Music therapists spend a lot of their time with people who are not exhibiting peak levels of human functioning. If you see a hospice patient who is experiencing tremendous physical pain, you see some of that person's "rough edges." If you see a client who has difficulty controlling his or her bowel movements, those are more rough edges. A child who is so frustrated at his or her communication difficulties that tantrums and violence ensue - that is also certainly a rough edge of the range of human possibility.
Music therapists see people at some of the most raw and vulnerable points in their lives, when things are the roughest. We see precious pre-term infants, struggling for a chance to live, and equally precious human beings on the other end of the lifespan who are actively dying.We are called in to assist with nearly every other rough patch of life in between.
The therapeutic relationship takes an enormous amount of trust on the part of the people we assist. Our clients must trust us enough with all of their vulnerabilities to allow us in to help. Music therapists are blessed enough to be invited in to those most vulnerable moments of human existence and to make those moments feel a little safer, a little smoother.
In fact, one of my favorite things about music therapists is our ability to see so much more than our client's rough edges. We see beyond - to potential, to creative expression, to personal growth in the face of tremendous challenges. When we look at a client, we assess and acknowledge their "rough spots" and all the areas that need improving, but we also focus so much of our energy on what each client can do.
Music is so very adaptable on so many levels. Everyone can engage in music in some way, no matter how small or how passively. How humbling. How utterly amazing.
You must be a special kind of person to expose oneself to all the rough edges of humanity, to throw oneself into the work of smoothing those edges. It takes a special kind of person to clearly see a person's limitations and to also see far, far beyond them.
It takes a music therapist.
So on this gorgeous Friday afternoon, I am thankful for all the music therapists and other helping professionals the world over who go about this work on a daily basis. May you find that you are able to see the good and the potential in every client you meet.
Showing posts with label strengths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strengths. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Music Therapy: Time to Be Ourselves
This weekend, Dr. Dena Register of the University of Kansas (see http://music.ku.edu/programs/memt/faculty/register/ for her bio) came to Drury University's Center for Music Therapy to discuss the process of getting state recognized licensure for music therapists in the state of Missouri. Colorado just introduced a bill with licensure language, and two other states passed either licensure or registry bills in 2011.
It has been a record year for music therapy developments with unprecedented coverage in the news, and media such as the film "The Music Never Stopped" and Jodi Picoult's novel "Sing me Home."
Things are moving and changing.
In the past, music therapists have sought the important process of licensure alongside or underneath the umbrella of other therapy and helping professions, such as in New York state where music therapists are licensed under a Creative Arts Therapist license.
This is not the direction we'd like to see music therapy licensure take in MO. Oftentimes, when someone asks us, "Music therapy? What's that?" we respond by saying, "We do this that's like occupational therapy, and this that's like psychotherapy, and this that's like speech therapy, and this that's like physical therapy, and, and, and..."
Dr. Register proposed that while this is a useful way to communicate with people who have never heard of music therapy, perhaps it's time we begin to stand alone because none of those other professions work across the life-span with any and every diagnosis like music therapists do. We love and respect our peers and colleagues in the other helping professions, but as Dr. Register pointed out, you are not likely to see an art therapist working in the NICU, or a dance therapist working in hospice and end-of-life care.
The other therapists tend to define themselves by the area they practice in: speech, occupational, physical, development, psychology.
We call ourselves music therapists because music is the main overriding factor that ties all our work together. Music can be clinically beneficial to every age and diagnosis, from labor and delivery through the very last seconds of life.
It's time that we chose to stand up and be counted as an independent, fully-functioning profession. The other professions have worked hard and deserve the state recognition and understanding that they receive.
Music therapists are music therapists. Nothing more, nothing less, and it's time that we be ourselves.
It has been a record year for music therapy developments with unprecedented coverage in the news, and media such as the film "The Music Never Stopped" and Jodi Picoult's novel "Sing me Home."
Things are moving and changing.
In the past, music therapists have sought the important process of licensure alongside or underneath the umbrella of other therapy and helping professions, such as in New York state where music therapists are licensed under a Creative Arts Therapist license.
