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I attended the Australian 41st National Music Therapy Conference in Sydney (September, 2015) and was so impressed by the variety and depth of this year’s student presentations. One of the papers that I got to see was a collaboration of two Melbourne University students, Matt Lewin and Asami Koike, who explored the use of a piece of technology called “Makey Makey” in music therapy to motivate engagement and shift some of the - often unequal - power dynamics between the therapist and the client. Their presentation received very enthusiastic feedback from the audience. Not only that, this duo also won the Denise Grocke Award for Excellence in the student and new graduate presentation category. I sat down with Matt and Asami for an interview about their project and their critical thought process behind it.Irene Sandjaja, AustraliaWFMT Student Delegate for Australia/New ZealandI: Hi, Matt and Asami. Can you tell us what your joint presentation was about? M: We were trying to look at ways of opening up possibilities for engagement in music therapy in mental health, and we came across a piece of technology that sort of helps reflect how we are thinking.I: Both of you were in mental health clinical placements. Did you work with a particular population or age groups?A: I had my first placement with young people, 16-25 years old, in acute and outpatient settings. And now I'm working with young people experiencing homelessness, which is still very much related with mental health challenges.M: I've been working with adults in acute inpatient and community mental health settings. We began putting our heads together about all of this when we started our first clinical placements because the complexities of working in mental health are massive. Also, we recognised that we were both passionate about mental health. We were supporting each other through the process of trying to think our way around all of these complexities and really trying to focus on understanding the work we were doing on placement.I: And so, did you both find engagement as a particular challenge in working in this area?A: Engagement and more so the subtle layers of that engagement; for example, people who are hospitalised for a long time, they may have an institutionalised mentality, meaning the way they engage with you as a music therapist is often really unequal in terms of the power dynamic.I: So they see themselves as patients, and they see you as a health expert who is there to help them?A: Yeah. So how do we stop reinforcing that kind of engagement, and create more equality in the relationship? So I guess that’s influenced by the resource-oriented perspective.M: I'd say for the adult population, engagement is a big thing because, for example, after someone has an episode or episodes of psychosis on the hospital ward, they can become really insular. They close down because they are trying to find their own resources to try and get well. That sort of makes us question how to create a safe space for them to express or open up if they want to, and to actually work towards their own idea of health for themselves. I think it's difficult, and when you carry music-based ideas to help them, some people may feel an initial sense of failure because they don’t feel they are musical or can play music.I: So you're enforcing once again that you are the one with the experience and the skills?A: Yeah.I: So what is this piece of technology?A: It's a little thing that connects to the computer, and you can connect wires on the other end to any object, just like a patch board, but the wires connect to different keyboard commands. So if you are using garage band without a midi keyboard, you can just type in the notes and it does exactly the same thing.I: So you assign a note to each connection, so whenever you touch that object, the note plays?A: Yeah, and you can go from really simple pre-assigned notes from the web, or you can go really complex by putting it through Protools or Ableton and create your own sounds.M: What's great about this technology, because it's so open, the potential therapeutic benefits are untapped, and it can really reflect on how music therapists identify problems and propose a solution. Looking back to when I was working with young people with muscular dystrophy, you could totally adapt the application. You can create any kind of space so they have some kind of achievable and expressible outcome.I: Can it be used for group work as well?M: Yeah, and also it’s about the cost effectiveness. For example, a community with low funding may not be able to afford an orchestra, but with a bit of clever thinking they can create a small ensemble with a couple of these boards.I: Just going back to the theory that triggered this exploration; earlier in our chat, were you referring to Randi Rolvsjord’s resource-oriented approach in music therapy? And is this your approach to music therapy in mental health currently?A: Definitely. Something that really resonated with us was how the music therapist’s role is often seen as the “expert” in the therapist-client relationship. As a music therapist and a trained musician, you go in and you're asking this person to engage with you. What does that actually mean? I've seen it a lot in my current placement, where a lot of young people go, "No, you're better at playing guitar; you do it." We thought, how can we create opportunities for people to experience empowerment, if we are just working with traditional instruments that already have so much history and “expertise” attached?I: So your aim of using Makey Makey is to act as a medium where the therapist and the client are on equal footing musically?M: Yeah.I: Thank you both for sharing your insights and telling us the story behind your presentation. And one last question, did you expect to win the award at all? M: No, not at all. The reason we presented was an exercise for us to start developing our thinking, but it was a real surprise and bonus that we received the award!I: If there are students or professional music therapists out there wanting to know more information about your project and the Makey Makey itself, can they contact you?A: Yeah, definitely.For further info, questions or comments, please drop a line to lewinkoikemusictherapy@gmail.com, Matt and Asami will be more than ready to answer!
