Sentimental Sunday: Today, a Not-Random Post - Let's Revisit the Therapeutic Elements of Music

So, as you may know, I spent the last two days in Nebraska for the Midwestern Region AMTA conference. During that time, I went to two concurrent presentations that discussed the therapeutic function of music, and how we, as music therapists, can use those elements for the benefit of our clients. This is a topic that I am always writing about - both the elements themselves and how knowing and being able to state the therapeutic decisions made can assist us with our advocacy as music therapists.

So, today's Sentimental Sunday post is the first time (that I can identify) that I really started to talk about this concept on this blog. That's right - I went through the label list for "therapeutic elements of music" to find the first time I really started to describe how I use music to engage my students where they are in the moment. That date was September 3, 2012. Here is the link to the original post.

When this post was written, I had been writing TMEs with consideration of the musical elements for several years. This became a bit of an idea for me during 2003 or 2004 when I was doing a residency for my education and was talking to Deanna Hanson-Abromeit. We started talking about the need to remember that music is a fluid experience - one that allows for modification and changes in the moment to accommodate the goals of the clients who come to us. During that talk, we started to develop the ideas that Deanna has used in her education of students and the ideas that I use in clinical training. We have diverged a bit from each other's use and consideration of this idea, but the foundations are the same. Music therapists HAVE to be able to use music as their tool to affect changes in how clients interact with the world. We also HAVE to be able to tell others what we are doing because that is how people understand what music therapy does and can be. This is an area that appears to be starting to take hold - at least, in the Midwestern region.

A therapist is not a therapist unless he or she can manipulate the elements of music to reach each client and assist the client towards his or her objectives and goals (Landaker, 2012).

I am glad that this idea is catching on outside of this blog. I have been able to impress various stakeholders with my discussions about how music therapy actually works and why they want to pay me my salary rather than just have music volunteers come in to do what (they perceive) I do. I know of at least four other jobs that have been started because I can tell people exactly what is happening with the music during my sessions - I have one former administrator out there in the world who promotes music therapy every chance he gets...now. Thanks, Dr. K.!

So, here is the thing that I want people to know about being a music therapist. You, music therapist, have to know what you are doing with your music at all times. You have to be able to identify the changes that you make in your therapeutic interactions in order to explain it to those are curious. If you cannot explain how you change, morph, adapt, transform the music to accommodate the needs of the people who are coming to you for therapy, then do you really know what you are doing?

In my opinion, no, you do not.

In the past eleven (wow) years, I have written so much about the therapeutic elements of music. If you go to the magnifying glass at the top of the website next to the blog title (at least, on the computer version of this - I'm not sure about the mobile version), you can search "therapeutic elements of music" and find lots of posts where this topic is addressed. I try to use this concept of how we can change the music to affect various responses with and for our clients on a regular basis throughout my interactions with clients. I also talk to music therapy interns about this concept, and it amazes me how many of them have no idea that it is encouraged for us to slow the tempo of a piece to help our clients sing along or that we can change the pitch of the song to make it easier for our clients to engage.

For many of us, changes to the elements occur naturally. If you are engaged in a mutual musicking situation, you adapt to include all members of the group in the music-making. You slow down or speed up as the music goes on, but as a music therapist, you need to be aware of the reasons why you are doing these things during sessions. You need to be able to note how your client interactions change when you change the musical environment. This is especially important when you are taking client data - do you see ups and downs in your data? Perhaps it is inconsistencies with how you are presenting your music.

I can talk about this for years, and I actually have. I will continue to talk about this for the rest of my career.

Today is the anniversary of my professional life. I graduated from my internship 30 years ago today. Thirty years!

If you are new to this blog, welcome. Please know that I have a website, all the social media feeds - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and all that stuff. I enjoy talking to other music therapists about all sorts of music therapy things. Feel free to comment about this post and any posts. I monitor all comments and only post the ones that are appropriate - spam is reported and deleted. 

Please. Challenge my ideas. Argue. Engage in debate. Just because I've been doing this for thirty years (gulp) doesn't mean I am always right in everything. I only know my own experiences, so tell me what I have right and what I've got wrong. That is how we all grow, develop, and become stronger in our advocacy for ourselves, our profession, and our clients.

Thanks for reading.