Music therapists really do live in a paradox. As musicians we are taught to strive to be the best in a world that only allows perfection and to not pity anyone who falls to the wayside. As therapists, we are taught to reach out to individuals and attempt to increase their awareness of the potential they possess and hopefully assist them in tapping into that potential. As music therapists (MT) we are generalists who work with a team of professionals to help influence desirable changes in our patients and increase positive interaction through the use of music as our medium/tool. This article; "Allowing oneself to question, communicating it to others: An important step for music therapy students" by Rika Ikuno has brought insight to some issues that I have been contemplating for over a year now. For instance, how do we disconnect from our 'competitive autonomy when we are constantly being scrutinized by some of our colleagues and considered a glorified babysitter by others.
Sometimes the best way to realize where one is at is to talk it out aloud and to have feedback from those who can empathize with your situation but also provide an objective view. Ikuno found the best way to facilitate a class was not through lecturing but through the testimonies/presentations of all of her class participants. Ikuno allowed these individuals to open up and reach out for help through class discussion and an atmosphere that established 'absolutely no "failure" in their presentations... [because]there is no "failure" in a person.'
Through experience, I have learned that it takes time to see results of a session. I had the honor to co-lead a group of middle school adolescents who had various physical and/or developmental disabilities over the course of two semesters at Georgia Academy for the Blind. During the first semester, almost every effort put forth seemed to hit a wall and no matter how much we revived our session plans nothing appeared to work. Nevertheless, we were asked to lead sessions for the same group the following semester and almost every objective that we attempted to achieve in our previous semester was noticeably improved if not met. If we had reached out and expressed our 'failures' during the first semester we could have been reassured during that semester by more veteran MT students not to give up or redirect our session goals because they were affecting our participants even though we could not see at the time. Ikuno notes, music therapists encourage others to completely open up and express who they are and aren't and provide a sense of acceptance to their participants. Yet, for most of us, we deny ourselves of that very sense of complete acceptance especially when failure is involved. Hopefully, with facilitators like Ikuno, music therapy students can come to embrace the empowerment that vulnerability allows us as both musicians and therapists.
About Laura Minton
Biography
Music Therapy Major Georgia College & State University.
Music therapists really do live in a paradox. As musicians we are taught to strive to be the best in a world that only allows perfection and to not pity anyone who falls to the wayside. As therapists, we are taught to reach out to individuals and attempt to increase their awareness of the potential they possess and hopefully assist them in tapping into that potential. As music therapists (MT) we are generalists who work with a team of professionals to help influence desirable changes in our patients and increase positive interaction through the use of music as our medium/tool. This article; "Allowing oneself to question, communicating it to others: An important step for music therapy students" by Rika Ikuno has brought insight to some issues that I have been contemplating for over a year now. For instance, how do we disconnect from our 'competitive autonomy when we are constantly being scrutinized by some of our colleagues and considered a glorified babysitter by others.
Sometimes the best way to realize where one is at is to talk it out aloud and to have feedback from those who can empathize with your situation but also provide an objective view. Ikuno found the best way to facilitate a class was not through lecturing but through the testimonies/presentations of all of her class participants. Ikuno allowed these individuals to open up and reach out for help through class discussion and an atmosphere that established 'absolutely no "failure" in their presentations... [because]there is no "failure" in a person.'
Through experience, I have learned that it takes time to see results of a session. I had the honor to co-lead a group of middle school adolescents who had various physical and/or developmental disabilities over the course of two semesters at Georgia Academy for the Blind. During the first semester, almost every effort put forth seemed to hit a wall and no matter how much we revived our session plans nothing appeared to work. Nevertheless, we were asked to lead sessions for the same group the following semester and almost every objective that we attempted to achieve in our previous semester was noticeably improved if not met. If we had reached out and expressed our 'failures' during the first semester we could have been reassured during that semester by more veteran MT students not to give up or redirect our session goals because they were affecting our participants even though we could not see at the time. Ikuno notes, music therapists encourage others to completely open up and express who they are and aren't and provide a sense of acceptance to their participants. Yet, for most of us, we deny ourselves of that very sense of complete acceptance especially when failure is involved. Hopefully, with facilitators like Ikuno, music therapy students can come to embrace the empowerment that vulnerability allows us as both musicians and therapists.