Just a Song Sunday: The Purposeful Use of Song

I missed a post last Sunday as I was traveling across the nation, but I am here this Sunday with yet another post about the idea of using "song" in music therapy sessions. Let me fill you in on what is currently happening in my life that is making me think the way I am thinking...

I have moved to a new music therapy room.

This new space is huge (especially when compared to my last space), and I am going to try to split up the VERY large groups that I treat into smaller groups for centers (small activities that address specific goal areas but that do not require a music therapist to run them all). I have several ideas about how to do this, but the one thing that will happen is that there will a purposeful use of song and musical elements throughout the session that will unite what happens in the centers with what is happening with me as the therapist.

For example (and please keep in mind that I haven't actually started trying to run these centers yet, they are still very much in the development stage at this point), a third of the group goes to the sensory center (I'm calling this one Explore) to use mittens to pick up and sort various objects. They are working on increasing sensory integration of soft textures and fine motor control through layers of cloth. As they are working at Explore, another third of the group is at Learn, sorting mittens into pairs working on matching skills, fine motor development, and completion of multi-step directives. The remaining third is with me, singing songs about mittens that have additional goals. Depending on the group, we may be singing The Three Little Kittens and working on emotional recognition and expression using different instruments, or we may be singing the exact same song but working on lyric completion to encourage short-term memory and long-term retrieval skill development. During all of the session, however, I am adjusting the music and interacting with all clients at all of the centers through the music to keep them engaged and interacting with each other as well as with me. (That's the hope, anyway.)

In this case, it is important to have a unifying series of songs. I want to do theme-based learning centers, so I need to have a theme. Therefore, asking for songs to support the theme is appropriate and relevant to what type of session structure I want to present. The purposeful use of those songs, however, is up to me as the therapist, and I have to be able to adapt the presentation of the music to accommodate and support clients in their interactions. It is my intention to use the songs I select to do such a thing. Not every client who enters my area will do the same thing, and that is the way I think therapy should be - personalized to the clients who are present, not scripted and rigid. Some groups may sing one song but not another while other groups may sing every single song and force me to make up another one! That's the way I feel songs should be used in music therapy themed sessions.

I go back to work on Tuesday, and I have to figure out how I am going to do this. We are going to spend some time exploring the new room, and I am going to introduce the idea of centers slowly (I think) in order to assist the paraeducators that I work with with the idea of doing things a bit differently. I think we'll start with Explore this next week. The six classes that will participate in centers most often can start off with the idea of trying out something new in the Explore center as the rest of us do other things. It's time to start planning my strategy for this new year, new room, and different way of approaching therapy for my clients.

Happy New Year, all!