How Do Music Therapists Plan for a Session?
For our first podcast-style blog post, Emma and Heather will be discussing how music therapists plan for sessions, what kinds of experiences might be included, and the importance of flexibility. Keep reading for the audio link and a full transcript.
Emma Martin: So for today's blog post, we are doing the topic, “How do music therapists plan for a session.” My name is Emma Martin and I have been at the Sonatina Center for two years. I'm a board-certified music therapist and I'm also licensed to practice in the state of Maryland. And with me today to talk about planning for a music therapy session is Heather. So, Heather, go ahead and introduce yourself.
Heather Ellsworth: Thank you! I am Heather Ellsworth. I am a board-certified music therapist as well, and also a Neurologic music therapist, and I have been working at the Sonatina Center for a year and I've had my own practice for about four years called Mid Coast Music Therapy in Maine.
Emma: Awesome! We’re just going to jump right into these interview questions. The first one is, music therapists put a lot of thought into each music therapy session they have. Let’s start with your process for planning for an evaluation/intake session with a new client.
Heather: Okay, I can hear that the audio is a little glitchy right now, but I will go ahead anyway. I tend to read the [client] intake. Usually the client will have a caretaker either a parent or a guardian. I don't tend to see many music therapy clients who are filling out their own forms and referring themselves. So generally, I'll be reading the intake forms that the parent or caretaker provides and seeing what caretakers goals are for clients. And when I assess them, I'm assessing them using musical interventions that target the area of need whether that has to do with their cognitive abilities, their motor abilities, their social/emotional abilities. So I'm trying to get a good sense of anything I would need to to further work with them on their goals.
And when I do this, I have any interests and abilities in mind that their caretaker has put down on the intake form. I'm also thinking a little bit about length. If it's a younger person, I'll probably go with a half-hour intake. If it's someone who's older, they'll probably have a longer attention span.
Emma: Great, thank you! So, once you've met the client and have a better understanding of their likes and preferences and reading that evaluation that they sent in, and having an idea of their goal plan, walk me through your process for planning a session with them.
Heather: Okay, so I look at their preferred music if they have some, whether it's certain songs or certain artists or certain genres. If it's certain songs I might learn those songs on guitar, or if they're very complicated songs I might play them from my phone on a speaker during the session while we sing or play other instruments. Generally I'll plan for a handful of different music activities that will target the areas of need that their caretakers specified or that I've seen in their intake session.
Depending on their age and ability, I might plan for many, many different activities, or I might plan for just one. It probably depends on their attention level. And I also think about safety when that's relevant, like for an older person with Alzheimer's, they might put a sharp instrument into their mouth thinking it's food and so I might choose something safer and softer for them to use, that sort of thing.
Emma: How would this process differ in a group setting?
Heather: I've run groups in sort of two different scenarios. One is where I, or another music therapist, has received the intake forms and assessed each individual before they join a group. And another is in a school setting where I probably don't know much about the individuals ahead of time, I'm just working with the group.
So in the first scenario, I'm going to be looking at all the forms and assessing each person and trying to incorporate all of their needs into a session. And in the second, I will be talking to the teachers. It might not be until the very first session when I can actually have a conversation, but I'll be talking to them and seeing what the goals are that they have for their students. One thing that's definitely different about a group session is that it's important to plan for everybody's ability. So for example, if I had one nonverbal (non-speaking) child in a room, full of six children total and the goal is for each child to say the correct word at a certain place in the song, I would probably be providing visual options for the nonverbal ((non-speaking) students, so they could point to the correct picture.
Emma: Yeah, sounds like a decent amount of adapting, which is great. Tell me about thinking or planning on your feet during a session. What happens when things don't go according to the plan?
Heather: Yeah, my forte has never been thinking on my feet and that's probably why I plan so heavily. I probably plan more than most music therapists, and I think that's partly why. Because then when something doesn't go according to plan, I can switch to one of the many other things I have planned. So that's pretty much my go-to.
Emma: Yeah. And I mean, you talked about the planning that you put in… I don't know if somebody can over-plan because it sounds like what you've done is then given yourself a lot of repertoire and options in your back pocket that you can just immediately go to. So you are thinking on your feet, you're just using those things that you planned a while ago, which is great.
Heather: Yeah, I guess that's a good point. I also always have something written that I bring to the session because I know that it's easier for me to glance at something than to be frantically hauling through my brain space to find what I planned ahead of time. I like the written word.
Emma: Yeah. That sounds like a great idea to me. What are ways you involve the client in session planning?
Heather: So some clients are able to come up with a whole host of ideas, things that they want to do in a music therapy session. And in that case I'll write down everything they're thinking and then we'll see what pans out, what's available, what works out with them, what's appropriate. And then for clients who are not as able to to generate ideas on their own or verbalize them, I'll offer them a choice of activities during the session and they can point to what they're interested in. Or I might ask, if they're completely nonverbal (non-speaking), they often will have something they can use, like “Yes/No” buttons, and I might say, “do you want to keep doing this?” and they can choose whether they want to continue or not.
Emma: Yeah, providing space for autonomy in the session, that’s great. How does planning sessions with a specific client change over the course of their therapy?
Heather: I spend a lot of time when I'm first working with a client planning. I end up printing out a lot of love chords and lyrics, looking up a lot of ideas online, talking to other music therapists. If I have access to their PT (Physical Therapist) or OT (Occupational Therapist) or whoever, I might talk to them as well. I also find that these days there's a lot of new technology that I might want to brush up on if I'm using that in sessions. So as time goes on and I discover more about what the client likes and what's effective in meeting the goals we've set, I can do certain activities repeatedly, which is usually what the client prefers anyway because we all like familiarity, and then I can just tweak those and make little changes here and there to keep it interesting.
Emma: Yeah, so it sounds like some of that planning that we talked about a while ago, that over planning, really pays off in the end with clients.
Heather: Hopefully.
Emma: Is there anything you would like to add about planning for music therapy sessions?
Heather: Yeah, one thing is I find that it's helpful to bring in things that aren't necessarily musical, if my client is interested in them. Like I have one client right now who, she's a complete ham, she really likes acting and performing, and we do comedy improv together in the sessions. And it's not even necessarily musical, but she loves it and it can be used, and is used, to help people meet goals. And I know a lot of music therapists incorporate art into their sessions, because there's a lot of artistic clients out there. So I think it's great to involve things like that, that the client is comfortable with and eager to work with.
Emma: I'm hearing being creative in your session planning can really speak to a client in reaching their goals and creating a motivating environment.
Heather: Mm-hmm
Emma: Awesome. Well, thank you Heather for doing this little interview with me today about planning for a music therapy session. And I hope everyone enjoyed and found this useful!
Heather: Thank you, Emma.
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