TME Tuesday: The Ideas Keep Coming

I am currently in a season of creativity and idea generation. This is always a good time for me since there are times when I end up trying  just sitting there, staring at the mess of things that are in front of me. I enjoy when songs just come out of me in the middle of music therapy sessions and when clients respond to them in ways that are beneficial to their goal growth. In my career, I have had many ups and downs when it comes to creativity, so I have learned to appreciate the ups and live through the downs knowing that there will be an upswing at some point.

The problem with being in a season of creativity and idea generation is that the ideas often come faster than I can record them.

Yesterday, I was strategizing about a group that had a difficult session last Friday. The group was disjointed and everyone seemed to be crabby. I was trying to incorporate music into the environment, but no one was paying attention to me - they were all staring at the peers who were engaged in behaviors of concern. They came to see me again, and I had to figure out something to engage them all while offering some sort of musical cohesion.

As always, I approached this particular group as a strategic plan rather than a scripted plan. I have never been able to follow a script when it comes to therapy or education or lesson plans or all that. I take the suggested script as just that - a suggestion. So, I sat down to develop a strategy rather than a plan - there is a distinction in my head, but it is really difficult to explain - check out these blog posts for more of my dithering about this specific topic. 

I figured that a class of individuals was not really working well within our typical group format, so I decided to put the guitar down (gasp!) and use a drum instead. I sat down with the drum, started a repetitive beat at about 85 beats per minute, and started improvising a greeting that welcomed group members to the music room, explained the expectations of safety and listening to earn STARS (our positive reinforcement program), and then smoothly transitioned away from live drumming to the use of a drum beat at the same 85 bpm. I kept the speaker under the gathering drum to keep the transition from me to a recording as smooth as possible. I modeled my drumming on the beat to help with the transition as well.

The group was entirely different this time around. The students who had engaged in behaviors of concern in the last session did the same things this session, but the attention of the rest of the clients and the staff were on me and the rhythm. I didn't try to compete with the things happening (my own change) and tried to incorporate more responses and modeling to specific situations in the moment. I sang my directions to clients rather than trying to shout them over the noises in the room. I repeated myself and used client names to redirect attention back to me. I used the drum to gain attention when my words were not being heard or attended to. At the end of the session, all of the clients were acting safely and were able to transition back to class without requiring additional assistance.

I am hoping that the session on Friday will be just as calm, but who knows?

Now, the idea of using the drum to center attention and focus is not a new idea. It is not something revolutionary or anything, but it is the best technique that I have found to use with my clients when we all feel disjointed. I simplify what I am doing to the bare essentials - rhythm, tempo, and simple timbre. This is the best way to unite a disjointed group of clients that I have found in my work with my clients. Focus on rhythm and tempo and then add other sounds as needed.

I liked what happened with that group so much that I adapted it a bit for my next group. This group is not really all that disjointed, but they are LOUD! With the exception of one client who I just was unable to engage, the rest of the group settled into the rhythm and tempo and engaged as requested. By the end of the session, the last client had FINALLY settled into the music, and I was able to whisper sing to them to complete our interaction and send them off to the next intervention.

There are things in my ideas book that need to be fleshed out. There are ideas flitting around my head that need to be put into the ideas book. I have so much going on in my brain that I need to record as much of it as possible before it just goes away.

I have learned that these types of times are exhilarating but are also overwhelming. The best thing to do is to ride the wave of creativity, trying to capture as much as I can, and then work on those ideas when the waves are not optimal. I do what I can to maximize these periods and then wait for the next one to arrive. I wish I could predict when they would arrive with a bit more accuracy so I could be prepared, but that doesn't happen. They just arrive.

How do you capture your ideas for therapeutic music experiences? How do you remember them? Am I the only music therapist out there who has to write things down or forget them forever? Let me know in the comments what you do to strategize, plan, or create.