Music therapy with an adult with Autism

It is exciting showing people music therapy for the first time.  A lot of times people do not know what to expect.  I went and did an initial music therapy session recently with an adult with autism who lives with his mother.  The adult is nonverbal and has very little interaction with people.  When I got there the mother said she did not think that he would sit down.

When the music therapy started, not only did he sit down the entire time, but he played on instruments, followed directions in the music, frequently made eye contact with me, and even smiled when I did some "musical jokes."  It was fun to see and to work with him.  The mother commented how she thought he would have some interaction, but she was amazed at how much he did respond and interact.

A young man with autism finds his voice through music therapy

While working with a young man with autism this week, I had an amazing experience.  The young man is hypoverbal, he rarely speaks.  The music therapy is helping him to speak more in the sessions and even in general.

This week I decided to improvise a song about him playing on the drum.  He is singing more and more of familiar songs so I thought I would try to get him to sing something new in that moment.  I set up a song with repeating words, and then left out the word drum to see if he would sing it.  He did which was great, but then something unexpected happened.  He started singing an improvised song himself about playing the drum.  It was amazing.  He continued singing for about 5 minutes.  It was very exciting to see him find his voice through the music.

Music Therapy breaking out of the Isolation of Autism

Many people with autism use music a lot.  Yet, most of the time they use music in isolation.  They put on their headphones and listen to music for hours and do not interact with anyone.  Or they watch the same youtube video over and over again.

For these individuals, music therapy is great at bringing them out of their isolation by using music as a way to interact with someone.  They sing with someone.  They play music in the same rhythm as someone, follow the directions of the music and learn how to use music to connect with someone.

I work with a young man with autism who is beginning to break out of using music in isolation.  He smiles when he notices that we are playing in the same rhythm and is beginning to sing with me.  The last song we use to sing good bye to each other.  I first sing using their name.  Then they get a chance to sing good bye to me using my name.  He has sung good bye to himself since the beginning.  But this time he looked at me and sang, "Good bye Matthew."  It was so exciting.

Music Therapy with a Nonverbal Adult in Boise

Sometimes it is interesting the things that excite me during a music therapy session.  One of the great things about music therapy is that it is personal to each individual.  Everybody has different things that we are working on through music therapy.  I got really excited about a seemingly small thing because it was a huge step with the person I was working with.

I have been working with a nonverbal young adult woman for a while, and she has a real difficulty connecting with people and especially with playing an instrument by herself.  This week I kept encouraging her to play my keyboard.  I held it out to her, and she started reaching her hand out.  That was a big step in and of itself for her.  But I kept the keyboard there and she reached her hand closer and closer to the keys until she played a note.

After she played the note she got the biggest smile on her face.  She got out of her chair and gave me a big hug. Who knew that one note on the keyboard could bring that much excitement and connection.

An Experience with a Music Therapy Group in Boise

Doing music therapy in groups has a different dimension than individual music therapy.  Sometimes it is the peers that they are interacting with that bring things out of them.  Recently while doing a music therapy group I saw an amazing interaction.

One of the participants is very withdrawn and one of the participants is very outgoing.  It is really fun to see the outgoing person really draw something special out of the withdrawn person.  This was really evident when we started to do some dancing to the music.  I have not seen the withdrawn person dance, but when her peer came over and asked her to dance she stood up, had the biggest smile on her face and danced with him for the whole song.

Smiles through music therapy

Great things in life happen in small moments.  One of my favorite things while doing music therapy is seeing the smiles.  Smiles for most people is a regular occurrence, but for some people smiles rarely happen.  They are stuck in confusion through dementia or frustration because of a stroke.  Sometimes it just difficulty connecting with people.  It is amazing when I see these people smile.  I just love being able to see a change from frustration, confusion, pain, or disconnection to eye contact and a big smile.  Smiles are a thing that most people take for granted, but I have seen smiles that were miraculous.

Experience of Music Therapy in Boise, Idaho

I love being a music therapist. I have been able to see some amazing things. It really is true what the tagline to my company says, "music makes connections when nothing else can." Yesterday while working with someone that idea really came home.

I was working with an individual who has limited speech. By working with her, I have got her to sing quite a bit with me. Although she sings, it is very difficult to get her to play any instruments. That is kind of an unusual thing with people I work with. I try almost every session to get her to play some instrument and most sessions she will shake a tambourine maybe once or twice. She is progressively doing more, and we had a breakthrough yesterday.

I brought a djembe, an African drum, with me. I've brought it before and she has showed some interest so I was hoping she would engage more than other sessions. It took a little bit of encouragement, but she began to play a little bit. I would play and then she would take a turn. After a few turns, I did a rhythmic pattern and to my surprise she then did the same rhythmic pattern. My eyes grew wide and she gave me a big smile. I started playing more complex rhythms and she would do them all the way to two measure rhythms. She began laughing at the end and I was so happy to make that connection.

It was a small experience, but it was so exciting to be able to connect in a different way with the client.