Verbal Counselling and Psychotherapy Techniques for Music Therapists (6 credits)

Presented by Joel Kroeker RCC, MA, MMT, MTA

Music can bring emotions, memories, relationships, and difficult experiences to the surface. And when it does, clients often begin to talk.

Are you confident about what to do next?

As a music therapist, you may be highly skilled at using music to facilitate expression but feel less certain when the session shifts into deeper verbal processing. What questions should you ask? When should you listen rather than respond? How do you recognize what may be happening beneath the words without moving beyond your professional role?

This self-study course introduces essential counselling and psychotherapy concepts and verbal techniques that can help music therapists feel more prepared for the conversations that emerge within clinical work.

You’ll explore ways to listen more deeply, build rapport through language, communicate more clearly, and strengthen your clinical judgment about when and how to respond.

You’ll also be introduced to concepts including transference, projective identification, resistance, somatic meaning, and personal mythology, helping you recognize some of the relational and emotional dynamics that may be present when clients talk about difficult experiences.

Through theory, research, case material, discussion, and experiential learning, you’ll consider verbal approaches for working alongside music with children, adolescents, and adults experiencing concerns such as trauma, anxiety, depression, loss, and grief.

Most importantly, you’ll explore how verbal and nonverbal processes can work together, so that talking does not become separate from the music therapy process but another way of supporting what is emerging within it.

In this workshop, you will learn:

Practical verbal techniques for responding when clients begin processing experiences during music therapy sessions.
How to listen more deeply for what may be communicated both directly and indirectly.
Ways to use language intentionally to build rapport and strengthen the therapeutic relationship.
How to communicate more clearly and check your understanding of what a client is expressing.
Foundational concepts related to transference, projective identification, and resistance.
How bodily experiences and somatic cues may contribute to clinical understanding.
Ways to integrate verbal processing with musical and other expressive experiences.
How to strengthen clinical judgment about when to speak, question, reflect, or listen.
Considerations for verbal work related to trauma, anxiety, depression, loss, and grief.
Ethical considerations related to clinical documentation and note-taking.
How to blend verbal and nonverbal approaches while remaining grounded in your role as a music therapist.

Feel more prepared for the moment when the music stops, the client looks at you, and the conversation begins.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to identify at least 2 of the main principles within the field of verbal psychotherapy
Participants will be able to name at least 1 specific counselling strategy for working with music therapy populations
Participants will be able to identify 2 ethical issues when implementing verbal counselling skills
Participants will be able to describe how musical training translates into therapeutic verbal interactions

Course Schedule and Format:

30 minutes – Introductions and Overview

30 minutes – Background, Theory and History of Verbal Counselling within Music Therapy

We’ll discover where verbal approaches are situated historically and theoretically in relation to music therapy and the therapeutic models that you are most familiar with.

1 hour – Overview of verbal counselling methods

Through experiential examples, participants will be introduced to the most essential counselling and psychotherapy techniques and approaches including the verbal dynamics of transference, projective identification, working verbally with resistance, deep listening for somatic meaning, blending theoretical frameworks with expressive processes, honing clinical judgement, using words to build rapport, engaging with personal mythology and ethical issues around clinical notetaking. We will explore the most essential principles and how you can immediately incorporate these into your own work.

one hour – Verbal interventions that work

We will explore various verbal approaches for honouring deeper issues within our work with children, youth and adults including trauma, anxiety, depression, loss and grief and how to mix musical and verbal approaches within our work. Examples will include a wide range of contexts including working with individuals, groupwork, and working with all ages across the entire life cycle.

45 minutes – Q&A and Wrap up

Evaluate by feedback form

1 hr – Homework Assignment Self-Study

CBMT Domain Areas:

"III.A.6 Theoretical frameworks for music therapy treatment implementation (e.g., educational,

developmental, neurological, psychological)"

III.A.10 Clinical adaptation of musicianship to address therapeutic needs; Task Statement 32 Identify and implement potential modifications and adaptations throughout the treatment process to support accessibility

I.1B Identification of potential for harm within treatment (e.g., physical, psychological, interpersonal, spiritual, environmental); I.1E Verbal, physical, and music interventions for client safety

"I Task Statement 3 Recognize the potential harm and contraindication of verbal and physical interventions for clients

and adapt treatment as necessary"

Verbal Counselling and Psychotherapy Techniques for Music Therapists is approved by the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) for 6 CMTEs-Continuing Music Therapy Education credits. The Spiegel Academy, CBMT Approved Provider #P-106, maintains responsibility for program quality and adherence to CBMT policies and criteria.

Class Description