2018 SRH Summer School

This year, we have 19 students from:

• USA
• Jordan 
• Indonesia
• Singapore 
• Japan 
• Czech Republic

It is definitely a full house!

Wednesday evening we took part in a performance series of the music therapy department at SRH University Heidelberg, "Musik nach Maaß."

The students worked up four songs in small ensembles and performed them.

Marie-Claire performed a song she wrote, "Something more."

Rula performed a traditional Palestinian song, "Ya zareef."

Kat performed a song popularized by John Denver, "Country Roads."

Takako performed a song from Japan, "Green tea song."

Relationship

The most significant experience I had in Bonn was the one that I mentioned in our last group discussion, the improvisation session with one client in particular. It was significant from beginning to end, and it was unexpectedly very moving for me while I observed the interaction between client and therapist. Not knowing the language, I relied on body language and facial expressions. I could see the care that my music therapist had for his clients, including in this session. I could see that the client was struggling that day. She did not seem uninterested in being there, but she did seem disconnected (which could have been due to medications). Regardless of what she may have been feeling, she chose to play the piano during the improvisation and it was beautiful. I felt what she was communicating through the music. I developed a sensitivity to the client, despite the fact that I did not know her, which was a different experience for me. She left the session with a slight smile on her face. I learned that I really valued the client-therapist relationship, and although I will be interning at a general hospital starting this fall, I hope to have the opportunity to develop this kind of relationship that with my clients.
I learned a lot about myself through that music therapy experience. During the session, I actually became a little emotionally overwhelmed thinking about this client's personal situation, along with the emotions of the music. Something that I hope to gain a better understanding of in the future is having empathy for a client, but not allowing the emotions of a situation to limit my ability to help. Overall, I saw how special the client-therapist relationship is to me and I hope to create those experiences with my future clients.

Reflecting on an Amazing Trip

            Now that I’ve been back home for over a week, I have been able to reflect on all of my experiences in Germany.  Each day on the trip was packed with so many learning experiences about music therapy and also about myself.  This past week I have thought a lot about how my knowledge and perspectives on music therapy have grown and evolved because of the opportunities brought about by this life changing trip.  I’ve also realized the amazing impact everyone on the trip has had on me – how their different backgrounds in music therapy have broadened my views; how their love for what we do has inspired me; and how their kind and wonderful selves have enriched my life. 

            It’s hard to believe that just twelve days ago all of us were meeting in Dusseldorf for our last class and last day in Germany together.  During that afternoon, everyone shared what they had learned from observing professional music therapists that week.  My week had been a swirl of new knowledge and some frustration.  The sessions I observed of my music therapist were conducted in German (of course).  While I tried to follow what the therapist and clients were saying by noticing non-verbal cues (such as body language, tone of voice, etc.), I still struggled to have any idea of what was been talked about.  This was especially frustrating because the sessions I observed emphasized talking, with some or little music.  After the first day of this, I thought about how I was going to get through the next few days.  I realized that I might have been a little skeptical of how much talking was being done in the sessions.  Even if it was a different approach than what I was used to, I needed to appreciate this experience and learn as much as I could about this different approach to music therapy.

            After the initial frustration with the language barrier, I learned so much over the next few days.  The structure to the sessions of talk-play-talk allowed the clients to process what they were experiencing in music therapy.  I took part in improvisation activities that were powerful ways for clients to express themselves and connect with others.

            The last week of observation was a very important part of the trip.  It allowed me to connect what we had talked about, discussed, and explored in class during the first three weeks to real life practice and see how professional music therapists in Germany approach music therapy.  There are so many approaches to music therapy – I’ve seen this evidenced from everyone on the trip who came from different universities and I’ve seen this in practice from German music therapists.  It’s one of the many, many wonderful things about our field.  There’s no right approach to music therapy.  It can be used in so many different ways to help so many people.  All of the different perspectives I have seen on this trip have helped me to continue to evolve my own definition of music therapy.

Week 4 and its circumstances

As of today, I have been back in the states for one week, and have spent the week resting and processing this trip. It was a lot but it was delightful and the educational opportunities were myriad. I am glad to be back where I know the language, but I am also so ready to go back. There are so many things to appreciate in Germany.

The final week in the study abroad program proved to be one of endurance and pressure, but I will do my best to give you the reader's digest. Early Monday morning, we leave our apartments in Heidelberg to get to Dusseldorf by that afternoon. We spend a few hours there learning about the creative arts therapies there and the different branches of the clinic where we would be placed. We were all divided up to go to different LVR clinics in different towns outside Dusseldorf. Casey, another student, and I headed out to our clinic about 4:30. The trip wasn't long but once we got to our apartments, that's when things started going downhill.

