME? (Those are my secondary and tertiary goals for the TME. These goals are things that are not necessarily on the treatment plan, but are also things that assist in the development and growth of my client.)

I write everything down, including any ideas for the music that could/should be used to support the goal of the TME. All ideas are good ideas, even the ones that don't fit my current client - the ideas may fit a client that I have in the future, so I keep everything. I also spend quite a bit of time updating things, ideas, and melodies in my TME file to keep my ideas up-to-date.

My current TME development process is my sing about songs project. (Details and free download here.) I'm spending time involved in theme development along with finding resources and developing original TMEs for music therapists. September's theme is TRAVEL. Look for a release of the new sing about travel packet on September 4, 2015! Subscription information is coming soon!