What is Going On Here?
Yesterday was a strange day. Students didn't do what was expected. Everyone under the sun needed to use the bathroom or get a drink of water or just walk out of the room. I, of course, cannot be left alone with kids right now (one of my MANY frustrations with being a recovering injured person), so I had to call the Assistance Team to sit in the room while I was trying to do music therapy. They had to arrive four times - three times during one session alone! Other teachers and therapists were reporting the same type of things happening in their areas as well, just strange things.
It is amazing how attitudes, attention spans, and many other things can shift in a group of people. My clients are individuals, each makes a unique fingerprint in the school environment, but they are also part of a collective. If you ever wonder if moods can be shared like germs, just go and look at a school.
One therapist comes in with a bad mood, and WHAM! All of the students that see that therapist leave with the same bad mood! They go back to their classrooms and bring their bad moods into the classrooms. Those peers and staff members soak up the bad mood and take that mood into other environments.
The best news is that good moods are also contagious.
Think about the same scenario but with a therapist who makes an effort to be in a good mood. The same thing can happen.
The difficulty comes when the person with the bad mood can't catch the good mood.
That's where the iso-principle and therapeutic listening/counseling comes into play. Rather than trying to tell folks to change their bad moods into more positive moods (Turn your frown upside down! - ugh!! Pow!), I try to empathize with their experience and offer them ways to interact and engage through the music. There are times when wallowing in a bad mood is the best way to find a way out of that mood into another.
I listen to what my clients say. I listen to how they say it. I watch their body language and their interaction with others. I then adapt the musical environment to support the information that I can see and hear from them. Once they start to engage in the music, we can start to address the reasons for our bad moods. We can pull them out and unravel them. Once we have confronted our emotions and moods, we can decide to continue to wallow or we can decide to change.
Yesterday was a difficult day to change moods. Many folks decided to wallow rather than to settle into the process of change. I was able to resist the contagion and left in the good mood that started my day.
Today, I will try to keep my good mood going as I go through this day.
It is amazing how attitudes, attention spans, and many other things can shift in a group of people. My clients are individuals, each makes a unique fingerprint in the school environment, but they are also part of a collective. If you ever wonder if moods can be shared like germs, just go and look at a school.
One therapist comes in with a bad mood, and WHAM! All of the students that see that therapist leave with the same bad mood! They go back to their classrooms and bring their bad moods into the classrooms. Those peers and staff members soak up the bad mood and take that mood into other environments.
The best news is that good moods are also contagious.
Think about the same scenario but with a therapist who makes an effort to be in a good mood. The same thing can happen.
The difficulty comes when the person with the bad mood can't catch the good mood.
That's where the iso-principle and therapeutic listening/counseling comes into play. Rather than trying to tell folks to change their bad moods into more positive moods (Turn your frown upside down! - ugh!! Pow!), I try to empathize with their experience and offer them ways to interact and engage through the music. There are times when wallowing in a bad mood is the best way to find a way out of that mood into another.
I listen to what my clients say. I listen to how they say it. I watch their body language and their interaction with others. I then adapt the musical environment to support the information that I can see and hear from them. Once they start to engage in the music, we can start to address the reasons for our bad moods. We can pull them out and unravel them. Once we have confronted our emotions and moods, we can decide to continue to wallow or we can decide to change.
Yesterday was a difficult day to change moods. Many folks decided to wallow rather than to settle into the process of change. I was able to resist the contagion and left in the good mood that started my day.
Today, I will try to keep my good mood going as I go through this day.
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