#4: Philosophical Approaches
One in all my favourite facets of coaching interns is helping college students in defining their skilled identification. As a music remedy scholar, you might be taught the assorted methods wherein one can follow music remedy however are sometimes solely uncovered to a few approaches. Every therapist has the chance to outline who they’re as an expert and the way they strategy their work with their purchasers. Usually these approaches evolve over years and require plenty of self-reflection and consciousness to outline to your self and others.
For college students, internship is your first alternative to really take a look at your foundations as a therapist. It may typically really feel complicated, overwhelming, and even opposing to your mentor’s suggestions. Actually, like-minded people are inclined to cluster so you might discover that your mentor(s) have comparable ideas and concepts about easy methods to strategy one thing whereas different areas really feel much less simple.
I’ve a slight benefit to viewing this explicit matter overtly as a result of I view my therapeutic strategy as being: eclectic. I discover worth in a wide range of approaches and acknowledge their significance for a lot of conditions. There are specific approaches to music remedy that I lean extra closely in direction of, however I adhere to the assumption that exact approaches are extra evidenced-based for sure conditions. Subsequently, I’m prone to alter how I present remedy based mostly on the wants, evaluation, and goal-areas for every state of affairs.
For instance, how I serve a untimely toddler within the NICU is likely to be thought of pretty behavioral. How I serve a youngster on a normal medication unit who has a psychological well being dysfunction is likely to be extra person-centered and even throughout the cognitive-behavioral realm. Alternately, how I help a kiddo with a traumatic mind damage can be addressed via a Neurologic Music Remedy framework. If I have been working with somebody with sickle cell illness, I could come from a extra biopsychosocial mannequin to handle ache administration. Moreover, I’d possible mix all of those (or extra) without delay to handle the whole-person.
One other manner an eclectic strategy is described is: integrative. Integrative is a time period that basically resonates with me as a result of it depicts integrating varied components collectively to be able to obtain a extra “complete” strategy. I personally goal to help somebody as a whole-person in addition to assist the medical group work in direction of their objectives for the affected person. Usually these two facets don’t all the time align, which is the place I really feel most snug inserting myself to help.
Approaches, philosophies, and frameworks all imply the identical factor, and there are a large number {that a} music therapist can draw from. It’s undoubtedly overwhelming to seek out the place you match. Numerous music remedy packages align with sure approaches and you might discover that your individual identification is formed by the mentors who assist educate you. What turns into complicated for college kids is the assumption that they should strategy their music remedy follow precisely the identical manner as their mentors. This isn’t true! Mentors might problem your considering or ask you to re-frame concepts for sure causes, however most mentors are hoping that you could uncover independently the way you’ve been known as to follow. Anybody can be their only model of themselves if given the chance to be who they’re individually.
It took me awhile to find out who I used to be as a music therapist. I had very sturdy mentors who taught me nice classes. It was straightforward to imagine that I must be precisely like them as a result of they have been nice therapists. As I started to be extra impartial and rely by myself self-reflection, I discovered that who I used to be as my very own particular person was even higher than who I used to be going to be if I copied my mentors. Positive, there are a variety of facets about my identification which are just like them (it’s unattainable to not be) however there are different issues that I follow otherwise. It’s one in every of private objectives to always be evolving my identification, which is able to in the end solely add extra mentors to my life.
Belief in your self as a scholar or new skilled that being open to the chances of who you might be and might be will assist decide your strategy to music remedy. You might discover that some facets require a “trial interval” of kinds, whereas different facets are fully pure. No matter your journey to your music remedy identification, the world can be higher off having your distinctive self in it.