Imagine individuals coming , some slumping, shut down, others chaotically moving back and forth,or changing subject to subject. Some going from item to item in the room, unable to focus long enough to dive in, some having a hard time expressing,possibly intellectualizing everything and yet others yelling, melting down. All of them come, one by one in one into the rooms.
Suddenly, someone who appears to look like a telephone operator walks into the room. She eyes each individual as they come and takes notice of what each and every person is doing, how they present themselves bodily and affectively. The telephone operator does her job. She observes each person. She takes notes. She knows what connections to put into which sockets that help things move. Only, she doesn’t use a switchboard, she uses a piano. Her fingers begin to dance at the piano as she sings with each individual and plays their own “original” versions of “dance”. Her music,or lstening ear, adjusting to each individual. Her left hand catching the rhythm of those moving back and forth, joining their pace , listening to what that pace is describing. Her right hand, connectedly playing held tones that allows those who are unable to focus to find a place in those chord chunks that resonates with thier tone and pace, allowing their bodies to express what they may not yet be able to name, but how their body is responding to the envionrment. She listens to the intellcutalizers, staying away from what they truly came to take care of, helping gently to redirect them back to thier feared parts, in a predictable, safe envionrment that they feel secure and trust in. Each individual joins and engages in the safety of the familiar, orchestrated by their own bodily presentation. The bodily presnetation that perhaps carries its past, but presents in the here and now. The therpist orchestrates sfor each individual, according to what they give, not what numbers, or others , or checklists present, but what each individual brings right now, in the present. Each participant responding to their degree of comfort at the time. Each participant, engaging, attending, singing, in their own unique tune with the trusted reflector. She makes small adjustments in the music, to challenge them , just enough.
Maybe they have not yet become self-aware of what they are presenting but they each stayed, felt safety and participated willingly , eagerly, at their own level. This is the start, the start of a conversation ., a dance A start at a relationship, a start at noticing what has been there, but not yet noticed. A beginning to relating. A beginning to inviting the next level of their development, their journey, their awareness A start to their ability to freely choose, to see , in themselves, what has been hidden.
This is the place where all these unique individuals bring their greatest strengths which happen to also display their greatest needs . Everyone has a job that they enjoy, that they are good at. A job that includes them , a job unique to each individual yet includes them in a community function. Where is this place? It is the Music Therapy room.
What happens when they leave this room? They leave with supported strengths that help them to function in jobs outside that room. Now these unique individuals can have new jobs that probably will not include music. In these new jobs they can still functiona little more independently than they did before entering the room. The function a little more freely than they did before they came to this room. The eventual smiles, let us know, it feels good to do so.
Now each individual leaves the Music room , on their own, contented and confident. The individual who came in slumped, leaves with his head up, with a smile. The individual who walked back and forth, changing from subject to subject , warmly walks out of the room, stops, turns back and looks at the telephone operator (Music Therapist) and ssighs with releif as he waves “Goodbye.” Thats what happens in this room. People come in with what they have, and use it well. They leave so that they can let others know what was always inside, all along.
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