My room was full of dust and cobwebs. My dishes were dusty. The microwave was on the balcony for some reason. Plus, even though the clinic is titled that it is in Viersen, it is actually in an even smaller town outside it. What put me over the edge in a matter of minutes? NO WIFI. Yup. Now, I know that seems trivial, but I didn't purchase an international data plan so I had no way to contact anyone. Staying here made me shut down and sleeping was difficult and painful because the bed may as well not have been there. The mattress was solid. All of this made it VERY difficult to pull up my bootstraps, so to speak, and get through everyday with a positive attitude.

We met our music therapists on Tuesday and we went with them to a castle with vast gardens to meet an art therapist there for some team bonding. This was great to get comfortable with each other and we got to talk a lot about things outside of music therapy as well. We got to know them as people, not just music therapists.

We had fortunate opportunities to be part of music therapy sessions in acute psychiatric units and the forensics unit at that clinic. We were even able to be in groups in the most secured area of the forensics unit. These people are at their most unstable and dangerous. It was a little nerve-wracking but also amazing. I didn't want to leave. I had a few moments where music really showed itself as a thing to quickly promote a relationship between client and therapist. Johnny Cash was requested so I got to play and sing it, and I could feel the clients relax more because they were pleased and sang along. My favorite part was in the most secured area of the forensics unit. There was a gentleman who came in a couple of different times during our time there and made up his own rap (free-styled) to different instrumental tracks. It was awe-striking to watch this because I watched him go to a place in a his brain and it would just flow out. He made up four full, different raps, and you could feel that it was good for him to get something off his chest and validation for completing something. I didn't see how rap could be beneficial in a music therapy setting, but that proved me wrong. He has a talent and that is his way into music therapy. He even spoke with the music therapist about when he was going to see her again. It was really humbling to watch. This was the only time I observed some form of improvisation in my time at the clinic. Yes, the instrumental track was pre-recorded, but his words come from him in that very moment. The other sessions consisted of sing-alongs to song requests by the clients in the groups. Sometimes, the therapist would select one particular client to make a choice about a song. This pushed the client to connect more to whatever song they chose.

As for me, I learned that I need to be more flexible when it comes to my expectations and then what actually happens or is. I spent the entire week furious about my accommodations, so it was completely draining to put that away long enough to be with the music therapists and the clients to learn something. It was very difficult to not focus on getting back to Dusseldorf. Obviously, I came out the other side alive, and I will be forever grateful to our music therapists there.

Overall, that last week really showed me that reflexivity and flexibility are essential in music therapy and in life. Coping skills require them, along with healthy emotional expression, communication, and the list could continue. Plus, therapy can come from the least expected place, and people can always surprise you.

Rewind

For this post, I wanted to rewind a couple of weeks and go back to our third week on the trip. I have been home for a week, so more and more information has been settling in my brain. This has helped my perspectives shift greatly. Anyway, I digress. 

The third week was wonderful and full of fun!  We only had three days at the SRH due to a holiday, so there was a 4 day weekend! What did you do for those 4 days, Preston? I'll tell ya! I went to Salzburg! The first part of the week was wonderful because I was able to have interviews with 2 students and a professor at the school. This brought a lot of attention and understanding to their music therapy intervention techniques. Being introduced to music therapy interventions and sessions that are primarily based in improvisation woke something up in me. In my education so far at GCSU, I had felt like something was missing, and this has begun to alleviate that feeling. In the interviews, all interviewees discussed the power of musical improvisation and its ability to meet the client on a deeper level in that very moment, as opposed to coming into a session with too much structure or too many expectations. These very things can actually hinder the therapeutic progress and therapeutic relationship. These interviews and last few classes pulled together the first couple of weeks in Heidelberg and put words to experiences. 

As for Salzburg, it was gorgeous. Getting to see multiple locations of where The Sound of Music was filmed and Mozart's birth house and apartment was nothing short of amazing and exciting. Mozart has so much music around him his entire life, and although it was a short one, he had quite the full life. Also, the views in Salzburg are just breath-taking. Everywhere you look, the Alps are in the backgrounds-tall, magnificent, snow-capped. It was a dream just to be there. There is a huge fortress atop a hill there and much of it is still intact. Plus, there is a restaurant there, and eating while looking down on Salzburg and over to the Alps while breathing in mountain air is something you must experience if ever you get the chance. I felt proud to be there. 

