Music therapy is an experience-based form of therapy that belongs to the expressive therapy professions, just like, for example, art therapy or psychomotor therapy.
Within music therapy, music is used as a tool to create experiences that stimulate people's development process. These are mostly non-verbal experiences that can bring changes. The music therapist uses the musical elements of measure, rhythm, melody, harmony and sound by using musical instruments, voice, musical games, improvisation and existing repertoire.
Papageno Music Therapy is specifically designed for children and adolescents with ASD throughout the Netherlands. Papageno music therapists bring music therapy at home, at school, in care institutions and treatment centres for children and young people with ASD. In a playful and approachable way, they get to work. They help children with ASD express their feelings, communicate better and cope more easily with changes. The music therapist uses many different types of instruments, for example a djembe, cajon, keyboard, guitar, xylophone etc. The voice is also used a lot, to sing but also to make sounds.
Strange as it may sound, music therapy is not just about the music. Music is just the way to achieve something more important: experiencing fun together and connecting with each other in a safe atmosphere.
Music is so suitable for this because it is a language that everyone understands and that no one condemns. That makes contact less fraught and less complicated. Moreover, making music is simply fun and relaxing. When you make music together, you meet your fellow player(s) in a unique way. In a way that often cannot be expressed so well in words. You experience a togetherness in sounds, harmonies and rhythms.
How it works
Registration and intake: If you would like to register your child for Papageno Music Therapy, you can fill in the registration form here. When we receive it, we will contact the music therapist working in the relevant region. We will check whether there is a place and when, and we will let the parents know. Is there a place available? Then the therapist will contact you to schedule an intake appointment and look at the possibilities. The purpose of the intake appointment is twofold; on the one hand, it offers the opportunity to get acquainted and, on the other, to get a clear picture of specific questions and how the therapist may be able to work with them. Also, the therapist can check with you about how therapy can be funded.
Observation: Music therapy then begins with an observation period. This phase aims to observe the behaviour and see if there is a click between child and therapist. The therapist considers whether music therapy indeed proves to be an appropriate treatment to start working on the set goals and identifies the child's musical preferences. This phase is also used to build a relationship between child and therapist. At the end of the observation period, the therapist discusses his or her findings with the involved and the final goal of the therapy will be discussed.
Treatment phase: Then the treatment phase begins in which the goals are actively worked on. The therapist and the child make music together with the aim of stimulating development. This can be done by applying different forms of work. Using percussion instruments to produce rhythms is a low-threshold working form that is often used. Other work forms include taking turns singing or conducting with different instruments. Improvisation is often used in therapy, but it is also possible to play existing compositions. The therapist chooses working forms that match the experience and the goals. Examples include playing, playing together, experimenting, improvising and associating.
The therapist chooses or changes the instruments offered, based on the child's interests and the forms of work used in the context of the treatment goals.
Safe basis: With Papageno music therapy, we are completely focused on the child and the therapist's approach is based on his or her abilities. By linking the intervention to his or her abilities, changes can be realised in areas where inhibitions are experienced. Music therapy focuses on unconditional acceptance of musical style and musical attunement. From this acceptance, the music therapist offers methods with which the child can connect. An example is that the therapist copies the child's musical expressions by adjusting his own tempo and dynamics to those of the child. In this way, the music therapist communicates with the child on a musical level. This method of working often creates a safe foundation in a short time, in which therapy can develop further.
Challenging: In the next phase, the therapist may also adopt a more stimulating approach and challenge the child to let go of fixed preferences or try new things that initially seemed too exciting, for example. The child's progress is discussed at regular intervals and there is an evaluation at agreed times about continuing or completing the therapy.
Completion: Has the therapy been completed? Then of course we are very curious to know how you experienced it and what it brought you and your child. We would therefore appreciate it if you would fill in the short questionnaire that we email after completion.