Several program ideas and objectives in music therapy:
*
The group placement is essential before beginning the séances. A circle formation
is very effective. Everyone sees each
other,
and the role of “leader” is blended and can interchange
with the patients equally. There is also something deeply rooted in a
circle.
The ancient fire?
* To build a human contact with music by sounds, touch, instruments, and the voice.
* To “listen” to all subtile body gestures that are “speaking:” a smile, a regard, a slumped head that rises up, a foot
slightly tapping the beat of a song. Often these are the only signs of inter-exchange. Enormous details.
*
Be receptive to individual limits: fragile hands that can hold only a
tiny instrument, the fatigue that can "only" offer
passive listening, the particular rhythm of each person within the whole rhythm of the group.
*
To understand that a receptive state is not always passive. It is
not because certain patients don’t visibly react that they
don’t feel.
Also to remember that the sense of sound is often present (as in
a coma) even if other sense reactions are not
obviously manifested. In the cases of deaf people, sound can be "heard" through the skin as well as the ears, because
vibrations can be "felt" like textures of sound.
*
Introduce a program that integrates the group. It is eventually the
actual group that shows what should happen as it is
centered on their
interests, their age group, their capacities. A common link for any
group is to follow the seasons of nature,
and constantly bring in
sounds and songs that correspond with these cycles (ex.
scintillating chimes with a high range and
rainsticks on
the hot summer days).
* Encourage the dynamic exchange among the patients. They
are then forming their own identity as a group.
* Together we not only do the music, we become the music.