Thoughtful Thursday: Being a School-Based Music Therapist

Yesterday was the first day where I was "therapist" in seven and a half months. I ran six groups with students from all of our educational pods, and it was glorious! I was greeted with one cry of dismay and another cry of heartfelt welcome, so things evened out. Today, I return as "therapist" for three groups and two individuals, and I am ready.

I work in a special purpose school at a psychiatric residential treatment facility. My students come from all over this corner of my state as well as from other states. Some of my students come for the school day only, while others live at the facility for active treatment during all waking hours. I am not an itinerant therapist - I have a large, lovely, muraled, spacious room. (My only complaint about my room is the lack of windows, but I am happy to not have windows when I have a room where we can throw balls, use long ribbon sticks, and breakdance on the floor without touching other people!

My students are between the ages of 5 and 22 (though we haven't had a 5 year old in many years, thankfully), and they all have diagnoses on the developmental and psychiatric spectra. They often come to us from failed educational situations where they have always been "the bad kid." We work on feelings of self-esteem and we attempt to teach our students something beyond psychiatric treatment as they are with us.

I provide educational enrichment services to all students. This means that I do not hold any Individual Education Plan (IEP) goals for any of my students but I provide 60 minutes of music therapy instruction per week per student. My goals and objectives for my students are determined by me. I use the typical goals for any of our residents as my framework and plan therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) and session strategies with these goals in mind. Many of my students have goals for developing impulse control, communicating their wants and needs, expressing emotion in safe manners, and developing personal relationships with others. I can fit all of these goal areas into music therapy treatment without difficulty.

My experience as a school-based music therapist is significantly different from the experiences of others who work in schools. I do not have to document (but I do because that is an ethical responsibility of all therapists). I do not attend IEP meetings. I have one big, beautiful room to do all my therapy in, and I do not travel as part of my job. 

My job is something that I usually enjoy. There are times when it is not something that I like a whole lot, but most of the time, I am happy to see my students. I tend to get blue when I am not able to do music therapy. I love client interaction, and I miss it when I am stuck in "mentor" mode. I am currently free from that mode, and I am looking forward to the next several months as I get back into the idea of being "therapist."

Yesterday morning, before students came for music therapy, I sat down and laminated some visual aids for later. I am going to write up some TMEs to go with the visual aids today and tomorrow because it is my goal to be writing down ideas more than just talking about ideas. I spent time putting together the visual aids, but there is some more work to be done before I have my six things finished. I need to take in some colored file folders to make the last little bit of the visuals that I want to use with my students.

My students often learn things faster when they have something to play with or something to move around. That is one of the reasons that I use visual aids when I am trying to teach concepts about music theory. Now, you might be thinking that I am a music therapist, so why am I teaching them about theory? 

The music therapy room at my facility is often the first place my students are able to engage in music instruction without being "the bad kid" or the "problem." My students do not often learn much about music theory in their various music education experiences, so it is part of my job to help them understand some of the foundation of how we play and what we play when we have instruments. I try to give them some tools that they can take back to their next music education setting so they have some understanding of what a quarter note is and what it means in music.

When you think of it, music is extremely abstract. It does not make much sense when you start to teach it to people who do not understand abstract concepts easily. Why is a quarter note called a quarter note? It is all based on math which is very abstract! So, I try my best to figure out ways to teach my students about music - general music type things. I put in a bit of music history, some basic music theory, exposure to music from different parts of the world, and other things that my students ask about. I try to fit things into our goals, and I am often able to do that without too much work.

It is time to get ready for work, so I am going to drive the 45 minutes down to my school building. I will think about the TMEs that I want to write in the next two days. I will figure out my next session strategies and get my visual aids stored where I want them to go. I will do my session documentation and clean my music therapy room before I spend some time figuring out my priorities for my non-session time today and tomorrow. That's the life of this school-based therapist.

See you all tomorrow.