Thinking Reflexively

Since I didn't introduce myself in my last post, I suppose now is as good a time as any!  My name is Casey and I'm a music therapy student who will be going into my senior year at Baldwin Wallace University in the fall.  Favorite things of mine include Chex Mix, playing trombone, bands such as Snarky Puppy and The Black Keys, and (obviously) doing a bit of traveling to places such as Germany!

In addition to some sightseeing, the past two weeks of this trip have been amazing for learning about music therapy in Germany and new ways of thinking about music therapy in general.  I've also been able to meet so many fantastic people, both within the group of students on this study abroad experience and the students and professors at the University of Heidelberg.

In our International Topics in Music Therapy class, we've had many experiences that have made me really think, but there's one specific experience that stuck out to me.  This was during one class where we talked the whole time about the concept of reflexivity.  Reflexivity is being able to think critically about what you as a therapist are doing and being mindful of how you (and the client) are working together to meet the client's needs.  It's an idea that's very focused on the therapist-client relationship and making sure that you as the therapist are always doing your best work.

During an activity that demonstrated the idea of reflexivity, four volunteers (including me) stood in a circle in front of the class and were asked to make some kind of body percussion sound.  One member of the group started a basic rhythm, and the rest of us then came in layering different rhythms.  After a moment of hesitation, the group really started to make consistent eye contact and began grooving.  That was the moment when I stopped thinking hard about what I was doing and paid more attention to the rhythms that were going on around me. A few moments after that,  we were all able to stop our rhythms together as a cohesive group.

This led then to an interesting discussion about the need for being aware and thinking critically about your therapeutic presence and actions during music therapy sessions while also being present and aware of the client's experience.  We also discussed the need for us be able to "groove" and adapt to situations, just like how in the body percussion group, we found that we were the most cohesive when we were all making eye contact and thinking about what everyone else was doing in addition to ourselves.

Then, as I have often found in my career as a stressed out (but passionate) student music therapist, I was able to connect what I learned in class to my life overall.  In this case, I easily connected this class experience to my overall experience being here in Germany.

When you're in a different country, especially when you don't speak the language, being hyper aware of your surroundings and how you interact with the people around you becomes even more important.  This includes being able to adapt to situations and keeping your cool even if you're frustrated or stressed out by the difficulties of being in a different culture.  Being able to do this requires a lot of skills we talked about during this class, like a good sense of self-awareness and being mindful of your reactions, as well as being aware of the diversity in experiences of the wonderful people around you.