TME Tuesday: The Only Rule is There are No Rules to TME Development

I think my therapeutic music experience (TME) development process is a bit frustrating for my interns - I know that it was for at least one of my interns because she told me so - because I do not believe in wrong ideas, or songs, or experiences. I believe that all TME ideas are valuable and that there is a person out there who would benefit from the idea that I come up with - I just may not have met them yet. This is the way that I move into TME development - trying to be as open as possible in order to get new ideas.

The only rule to TME development is that there are no rules. -by me (paraphrased from some source that has become part of the lexicon - a trope now, according to various sources...)

This attitude has been something cultivated by me for my entire TME writing career. I have half-formed ideas, snippets of paper, and half-written songs on post-it notes and index cards in all sorts of places. The most important part of my TME process is that there is no "wrong." There is never a "wrong" in TME development. There might be a "not for this client" but that doesn't mean that the TME is "wrong." It is just waiting for its intended audience.

One of the things that I love most about this profession is the expectation of creativity that comes with working with clients. I get to work with children and adolescents, so I get to listen to current popular music and play just about anything. I get to make up songs about toes and solar systems and molecular cohesion. This is the best way of doing music therapy for me. I do not have to stay in one goal area or focus. I find that this type of therapy programming is my favorite.

My TME development process has a loose system to it. I spend some time brainstorming about the sensory benefits to specific ways of interacting with the song or the material or the object. I try to relax a bit and then start writing down every single idea that comes to mind. Sometimes these are in the form of songs or games or just vague possibilities. In this part of the system, there are no silly thoughts. I write down everything! Once the flow of ideas has slowed up a bit, I start to think about the clients that I work with and winnow the ideas down. This pruning process is helpful for the development of TMEs for my own clientele, but I keep all ideas because I believe that multiple client populations can benefit from the same idea. Just because my current clients are not working on upper extremity range of motion doesn't mean that a dance TME can't be used with them...or with a group of people that do need that goal focus.

This is one of the reasons that I write my TME books. I have ideas that are not really all that appropriate for my group of clients, but that are appropriate for others.

No good idea should be wasted. 

Now, I have had half-formed ideas sitting in my card box or idea file for years and years just waiting for that last spark of inspiration to turn them from an idea into a TME. That idea sitting in the card box has not matured yet, but it is still a valuable idea. (Can you tell that I am a packrat??) Every so often I dive into the card box to see if any of those ideas are ready to be hatched into a full TME. If they are, they get transferred onto my form and then get put into my database. If they are not, they go back into the card box.

There are times when an idea starts off as one thing and then morphs into something else. That is okay in this type of system. The idea often changes into a TME that is more appropriate for my clients. I was taught to think about these changes as "adaptations" or "extensions" of the original idea. Again, all ideas are good ones. 

Can you see why this can be confusing to some? 

No ideas are bad ones? There are no "wrong" ideas? Why can't I just tell people the formula??

I have found that it is easier to be open to ideas than it is to describe how to do things. I had one intern who would ask me to tell her if an idea would be successful before she tried it with clients. I couldn't do that because who knows if something will be successful? You cannot tell if an idea will work with your particular clients until you try!

I have adopted a "try it and see" approach to TME introduction to my clients. I don't know if something will work until I use it. If my clients don't seem to warm up to the idea, that doesn't mean that the idea is bad, it just means that I might need to make some changes or try it again so it becomes familiar rather than a novel experience. It is still not "wrong."

There is no "wrong!" Ever. All ideas are valuable. Full stop.