-Sharon R. Boyle, SMWC Associate Professor of Music Therapy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 |
| Photo courtesy of Nora Dalipi |
What does it
mean to spend four years in the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College undergraduate
music therapy program? In an attempt to quantify what I’ve put into my music
therapy coursework, ensembles, private voice study, and practica, I tried to
calculate the number of hours I’ve spent in the Conservatory of Music. I
stopped doing the math, though, because I don’t think a sum of time really captures
all I gave and received in those hours. Also, I don’t think my development as a
music therapy student took place solely in an educational or clinical context –
my self-awareness developed through dorm life and relationships, my leadership
skills advanced through co-curricular involvement, and my spirituality grew
through experiencing the sacred grounds of this campus and those who call it
home.
My college
experience was eclectic, and I was well-supported by faculty, staff, and
Providence in each endeavor. Only at a small college (and, in my opinion, a
small women’s college) could I have explored my diverse interests so fully and felt
such care from the campus community. This encouragement of self-directed
learning and nurturance of the whole student (not mind alone, but heart and
values and body) was fully present in my music therapy classes with Sharon
Boyle, Coordinator of Undergraduate Music Therapy, and it made all the
difference in my education. The music my peers and I created together in class
moved me to laughter and to tears. I experienced periods of profound
self-assurance and profound self-doubt. And I became comfortable with
vulnerability, in myself and in others.
My practicum
experiences made a profound impact on me, allowing me to explore therapeutic
presence, clinical musicianship, and my personal responses to people of all
backgrounds, ages, and abilities. During my participation in the Jamaica FieldService Project, I sang “Amazing Grace” to a woman while she wept and cried out
for God; I will never again hear that song without thinking of her. The
following semester, I experienced authentic “groove” for the first time with a
man who was nonverbal and whose primary means for communication and
interpersonal interaction was the blues. We stumbled together and laughed
together and challenged each other through our musical exchanges; we came to
know one another without the security of words. During my time on a memory care
unit and in an acute psychiatric facility, the patients I served expanded my
perception of what constitutes reality and helped me to understand the value
and wisdom within from our intuitions and uncertainties. Somehow, being a part
of others’ healing processes changed me, helped me integrate and validate my
own experiences, and urged me onward in life’s journey.
As someone
who hopes to be an agent of positive change through music therapy, I often
ponder the impact that one individual can make in the world. When I reflect on
the impact that each of these individuals has had in my life, I am convinced of
the power of one. I am confident that by promoting music as therapy, as a
community building modality, and as a shared cross-cultural experience, we can form
more peaceful social systems, more inclusive communities, and a more nonviolent
world in which holistic wellbeing is possible and individuals have freedom to create and to be heard.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Nora Dalipi |
For eight
semesters at The Woods, I got to experience and cultivate the linking of
musical development and personal development, in myself and in the clients I
served. Sometimes it feels like my musical self develops first and the rest of
me follows, and other times my musical self develops as a result of personal
growth. But I’ve learned that one thing is inevitable - my music will change
and I will change and the world will change. Sometimes it will happen quickly,
with excitement; and sometimes it will happen slowly, with the pains of
stretching. But I’ll keep singing and playing and dancing, honoring the changes
of my past and embracing the transformations to come.
-written by Cathleen Flynn, SMWC senior music therapy student
