Make It Monday - Designing Therapeutic Music Experiences (TMEs)

One of the things that I enjoy is developing therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) which happens to be the term that I like for what I do with my clients during sessions. Others call these things interventions or applications or modules.

I am currently designing TMEs to go along with a book that I bought at Thriftbooks.com. It is my goal to have one book organized with TMEs to go along with it for each month of the year. The first one is getting started, and I am revisiting my TME process and refining it all.

So, let's catch up about this.

I started writing TMEs (we didn't call them that back in 1989, by the way - we called them applications - I didn't like that term very much, even back then, but I didn't argue) in my second semester of music therapy education. We had to come up with 25 things to do with music therapy clients during the semester. It was rough to create that many ideas, but I did it. I wrote down my ideas on 4X6 inch index cards. I still have them, of course.

Once I started being a music therapist full time, I found that I had to justify some of my clinical choices to people who paid me, so I needed to think more about why I was doing what I was doing. Taking out this format was the start. As I continued to learn more about the therapeutic effect of music on human behavior, I was able to see the reasons why things worked with my clients or why they did not. It was primarily centered around me and the ways I changed up elements of music to connect with my clients.

Off to the TME format - I adapted and added and rearranged to make the format make more sense to me. So, here it is...

Therapeutic Music Experience

Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC

Title of TME

Purpose:

 

Motor

Academic/Cognitive

Social/Communication

 

 

 

Emotional/Behavioral

Musical

Other

 

 

 

 Source:

 Materials:

Environment:

Song/Chant/Words:

Procedure: R = Reinforcement opportunities; C = Redirection/Cue opportunities; A = Assessment

1.       

Therapeutic Function of Music:


Melody

Pitch

Rhythm

Dynamics

Harmony

 

 

 

 

 

Form

Tempo

Timbre

Style

Lyrics

 

 

 

 

 

Chart adapted from Hanson-Abromeit, D. (2010). A Closer Look at the Therapeutic Function of Music. Presentation at 2010 American Music Therapy Association National Conference: Cleveland, OH.

 Adaptations:

·     Extensions:

·    Telehealth Decision Tree: 

Is this an original song? Y  N – if yes, could be appropriate

Does this song require client choice or communication? Y   N   - if yes, then in appropriate for content creation

Does this song include visuals?   Y  N  Are the visuals used from another site? Y  N – if yes, then not appropriate for content creation.  If no, can the visuals be used in a powerpoint presentation to share?  Y  N

 

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