Category: Reflections

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Breaking Boundaries Dance Company

Though this isn’t exactly music therapy related, this post is my therapy related.

For my birthday, my fiancé Thomas had the perfect idea to purchase tickets to four different modern dance performances throughout this season. After the first performance a few months ago (of the Zenon Dance Company), I was inspired to go to an “open dance class.” I decided the word “open,” and the words directly under that text on the flier, “open to anyone,” meant that I, having taken some modern and some jazz back in the day, would be able to attend the class.

Best $10.00 workout I’ve ever had. I was sore in every part of my being for a week.

Turns out the words “open” and “open to anyone” didn’t quite include me. However, I absolutely loved being in a dance space with real dancers.

We went to a Breaking Boundaries Dance Company performance tonight. Enter my therapy. I have always loved dance, but never so much as to attend more than one performance in, say, five years (they’re pricey). I have to acknowledge that my discovery of one of my favorite artists, Tom Waits, was at a dance performance back in college. I saw a dance choreographed to “God’s Away on Business,” and I won’t ever forget it. For a few months following, I was consumed by Tom Waits, and that particular song.

My point is simply that I am fascinated by this other art form. I love the physicality of the music. I love that I have no idea what the story is, most of the time, and that I don’t have to figure it out. I adore how dance activates and agitates me.

Stupendous.

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Using a list to engage

I remember a time only a while ago, maybe only a couple of weeks, where I proclaimed that I was making progress toward goals with one of my private clients. Tonight, however, I feel that the one step forward we’d made has disintegrated and my grasp on the best approach to working with this client has faltered.

I had had a certain amount of success engaging this person with providing a list of experiences that he and I would target during the session, and ask that he put them in order based on his preference. (Thanks, Lynn, for this awesome tip.) Tonight, the client seemed just as willing as he has been to arrange an order of experiences for his session, but essentially refused to participate in them. I feel that I floundered in his session tonight, and that, again, I don’t have enough tools to utilize for him. Yet. I have to have some sort of hope that I will acquire them. And patience. Uch. Patience. I have trouble with that.

 

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Suzuki Mom

Tonight I essentially made my fiancé sit with me for more than an hour as we waded through a couple of years’ worth of my home video. The reason I suddenly decided to do this was that he and I had just returned from meeting a potential wedding photographer, and I wanted to prove to him that I haven’t always loathed being in front of a camera and/or camcorder.

When I was really little, my family got together and performed Christmas concerts for one another. There was a section of video that caught me attempting to play my teeny violin, but complaining that “I can’t hold it up,” and “I can’t do this.” My mom sat there next to me, encouraging me. I believe I lasted a minute, and then just stalked away (a graceful child I was not).

My mother is the most patient person there is.

Thanks for your perseverance, Mom.

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Research beginnings

More than a year ago, I had the thought that I’d like to conduct a research study. I began “informally” gathering data and study participants. My topic was much more so for the sake of my own curiosity surrounding perfectionism in musical performance and whether or not, for other people as myself, the ability to learn non-musical tasks was affected.

Now I’d like to research range of movement in residents of skilled nursing facilities or assisted living facilities, and whether or not it is improved with use of specific music. There is much to read, I know.

 

Has anyone launched a study that might be more “informal” and likely not published like my first idea? How did it go?

Does anyone else actually want to publish (and doesn’t know where to start)?

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Growing toolbox

The director of the therapeutic recreation department at the care center where I’m working has asked me for my “wish list” for the music therapy position. There is a limited number of musical instruments there to be used. I use some of my own equipment.

I submitted the beginning of my wish list, which includes a guitar and a djembe (like I said, a beginning). As I have never grown a “music toolbox” for a facility, I can’t be sure that I’m asking for the right things. The guitar is a given, yes, but I’m wondering if I’m overlooking staples. Granted, the facility does have some handheld percussion, but there are many needs.

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Goals

The music studio through which I contract operates in sessions that last a certain number of weeks. Our current session will be ending at the beginning of February, only to be followed directly thereafter by the next session. At the end of this session, though, I will be losing two of my clients.

One of my colleagues has wisely said that music therapy, in practice, is so much more about small gains than the big, fantastic successes we sometimes read in the research and other articles we access. I have found that with each passing week, I have had to try and try again to find creative ways to engage one of the clients who will be leaving. Finally, finally, tonight I feel that I had a breakthrough with this particular client. I feel that I found a good approach to organizing our time together that lets me target the goals I have for his progress while also giving him autonomy in the session.

Of course. Of course this happens only two sessions away from his treatment termination! My hope is that he will leave his experience in music therapy feeling at least a small sense of hope and success. Then I will have achieved a goal of my own.

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Reading and writing

I am getting some response to others interested in An Article Monthly. I am still figuring out what to read, however.

January is Music Therapy Advocacy Month, and what better way to advocate than to become more inspired (and therefore feel the need to share the excitement). I enjoy writing about my profession, and I also benefit from reading. At one time, I was collecting some ideas for my own research project. I have not abandoned this thought, but I have too much going on right now to sort out and dedicate enough time to doing it in earnest. But, reading others’ research is almost always good to do.

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Surprising

I saw two new individual tenants this afternoon at the assisted living facility where I work on Wednesdays. Very rarely do I have any information about these tenants, other than their names, phone numbers, and apartment numbers. I try to prepare myself for whomever I see by bringing several books of music, all of a big variety of genre. (This is where I could easily utilize an iPad. I definitely see using an iPad as a practical tool, and a great goal to have for myself.)

The first new tenant I saw today was the father of five musicians and the husband to an accomplished dramatic soprano. He said that he was the least musical of his family, but he could sing well. We had a somewhat brief discussion about Mahler and Wagner.

The second new tenant I had was very familiar with music therapy, as her granddaughter is a local music therapist who works in hospice. This tenant’s niece was present for our session, and they spoke very knowledgeably about music therapy.

Certainly, I try to prepare for a number of things when I see tenants cold like this, but I was happily surprised to have such an eclectic afternoon. I am also very pleased that my second tenant was so aware of music therapy, and that her relative was there to share how much she felt our session was helpful.

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Experiential successes

I designed an experience this evening that was successful in application. I recently acquired a set of Boomwhackers to use at the studio with my individual clients. I have one client with whom I am targeting fine motor development. This client has difficulty manipulating objects because he seems to be extremely sensitive to any stimulus on or around his fingers and hands. He has recently been able to use a mallet to strike a small tambourine that I’d been moving around his periphery to develop his ability to spontaneously exchange the mallet from one hand to the other, as opposed to twisting his entire body to accommodate only one hand. He had not be changing hands without cues before I introduced the Boomwhackers. I used one of the Cs as a target for his E, and found that not only did he strike my Boomwhacker with his wherever I placed it, he also changed his Boomwhacker of his own volition at midline. And, he kept a really nice beat to my singing “You Are My Sunshine” (while I moved my target high for “sunshine” and low for “hung my head and I cried”).

I appreciate the small steps that end up to be big.