Music Therapy Clinician: Supporting reflective clinical practice Volume 1 | Page 20

5. Business needs
It’s hard to imagine not being moved to tears by a childbirth experience when
music is involved. It's more than, as I’ve heard, being a “Birth DJ” [shudder] or
providing an epic birth soundtrack. It’s active therapy in the moment as the
unexpected happens during birth. The music is supportive and encourages
immediate growth. I’ve watched a huddle of nurses work vigorously on a baby
who struggled to breathe. I’ve used music to help hold that space of “not
knowing”, giving parents permission to exhale. I've encouraged a husband to
sing his wife's favorite hymn over and over to help her relax. I’ve used vocal
improvisation to help stop a panic attack during labor and enable the Mom to
become more bonded with her baby. I’ve watched as a baby was born to her
Mom's favorite song, just at the perfect cadence or musical climax. I've
overheard surgeons talking gently about the song playing over the operating
room table during a stressful cesarean birth. I've watched as doctors spend
more time sitting with a family in labor because they appreciate and enjoy how
the music has shaped the environment.

This written reflection turned into a peer supervision session about the challenges of
running a private practice. We often feel burdened, overwhelmed, and tied down by the
‘hats’ we wear as business owners, educators, birth advocates, and clinicians. The
reflection above helped us look at ways to streamline tasks, assess clinical needs,
implement treatment protocols, and successfully market our services. Feeling
overwhelmed by all those possibilities (as well as a bit of professional jealousy when
comparing my methods to others - including my peer supervisor’s practice), I turned to
lyric analysis:

Therapist’s written reflections on clinical and business growth while listening to ‘Certain Shade of Green (Artist: Incubus)’

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