The Brain Starts Going...

My Brain - thinking and thinking and thinking

Have you ever watched a client learn something? You know that moment. The one when a client makes a sound on an instrument for the first time. The moment when the tempo of the music is perfect and your previously quiet client starts to sing all the words of a song. The moment when a client realizes that you are improvising music based on what he/she/they are doing and then start to manipulate the music - taking control of the music that is created.

I love those moments. They happen quickly and not every single day, but they do happen. You can see when someone grasps a new concept and when it becomes something real to them. I bet this moment is why teachers are teachers. I know that these moments are part of why I am a therapist.

I work for persons who have been diagnosed as having an intellectual disability or a developmental disability. In addition, all of my clients have chronic psychiatric concerns as well. Learning does not progress at a speed or method that is "typical." Diagnosis does not mean inability, however. Let me repeat that.

Diagnosis does not mean inability.

Diagnosis (at least, in my experience) means difference. Difference from the typical; often misunderstood because things do not progress as expected. This is an idea to keep in mind as you are working with persons who bring diagnoses with them into music therapy sessions. Diagnosis does not mean inability. It means that someone approaches a part of the act of being human in a way that is different from most others.

What I've found over the years is that my clients often take a bit longer to understand curriculum designed for convergent thinkers. They do not often take abstract concepts as facts - they need to be personally involved in making the abstraction more concrete before those moments of learning start happening. It's not that they do not learn - they definitely are learning - it's just that the learning takes different routes. What I've also found over the years is that once my clients learn something - a fact, a routine, a song, a strategy - it sticks with them for a very long time. I have former students who come up to me and sing my songs back to me - all it took for them to remember every song we ever sang together was the sight of my face (as far as I know), even after 20 years! My students don't often have to cram information into their brains - they know what they know. Once it is known, it is always there.

I think that music plays such an important part in waking up the brain for my clients. I know that many of my clients can complete tasks with music much more efficiently than without. It just makes me marvel at the wonderful nature of our work and our tool. I love it all!