Music Therapy Clinician: Supporting reflective clinical practice Volume 1 | Page 25

LESSONS IN LEARNING TO TRUST THE PROCESS
Virginia Eulacio-Guevara,
Montclair State University Graduate Student

“How about you take some time to explore?”
In my head, I’m thinking, “what kind of suggestion is that?” I am very hesitant, and my instinct is
to find more information about what to do. I guess that defeats the purpose of the suggestion.
There are many thoughts going through my head, but I need to just go for it. Start with
something, I guess it can be anything...get in a comfortable playing position. I start out with
something familiar: a G chord. That’s familiar. I like it. Okay, explore. What to do? Just try
something different, something new! Mmm, what if I do a bar chord and move these two fingers.
Hmm, interesting. What if I move it up to the 5th fret? Oh, I like that. What else can I try? I stop
thinking so much, and the exploration takes flight. I lose track of what I did. All of a sudden I
come back. I had never taken the chance and done something like that on guitar. It took me
back to when I was a little kid, and I was just beginning to learn to play the violin.
To my surprise, I found myself reconnecting with my inner “wild child” through the music. My “wild child,” who is
happy, playful, curious, and carefree - the girl who practiced violin lying on the floor with her sheet music
spread out everywhere. Immersed in the highly structured academic study of music, I hadn’t realized how
much I had been ignoring that spirited part of myself.
But let me tell you how I got here.
As students, we are strongly encouraged to experience music therapy as clients. I had wanted to give this a
try, but things - such as not being able to afford it and not having enough free time - kept me from doing so. I
would get to the point of looking up different options of where I could go and who I might work with, but then I
wouldn’t go any farther. The idea would move to the back of my head, and I’d go on with my daily activities.
During the 2014-2015 school year I began working on a research project, investigating the ways music lessons
have been adapted in music therapy settings. I wanted to learn about instructional music therapy because I
was curious about the possibility of using my primary instrument, the violin, with clients in therapy. In the fall
semester the work was all theoretical and based on the literature I was able to find on the topic. This proved to
be difficult as there weren’t many articles about this approach, and the few in existence were old and difficult to
find.
I needed more information, and after giving it a lot of thought I came up with an idea: experiential learning.
Many of my professors used this approach, and I found it helpful as it deepened my understanding of the
subject. If I wanted to learn more about instructional music therapy, it seemed only fitting I get hands-on
experience. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to finally experience music therapy as a client.
I chose guitar as my instrument of focus. I felt it would be too stressful to focus on piano, given my love-hate
relationship with that instrument. Besides, I felt there was still room for improvement in my guitar skills.

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