What do the clients do in music therapy?
* What makes music therapy different from every other form of therapy is its reliance on music. Thus, every session involves the client in a musical experience of some kind. The main ones are improvising, re-creating, composing, and listening to music. In those sessions which involve improvising, the client makes up his or her own music extemporaneously, singing or playing whatever arises in the moment. The client may improvise freely, responding spontaneously to the sounds as they emerge, or the client may improvise according to the specific musical directions given by the therapist. Often the client is asked to improvise sound portraits of feelings, events, persons, or situations that are being explored in therapy. The client may improvise with the therapist, with other clients, or alone, depending on the therapeutic objective. In those sessions which involve re-creating music, the client sings or plays precomposed music.
