Just A Song Sunday: Sears and Self-Organization

Last week, I finally finished the first level of Sear's outline about processes in music therapy. I am now moving onto the second level - experience in self-organization. The discussion on pages 39 through 41 is concerned with the concept that music offers humans the opportunity to indicate inner processes and ideas through participation in an external stimulus.

Sears, one of the founders of behavioral music therapy, was very clear that inner responses could only be inferred from behavior - that is, that I, as a behavioral music therapist (at times), cannot know for sure what another person is feeling, but I can start to come to conclusions based on the behaviors that the person engages in during an interaction. Sears states, "A common goal in therapy is to structure experiences (objectively describable) so that the individual receives the satisfactions (inferred) necessary for him to seek more such experiences (objectively measurable), and to see that such experiences lend themselves to the maintenance of better adjustment (objectively describable) with his environment" (p. 39).


That statement makes me cringe. I recognize the tenets behind the statement - it is a classic idea behind behaviorism. It has echoes of conditioning behind it. There is the idea of intrinsic reward behind the completion of specific tasks that leads to changes in response patterns. This is a concept that I understand since I was "raised" in an educational program that highlighted this form of music therapy intervention.

For me, the statement on page 39 illustrates some of the problems with behaviorism. I know that some music therapists feel that anyone who even starts to express the ideas from this type of intervention is not doing "real music therapy." I've tangled with some. For me, however, there is room for all types of perspectives. I digress.

When I read this statement by Sears, I flash back to the illustration of Skinner boxes that I learned way back in my entry level education. When I filter this idea through my experiences with human beings in therapy settings, I can see what Sears was getting at. I, as the therapist, have the job of engaging my client in therapy. To do that, I have to find experiences that my client can and will engage in that will also move him or her towards personal clinical goals. As the client becomes more familiar with the interventions, he or she will learn how to interact with the stimulus when it occurs in the environment.

I have to admit, I am no longer a strict behaviorist when it comes to music therapy. I tend towards humanism when it comes to my own therapeutic philosophy, but the ideas that I learned when I was learning this profession still make an impression on me. I believe that I cannot surmise what an individual is thinking or feeling, but I can see behaviors that can help me conclude some responses. I do not feel that strict adherence to a prompt, behavior, reward scheme is the best way to encourage humans to grow and interact. I believe that the best way to engage a client in therapy is to shape the experience to and for that client rather than to try to shape the client to the experience. All of these thoughts influence me as a therapist on a daily basis, and they continue to challenge me. I hope they always will.

In the next several weeks, I will continue to work through this outline. Under this process, experience in self-organization, Sears delineated the following topics:

• music provides for self-expression
• music provides compensatory endeavors for the handicapped individual
• music provides opportunities for socially acceptable reward and nonreward
• music provides for the enhancement of pride in self

Thanks for reading.

 


McLeod, S. A. (2015). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html 

Sears, W. W. (1968). Processes in music therapy. In E. T. Gaston (Ed.) Music in therapy (30-44). New York: MacMillan.