The End of the Week

It's the end of my work week, and I am reflecting on what happened in music therapy sessions this week. I am two weeks into the return of individual sessions and am pleased with how things have progressed. For the most part, students have transitioned with me willingly and have engaged in music making. We don't have any mutual goals or objectives at this point, but my goals have been to encourage interaction and exploration of the musical environment. I'm starting to identify the clients that I think will be best served through goal-oriented music therapy sessions and those that will be best served through crisis management music therapy sessions.

In the Fall session, I will have 26 individual spots. Some of those will be taken by adaptive lessons (my title for these sessions? Play the instruments MJ won't let us play during group MT very loudly for 30 minutes!!) and by choir, but most will be able to be filled by individuals. I will try to have one crisis management session for each classroom group, and then I can fill the remaining session spots with the students who respond the most to music as a therapeutic medium.

I had one session this week where the client didn't need me at all. He arrived, identified the keyboard on the choice board, moved the instrument to the floor, and then started playing. Now, he is one of the students who has been with me a long time, so he already knew what individual music therapy was all about, but he was able to figure out what he needed from the session without me. (Fade to Function.) Other clients were not as independent.

One young man engaged in playing the piano and singing with me. I was playing the guitar with him, adding some harmonic structure to his improvisations. He used the music to convey several different emotions and switched between emotional states several times during his improvisation. Then, he was finished making music on the piano. I moved to the instrument and then started working a bit on his preferences. He walked around the room, and I played. He chose music from one of my songbooks, and we sang them together. His musical repertoire is AMAZING! He knows songs that he would not have come across without family members who also love music.

Another client opted to listen to music and to draw related pictures. His music choice was Disney music, so all of his pictures were related to the movie music, but it was fascinating to watch his drawing style. He appeared to break down each image into small components and drew small shapes that then added up to the whole image at the end.

Others have come in, tried out something, and then decided to leave early. Others have wanted more time. I love this form of therapy. It allows me to find more things that work with my clients in other locations as well as reinforcing the therapeutic relationship already somewhat established through group therapy.

I left my job this week feeling like I was finally getting back to what I think of as music therapy. I enjoy group therapy - it offers challenges that individual therapy does not - but I really feel that individual therapy allows the client and the therapist with opportunities that are not present in group treatment.

Now, it is the last three-day weekend of the summer session. Next week is Fall Break, and then we go back into our regular five day schedule again. With the return of Fridays, I will have more time to serve more individuals. I cannot wait!