This is not the direction we'd like to see music therapy licensure take in MO. Oftentimes, when someone asks us, "Music therapy? What's that?" we respond by saying, "We do this that's like occupational therapy, and this that's like psychotherapy, and this that's like speech therapy, and this that's like physical therapy, and, and, and..."
Dr. Register proposed that while this is a useful way to communicate with people who have never heard of music therapy, perhaps it's time we begin to stand alone because none of those other professions work across the life-span with any and every diagnosis like music therapists do. We love and respect our peers and colleagues in the other helping professions, but as Dr. Register pointed out, you are not likely to see an art therapist working in the NICU, or a dance therapist working in hospice and end-of-life care.
The other therapists tend to define themselves by the area they practice in: speech, occupational, physical, development, psychology.
We call ourselves music therapists because music is the main overriding factor that ties all our work together. Music can be clinically beneficial to every age and diagnosis, from labor and delivery through the very last seconds of life.
It's time that we chose to stand up and be counted as an independent, fully-functioning profession. The other professions have worked hard and deserve the state recognition and understanding that they receive.
Music therapists are music therapists. Nothing more, nothing less, and it's time that we be ourselves.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sticks and Stones: Breaking the "Handicapped" Association
As small children, before we learn basic language skills, we learn to identify certain words with pictures and logos. Many of us can identify the McDonald's logo before we can print our first names. Some of us saw the "Coca-Cola" or "Sprite" logos and associated them with a general word like "soda" or "pop." All in all, these word-picture associations are powerful and deeply rooted in our earliest memories.
And that's usually not a huge problem. Quickly associating information with a basic picture is an important skill to help us navigate our world on a daily basis. The issue appears when we have made an association that can be harmful to others.
As a child, I learned that the white individual in a wheelchair on a blue field meant "handicapped." For years, I never questioned that association. It was everywhere - handicapped parking, the handicapped entrance, handicapped license plates.
It wasn't until I came to college as a music therapy major that I learned about Person-First Language and how important it is to speak about people first and their characteristics second. (For an excellent overview of PFL please see http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/images/PDF/pfl-sh09.pdf.)
Obviously, as soon as I learned about the importance of speaking about people first and disabilities second, I made a resolve to eliminate the word "handicapped" from my vocabulary and make an effort to educate those around me. The problem for me comes from the blue and white wheelchair logo. It is so deeply engrained in my memory with the word "handicapped" that every time I see a license plate in traffic with that logo, my brain automatically retrieves that word. Each time this happens, I practice retraining myself to think or say aloud, "That symbol simply refers to an individual with a disability, not a disabled or handicapped person. They are a person first and foremost."
Who knows how long it will take me to break this automatic association formed in childhood? The point is, I am going to keep trying until I accomplish it, because as a future therapist, I choose to speak, think, and act respectfully towards individuals with disabilities.
And that's usually not a huge problem. Quickly associating information with a basic picture is an important skill to help us navigate our world on a daily basis. The issue appears when we have made an association that can be harmful to others.
As a child, I learned that the white individual in a wheelchair on a blue field meant "handicapped." For years, I never questioned that association. It was everywhere - handicapped parking, the handicapped entrance, handicapped license plates.
It wasn't until I came to college as a music therapy major that I learned about Person-First Language and how important it is to speak about people first and their characteristics second. (For an excellent overview of PFL please see http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/images/PDF/pfl-sh09.pdf.)
Obviously, as soon as I learned about the importance of speaking about people first and disabilities second, I made a resolve to eliminate the word "handicapped" from my vocabulary and make an effort to educate those around me. The problem for me comes from the blue and white wheelchair logo. It is so deeply engrained in my memory with the word "handicapped" that every time I see a license plate in traffic with that logo, my brain automatically retrieves that word. Each time this happens, I practice retraining myself to think or say aloud, "That symbol simply refers to an individual with a disability, not a disabled or handicapped person. They are a person first and foremost."
Who knows how long it will take me to break this automatic association formed in childhood? The point is, I am going to keep trying until I accomplish it, because as a future therapist, I choose to speak, think, and act respectfully towards individuals with disabilities.
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