Music can change a whole community

Hello everyone,

I hope that as you are reading this you are having a blessed day. I am glad to say that I am! Many wonderful things have been happening lately and specially regarding to my work as a music therapist. Today I want to share how in the micro-cosmos of life music can help change a whole community.

I was called to work doing some behavioral management work with a child who defies authority and gets reaaaalllyy bad tantrums in school (throwing chairs to the air, turning tables, hitting other children.) He is 5 y/o and has a severely impaired speech. I started working one on one to help him increase his awareness of emotions and feelings.
Then I started working with him on helping him learn how to calm himself. When discussing with the school personnel what I was working on and what we wanted to achieve came the idea of instead meeting only with my client, I could meet with the entire group to teach them through music therapy some techniques to calm themselves when angry. I decided that I wanted to use the ideas on relaxation techniques portrayed in the book "Conscious Discipline" by Dr. Becky Bailey. Along with this I created several songs that highlighted the behaviors I wanted them to learn but specially directed to the needs of my client.

The children were thrilled. They learned the breathing, the songs, they played, they sung but even more amazing NONE of the children have been in "time out" or have had a tantrum in the classroom including my client!! The teacher has been so thrilled that she asked me to keep meeting the group once a week until the end of the year. Week after week I go there and they report the success of the therapy not only in my client but on the entire "community".

Many times we focus our attention in an individual and not the individual within the people that surrounds him/her. In this case I believe that my client was able to learn a new positive behavior, self-awareness, and self-control through a community learning process. There was now agreement on what was going to be done between all the members of the community (children and teachers). In addition, time out was turned into the "S.T.A.R. Spot" a place for them to calm themselves. However, it hasn't been needed!!

This is why I feel music can change the communities around the world starting with our own homes and neighborhoods. It is my hope that this school can see the benefits of music therapy in this sort of improvised "pilot program." I am wishing that the knowledge this children acquire within their school family will be extrapolated to their own families and so on. Seems to me that music is a good way to start! :-)

Stay blessed!

Cindy~