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My TrainingI finished my Postgraduate diploma in Music Therapy from Chennai School of Music Therapy (CSMT) and successfully completed my case study under guidance of Dr. Sumathy Sundar (Director, CSMT). I am one of the first few who has a certificate in Music therapy in India. During my clinical internship at Global Hospital, Chennai, I had an opportunity to work with Radiation, Oncology, and Palliative care patients, and the work area was pain management. In the second half of the day, during internship, I worked with children with special needs. Working in these two different settings gave me a good understanding of the different approaches and protocols in music therapy.Stumbles on the Path to My CareerAfter almost a year since coming back from Chennai to my hometown of Mumbai, I was unable to find employment as a Music Therapist through any healthcare or similar institution. Music Therapy is not new to India. It has been there for thousands of years from the times of Vedas, but as a health care profession, it is still getting established, and very few institutions are open to music therapists due to a needed emphasis on research and documentation to prove the profession’s worth and need in clinical practice. Others refuse clinicians due to lack of awareness and interaction with trained music therapists. I was rejected many times with potential employers saying that they were not in need of therapy or there was no vacancy. But I was not an easy person to stop there! I kept my hope alive and kept approaching institutions and doctors with positivity as I really believe and am passionate about music and its therapeutic aspects.They say, “if you believe in yourself, keep doing right things; it will fall into its place at the right time.” And, the right time came! I was able to meet Dr. Abhishek Srivastava (Director, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute, Mumbai. Within a couple of weeks, I got a call for an appointment from the HR Department. The first round was bit easy, but then the technical round was quiet interesting. I was given hypothetical cases and was asked to give examples of methodology to work with patients, from the assessment to the actual therapy implementation. At the end of the interview, I had been offered a job as a music therapist and my career was about to start in one of the most famous hospitals in Mumbai, which was the most important step for my future in the field! I was speechless and unable to express my feelings after surpassing the barrier to start my career in Mumbai. I was guided well by Dr. Sundar, as she motivated me and gave me all the confidence to go ahead with my work as the lone music therapist in my institution.My Work, Hurdles, and SolutionsThere were moments when I felt absolutely alone and lost, as my music therapy mentor was in another state and none of my colleagues were there to work with me in the field. Nevertheless, my director and my colleagues from Chennai helped me with references, useful techniques, and documentation protocols, but at some point, I had to work on my own. My department director, Dr. Abhishek suggested I read more to find out about neurological music therapy techniques and their implementation.The process started by arranging necessary things to start music therapy services, such as instruments and a standard operation process. As a big institution, it sometimes takes time to order materials as requests pass through many levels of management. I started preparing my own assessment formats, treatment plans, and reporting formats for different types of patients. The second thing I faced was difficulty in understanding clinical terms, abbreviations. and diagnosis. I used to stand at the nursing station with the patient’s file in one hand and my mobile dictionary in other. After my sessions, I was to write my treatment plan, session details, and patient’s response in the file, which was another tough task for me. Medical personnel have their own way of writing notes, and clinicians write notes quite differently. A third challenge was that I had to take care of my schedule on my own, whereas the team leaders for the Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapist, and Speech Therapist coordinated shift timings for them. Since the music therapist position was new to the hospital, I had to make schedules according to the team of other therapists and doctors. I had to identify the patient’s free time slot, and plan my therapy session accordingly.Patient careOur hospital has 16 floors, and I have patients on different floors. Sometimes the patients return late to their respective wards from other therapies, and sometimes patient go to sleep or feel drowsy, as they get so tired from other physical therapy sessions. All of these things affect patient’s responses and participation in music therapy sessions. With outpatient care, I normally have to look for a free room, as there are no separate rooms allotted for music therapy sessions. Sometimes patients have to wait until sessions in progress finish to receive services, whereas sometimes my patient is expected to share the same room with another patient receiving other therapies. It definitely creates an impact on concentration, attention, and interest levels of patients in musical activities during the session.Sometimes patient’s relatives don’t understand music therapy activities and their relevance in the patient’s recovery process, so they keep interfering on selection of musical activities and ways of conducting sessions. Patient’s relatives expect magical responses from therapies within 1 or 2 sessions. Because of lack of understanding about music therapy, many times they say that they don’t want this therapy, as they see no changes in the patient. But, the team of doctors always motivates and guides us through these different phases. Other therapists share their experiences to help me realize that this is how things happens in a hospital environment, and the supportive staff often help out during therapy sessions. I feel that it’s a pleasure to work at Kokilaben Hospital as a Music Therapist. I’m still in my probationary term, but it is giving me quality learning experiences. I am getting a lot of time to learn and to work on my knowledge and understanding of clinical aspects along with musical responses of patients.I expect that I will have more referrals to various patients in the time to come. I hope to do research that would support my methodology while working with patients.There is a lot more to study and a lot more to learn. I hope my journey doesn’t stop here, as there is a lot more to achieve.Ashish V. Kasbe, Graduate of Chennai School of Music TherapyAshish is from Mumbai, India. He has a PG Diploma in Music Therapy and is a Computer Science Graduate. Mr. Kasbe is a keyboard player, music composer, and vocalist. He is well versed in concepts of Hindustani Classical Music and Ayurveda, both which are part of traditional practices of India. He works as Music Therapist in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Department at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute, Mumbai, which is an Indian hospital with international standards. He has done a paper presentation at the International Association of Music and Medicine conference, June 2016 in Beijing, based on his case study of a child with ASD.Save
