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.