Today I was leading group music therapy sessions with adults with intellectual disabilities. We were playing Musical Jeopardy (a crowd favorite!)

There was a moment in the middle where I realized I had filled up every second of the session with what I thought was most important – SOUND.

From the second the session started, I was excitedly greeting clients, telling them how happy I was to see them, and asking them questions.

As we were going through the Jeopardy questions, I was constantly prompting them, in hopes they would get the right answer.

I realized that in my excitement, I had not left space for one of the important components of music therapy.

One that is equally as important as sound.

It’s SILENCE.

It’s the space you give after you ask a question, when you give your client time to process what you’ve asked, formulate a response, and share that with you, verbally or nonverbally.

It’s the space you give during Finish the Phrase, when you’ve sung the first part of the phrase, and you’re waiting for your client to fill in the blank.

It’s the space you give when you strum a V7 chord, sloooooowly building up anticipation before you continue on.

I’m glad I caught myself mid session filling up that space and made a change.

Glad that I slowed down, waited, and gave my clients the space to process and engage.

After writing this post, I found one on the same topic here from 2014!

Check it out and  see – is there an area in your music therapy sessions that could use more silence rather than sound?