Session Planning
I started the day yesterday with no idea what I was going to do in my group sessions.
Let me explain a bit about what it is that I do. I provide 60 minutes of music therapy for every classroom per week so "teachers can get their plan time." There are no other guidelines offered by my administration, so I have freedom in what I do with my students when they arrive. I just have to keep them for 60 minutes. I have some basic treatment guidelines, but nothing really very formal. Music therapy is considered an "educational enrichment" service at the school - something offered for the benefit of students, but without requirements to be tied to the IEPs of clients (fortunately - I don't think I could handle attending 110 IEPs every year and the paperwork would be extremely daunting - ugh). My basic treatment guidelines are to address impulse control, social interactions, appropriate communication of wants and needs, and frustration tolerance/coping skill development. Under that broad umbrella, I am able to do whatever I would like with my clients during their time in the session.
It is strangely freeing and, at the same time, restricting to provide music therapy services in this way.
I like being able to shape my sessions however I need to in the moment, but I don't like having to try to do therapy with ever growing numbers of clients. I feel like I don't really get to establish therapeutic relationships with many of my clients because I only see them in group settings. I really feel that I do more for my clients in individual sessions than in the group setting, but my job requires the group settings. I try to find a mix of individuals put in with the groups to sustain my therapeutic soul.
All that to illustrate the situation I was in about 30 minutes before my first group session yesterday.
I knew what I was going to do - shape the music experience to the students as they arrived in the music therapy room. Try to maintain appropriate interactions and safety, and use the music to prompt specific responses. I just had no idea how I would get to that point. I didn't know how to get my students into music making to begin with.
I've tried all sorts of things with these groups. Sometimes we do games, sometimes we listen to music and dance, sometimes we engage in relaxation exercises - it really just depends on what happens with the group. I strive to offer responsive music therapy - being flexible in my session plan implementation by taking cues from the clients and shaping the music to those cues. Yesterday, I was putting things away in the cabinets and was trying to figure out what I would use to engage my clients.
Nothing really looked all that interesting to me. I didn't want to do a book. The sensory materials were just too much to handle. It wasn't time for Musician of the Month yet, so that was out. I finally settled on Boomwhackers.
We hadn't used the Boomwhackers in a long time - the small space I used to have really made those instruments difficult to maneuver. Therefore, it was time.
We listened to the instruments, played in both improvisatory and structured manners, and remained safe (that last one is the most difficult for most of my very impulsive and aggression-prone clients). Some of my clients were able to understand the structure behind the instruments. Others were not, but we played the Boomwhackers by golly.
Every session was different. (They really have to be since the clients that make up those sessions are completely different from one another.) Some clients needed to hit the instruments with great strength. Others needed more space to play their instruments. Some entrained to external beats immediately. Others never entrained. Some wanted to play familiar songs. Others didn't really care as long as they got to play the instruments.
We will play the Boomwhackers again today and tomorrow as well. Those instruments will be our entry into therapeutic intervention and experience. I may take my full chromatic set to school next week. I may not. We'll see.
Let me explain a bit about what it is that I do. I provide 60 minutes of music therapy for every classroom per week so "teachers can get their plan time." There are no other guidelines offered by my administration, so I have freedom in what I do with my students when they arrive. I just have to keep them for 60 minutes. I have some basic treatment guidelines, but nothing really very formal. Music therapy is considered an "educational enrichment" service at the school - something offered for the benefit of students, but without requirements to be tied to the IEPs of clients (fortunately - I don't think I could handle attending 110 IEPs every year and the paperwork would be extremely daunting - ugh). My basic treatment guidelines are to address impulse control, social interactions, appropriate communication of wants and needs, and frustration tolerance/coping skill development. Under that broad umbrella, I am able to do whatever I would like with my clients during their time in the session.
It is strangely freeing and, at the same time, restricting to provide music therapy services in this way.
I like being able to shape my sessions however I need to in the moment, but I don't like having to try to do therapy with ever growing numbers of clients. I feel like I don't really get to establish therapeutic relationships with many of my clients because I only see them in group settings. I really feel that I do more for my clients in individual sessions than in the group setting, but my job requires the group settings. I try to find a mix of individuals put in with the groups to sustain my therapeutic soul.
All that to illustrate the situation I was in about 30 minutes before my first group session yesterday.
I knew what I was going to do - shape the music experience to the students as they arrived in the music therapy room. Try to maintain appropriate interactions and safety, and use the music to prompt specific responses. I just had no idea how I would get to that point. I didn't know how to get my students into music making to begin with.
I've tried all sorts of things with these groups. Sometimes we do games, sometimes we listen to music and dance, sometimes we engage in relaxation exercises - it really just depends on what happens with the group. I strive to offer responsive music therapy - being flexible in my session plan implementation by taking cues from the clients and shaping the music to those cues. Yesterday, I was putting things away in the cabinets and was trying to figure out what I would use to engage my clients.
Nothing really looked all that interesting to me. I didn't want to do a book. The sensory materials were just too much to handle. It wasn't time for Musician of the Month yet, so that was out. I finally settled on Boomwhackers.
We hadn't used the Boomwhackers in a long time - the small space I used to have really made those instruments difficult to maneuver. Therefore, it was time.
We listened to the instruments, played in both improvisatory and structured manners, and remained safe (that last one is the most difficult for most of my very impulsive and aggression-prone clients). Some of my clients were able to understand the structure behind the instruments. Others were not, but we played the Boomwhackers by golly.
Every session was different. (They really have to be since the clients that make up those sessions are completely different from one another.) Some clients needed to hit the instruments with great strength. Others needed more space to play their instruments. Some entrained to external beats immediately. Others never entrained. Some wanted to play familiar songs. Others didn't really care as long as they got to play the instruments.
We will play the Boomwhackers again today and tomorrow as well. Those instruments will be our entry into therapeutic intervention and experience. I may take my full chromatic set to school next week. I may not. We'll see.
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