I Got This

Over the course of my week at Bedburg-Hau I learned many things about music therapy.  Many were concepts that we had talked about while in Heidelberg but now I got to witness them more rather than just hearing about them or seeing them demonstrated once. One of these concepts was using receptive and active music therapy and utilizing talking about the expirences after each activity/intervention. As a class we talked about this and even saw a demonstration while sitting in a class but I feel like I personally got more out of it seeing it done several times while staying at Bedburg-Hau.  It helped me learn that picking up on your group dynamic is important. There is no strict rule that states that you have to start your sessions with receptive music therapy.  If your clients are not engaged or seem to have a lower energy level, starting with active music therapy may be a better choice. My host music therapist Patric did this in his sessions. He would quickly pick up on the groups dynamic/energy level and would then decide on if receptive or active music therapy would be a better starting choice. It was a nice change seeing it done this way because at my school we learn to do a hello song, some activities that tie into goals/objectives, and then a goodbye song. Here I saw that while with some populations that structure works and may be needed but with others it is unnecessary because it does not fit what the clients need. Going along with receptive and music therapy, I was intrigued when I learned in Heidelberg about how music therapy in Germany heavily utilizes talking about the musical or even non musical expirences after they happen. Where I got to school, we get points taken off if we talk too much in sessions (which can be understandable if the talk is not dealing with the session or about the client and/or their goals/objectives). Here in Germany, half of the session could easily be just talking about the expirences that the client went through during the various interventions of the session. During my week in Bedburg-Hau, I saw a good deal of this. In some of the sessions I sat in, there was more talking then music making and in others there was hardly any talking other than asking the client what song they wanted to sing or how there day was. After learning about this and watching it happen several times, it made more sense to me. If the client needs to talk about something that occurred during a musical experience or something they thought of during the experience, they need to be able to talk about it without the therapist trying to rush through it so they can get to the next intervention. Of course as anything this has its limitations meaning that it should only occur if it benefits the client and their quality of life or it is working towards their goals and objectives.

One thing I learned about myself during this week was that I need to trust myself more.  I often second guess myself or get a great ton of self doubt built up in me.  This often, as you can imagine, becomes self detrimental to what I am doing.  By being by myself or in a small group while watching and participating in sessions, I realized that I do know what I am doing and that I need to trust myself more. During the week one of the therapists, Lene, said that it is important as a therapist to work with populations that suit your personality.  She said that because of her personality being a quieter one, certain populations do not work well for her because she gets more emotional strain and drainage which is not healthy for her.  I realized that this is a piece of advice that I need to listen to more.  This past semester the population I worked with was not a great match with my personality. Due to this, I was not able to give the clients that I worked with what they needed in the best way that would suit them.  I realized that although that was a population that I did not work well with, there were others that I had worked with in the past that were a great match.  I do not want to completely close any doors with whom I may want to work with in the future but I learned that I need to trust myself more and not think of what does not work well with me as a defeat or a failure but rather a blessing because although it may not work, I know what does.

Thank you Germany

The final two weeks in Europe flew by that I often wonder if it was even real. My last week in Heidelberg passed by so quickly, saying goodbye to the faculty of the University of Heidelberg and the students who were so welcoming to us. I met a few of them during a potluck we held at the apartments and was fascinated on their reasons for studying music therapy and traveling to Germany to study.

On Thursday, May 26th, a large group travelled to Salzburg for the long weekend which was a dream come true. There I was exposed to the Alps, a city that was so involved with music, where one of my favorite composers lived hundreds of years ago. I also experienced culture shock in Salzburg when I saw snow for the first time on top of the Alps and felt like a child again with amazement that it was there and yes, it actually exists.

After the long weekend, we returned to Heidelberg and began packing up our things from the apartment for our placements in Dusseldorf.

After experiencing some harsh weather, we arrived in Dusseldorf and were welcomed by professional music therapists with a presentation on the LVR clinics in the area. After the presentation, we saw demonstrations of the creative arts therapies, first with music, dance, and finally art therapy.

Once the demonstrations were over, we all went our separate ways to our placements and I was curious on seeing how similar the sessions would look compared to the mock session from the seminar in the University I saw a week prior.

My first day was rough due to the language barrier between my music therapist and I. She spoke little to no English and I spoke little no German, so it was difficult to communicate with one another or go over what happened in the session. I had to pay attention to everything that happened in the session from the client's inflection and their body movements. Some clients spoke English and translated what was happening or what the music therapist asked them and their response.

Yet, even with this barrier, I still interacted with the clients and my music therapist by participating in the music experiences through singing or playing instruments. I felt a connection to the clients, even though I didn't speak the language, and to my music therapist. It was sad to leave on Thursday but I was happy to have met all the clients and the therapists I had the opportunity to observe.

On my last day, I decided to do something spontaneous and went to four different cities before returning to Dusseldorf at 2 for class. We were late due to some delays with the weather and travels but we made it eventually to class an hour late.

After class, we had our last dinner before we began to go our separate ways.

My time in Germany came to an end on June 4th as I sat in the Frankfurt airport waiting for my flight. It was a bittersweet moment to leave this wonderful country that took me in, taught me so much, and accepted me with open arms. This program was a wonderful experience thanks to the faculty of the University of Heidelberg, the German music therapy students, my peers, and the wonderful Dr. Keith for organizing everything.

Germany has helped me grow as a person, has taught me to laugh more, to be more independent, and that it's ok to be open minded. Learning about music therapy, in the states, the different approaches, and Germany music therapy has helped me realized that there is not one right approach. There are many ideas, many ways to use music therapy for your style and population.

All I could say is Danke Germany for all the memories, for the growth, and hoping to see you soon.