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

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 persons 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
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.

My

 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.

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
childs 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 childs
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 process- including
my theoretical beliefs and thinking, my decision
making processes techniques used during all
phases of treatment, and all of the clients
responses within the treatment process. I would
then organize this information and share this
model with others by publishing my ideas.

There

An example from the

literature

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 therapist-initiated
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)