TME Tuesday: Go With the Flow
Yesterday, I returned to the world of individual treatment sessions. I saw two clients and was able to get through the two sessions with just a bit of angst and trepidation. Now, for the first session, I chose a young man who shows lots of interest in music therapy and who I thought would be open to trying a new experience. He was open.
We spent the session moving the drum set.
It wasn't what I thought we would end up doing, but he was determined to move that set from one place in the room back to where it was most of the times he was in the music therapy room. (I moved things around so that I could keep the set organized and able to be used at any time.) I provided some physical assistance and lots of musical support to help him accomplish his goal. I did explain that the drum set would be back in its new spot the next time that he arrived in the music therapy room, and he seemed fine with that statement.
The best thing about that session was that I was able to use music to reflect and support him in his activity and goal. This is the thing that I like about individual treatment - the opportunity to focus all of the music on one person.
Yesterday the music changed as he changed. Moved as he moved. Filled up the space and pulled us into a relationship. For a short moment, he and I were contributing to a musical interaction that linked us together.
I have five other individual sessions today. Each one will start the same way. I will ask the client what he or she wants to do and will introduce the concept of individual music therapy (something most of my current clients haven't experienced at this time). As the purpose of these sessions is to introduce the idea of individual therapy to a variety of clients, we will not delve too much into treatment - these sessions are more about exploration than treatment at this point - I will be using these sessions to assess and evaluate to allow me to select clients who will get more direct treatment in August.
In the meantime, the music that happens will be a collaboration between what the client does and expresses and what I will do with the piano, guitar, drums, and my voice. I will use elements of music to reflect what the client is doing so the music will change as he or she changes. This will give me an opportunity to relate to each client individually through my medium - music.
So, what is the TME to be shared for this Tuesday?
Use the elements of music to illustrate what a client is doing. Incorporate each person's music into your own music making it a collaboration. Change your tempo to accommodate his or her tempo. Make your volume express what you want others to do in terms of volume. Accommodate preferences for timbre, rhythms, melodies, harmonic progressions, and lyrics into the music that you make to accept the client and his or her contributions to the shared experience.
(In other words, get away from the song and simply create music - there is no wrong way to do it!)
This makes me happy - five more clients today. I am so ready!
We spent the session moving the drum set.
It wasn't what I thought we would end up doing, but he was determined to move that set from one place in the room back to where it was most of the times he was in the music therapy room. (I moved things around so that I could keep the set organized and able to be used at any time.) I provided some physical assistance and lots of musical support to help him accomplish his goal. I did explain that the drum set would be back in its new spot the next time that he arrived in the music therapy room, and he seemed fine with that statement.
The best thing about that session was that I was able to use music to reflect and support him in his activity and goal. This is the thing that I like about individual treatment - the opportunity to focus all of the music on one person.
Yesterday the music changed as he changed. Moved as he moved. Filled up the space and pulled us into a relationship. For a short moment, he and I were contributing to a musical interaction that linked us together.
I have five other individual sessions today. Each one will start the same way. I will ask the client what he or she wants to do and will introduce the concept of individual music therapy (something most of my current clients haven't experienced at this time). As the purpose of these sessions is to introduce the idea of individual therapy to a variety of clients, we will not delve too much into treatment - these sessions are more about exploration than treatment at this point - I will be using these sessions to assess and evaluate to allow me to select clients who will get more direct treatment in August.
In the meantime, the music that happens will be a collaboration between what the client does and expresses and what I will do with the piano, guitar, drums, and my voice. I will use elements of music to reflect what the client is doing so the music will change as he or she changes. This will give me an opportunity to relate to each client individually through my medium - music.
So, what is the TME to be shared for this Tuesday?
Use the elements of music to illustrate what a client is doing. Incorporate each person's music into your own music making it a collaboration. Change your tempo to accommodate his or her tempo. Make your volume express what you want others to do in terms of volume. Accommodate preferences for timbre, rhythms, melodies, harmonic progressions, and lyrics into the music that you make to accept the client and his or her contributions to the shared experience.
(In other words, get away from the song and simply create music - there is no wrong way to do it!)
This makes me happy - five more clients today. I am so ready!
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