Definitions:
Model, Method, Procedure,
Technique, Intervention,
Approach, & Strategy
MODEL
A comprehensive and systematic approach to Assessment,
Treatment, and Evaluation (i.e., the treatment process)
which includes theoretical principles, clinical indications
and contraindications, goals, methodological guidelines
and specifications, and the characteristic use of certain
procedural sequences and techniques. Examples: CMT,
AMT, GIM.
METHOD
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A type of music experience used for Assessment, Treatment, and/or Evaluation.
There are four main types- and numerous different ways of designing and
implementing experiences within each METHOD to address client needs.
No particular theoretical orientation is inferred in a method. Therapists impose
their own particular theoretical beliefs on an experience when they design and
implement it. For example, the receptive method variant of “song discussion”
has no inherent grounding in a theoretical orientation. However, when a
therapist engages clients in listening to music with a particular “listening set” and
then verbally processes the experience of the music with the intent of
understanding how clients perceive and or project their own ideas and feelings
onto the song material, the experience is being implemented through a
psychodynamic framework. If another therapist facilitates the experience with
the aim of observing how long the clients sit to listen to the music or how many
times each interrupts the others while listening to or discussing the music, the
experience is being implemented through a behavioral framework.
PROCEDURE(S)
An organized sequence of operations and interactions a
therapist uses in taking a client through an entire music
experience.
Procedures are the building blocks of a Music Therapy
session. They are the various things a therapist DOES to
organize and implement the method.
Therapists use specific PROCEDURAL STEPS when
engaging clients in music experiences.
TECHNIQUE
A single operation or interaction that a therapist uses to
elicit an immediate reaction from the client or to shape
the ongoing immediate experience of the client.
There are a variety of TECHNIQUES that may be used
within any PROCEDURE.
A Procedure may be viewed as a series of Techniques.
INTERVENTION
A clinically purposeful and benevolent interruption.
To act upon someone in order to change their existing
situation or condition and thereby alter the course of
events.
To purposefully come between or mitigate the various forces
in a person’s life that affect her/his health.
The elements which act upon the client during a given
intervention are most often the music, the therapist, or
both.
APPROACH
A broad way of dealing with a clinical concern or problem. For
example, my approach to treating children with autism may be to
attempt to control their stereotypic behaviors to the greatest extent
possible – or my approach may be to provide a safe environment
wherein they may experience the freedom to interact with musical
instruments, me, and my music as their impulses guide them. In
other words, my approach may be directive or non-directive.
A specific method is not implied, but a particular set of techniques
will likely come into play as I attempt to intervene between the
client and her/his pathology. The procedures I use will be
determined by the delimitations of the methodological variant in
which I engage the client.
STRATEGY
A plan of action designed to achieve an overall aim.
Terms in Context
► My
approach to working with a child with autism is
to be minimally directive. I only enforce specific
ways of acting when the child exhibits potential for
harming her/himself or others. Otherwise, I
attempt to maintain contact with the child through
encouraging her/him to play musical instruments,
wherein I listen and respond to help the child be as
fully engaged in the music as she/he possibly can,
moment to moment.
► My
strategy with such a child may be to first
observe her/him within a continuum of
structured to non-structured experiences.
Depending on how the client responds to these
situations, I may wish to plan treatment
emphasizing experiences on one end of the
structure continuum or the other. My theoretical
beliefs lead me to plan this strategy because I
believe that the child needs to experience certain
things in order to progress in therapy.
► The
music experiences I design and implement within the
different methods will be facilitated with particular
procedural steps in order to engage the client fully, so
that she/he can receive the benefit of music engagement.
I choose a particular method due with the intent of
matching the nature of the demands that each method
places on the child in specific domains of functioning
with the limitations, deficits, or others needs that the child
revealed during assessment. Some of the procedures I
use are necessary for beginning all music experiences, but
some are designed specifically to help this child become
engaged in the music.
►I
may believe that helping the client engage in
certain types of music experiences provides a
means for me and/or the music to intervene in
the child’s pathological way of being and to
thereby help her/him to find and practice new
ways of functioning.
► As
the child responds, I use my judgment about
the therapeutic quality of the responses and my
sense of how these may be improved. Then I
initiate specific techniques to maximize the
potential of the child’s experience. Some
techniques are musical, some are verbal, and
some are gestural in nature.
is no established model for the decisions I made in
the above scenario. However, if my way of working is
successful, I could develop a model by keeping track of
all the events that occur during the treatment processincluding my theoretical beliefs and thinking, my decision
making processes techniques used during all phases of
treatment, and all of the client’s responses within the
treatment process. I would then organize this information
and share this model with others by publishing my ideas.
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An example from the literature
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“It is important at this stage to clarify what is meant by
‘method’ and what is meant by ‘technique.’ Therapeutic
methods are the approaches chosen by the therapist to
achieve therapeutic change and can be understood as the
‘method’ of work. Conversely, techniques are the tools and
strategies, musical activities and concrete therapistinitiated musical experiences which are integral to the
success of the applied method. There are many examples
of therapists who have developed protocols, procedures,
and methods in their approach to using songwriting… “ (p.
248)