3 Music Therapy Goal Examples for Song Discussion/Lyric Analysis Interventions
Song discussion and lyric analysis interventions are common in music therapy and can provide a variety of benefits throughout the treatment process.
Although it is not always possible to make goals/objectives that are specific to music therapy, these goals can be helpful for music therapists working in a private practice or multidisciplinary (rather than interdisciplinary) setting who are seeking reimbursement. In these cases, it is often required that measureable, objective goals are listed as part of the client’s treatment plan.
These are some example music therapy goals for lyric analysis or song discussion interventions that you can use in your own MT practice.
Note: This blog post is intended for informational purposes only. Music therapy goals are implemented by music therapists who are board certified clinicians with a current credential (i.e. MT-BC, RMT, ACMT, CMT).
Consider the intent of the intervention
When making a goal for these types of interventions, it’s important to consider the therapeutic intent in order to create a goal that best meets the client’s needs.
Is song discussion providing social support or increased opportunities for socialization? Is it helping to increase emotional awareness or verbal processing of emotions? Or is it more communication-based such as increasing length or frequency of verbal responses?
Clarifying these intentions can help to find a domain area that best matches the purpose of the intervention. Then, we can create measureable objectives to track the client’s progress for reimbursement purposes.
Some common therapeutic intentions may include:
Increasing support
Increasing positive socialization
Increasing communication of needs/emotions
Increasing length of verbalizations
Increasing peer interactions
Increasing interpersonal skills
Increase opportunities for reminiscence
Improve conversational skills
Decrease isolation/withdrawal
Increasing emotional awareness
Increasing emotional expression
This helps us to understand whether the focus is a social goal, emotional/psychological goal, or a communication goal.
Music Therapy Goal Examples for Song Discussion or Lyric Analysis
Goal: To increase conversational skills
or To increase social skills
Objective: During song discussion/lyric analysis interventions, client will maintain a music-guided topic in a three-part conversation exchange in 3 out of 4 opportunities with no more than 2 verbal prompts by the end of the quarter.
Goal: To increase communication of emotions
Objective: Following listening of a client-selected or therapist-selected song, client will verbally state their emotional response to the song in 4 out of 5 opportunities with no more than 1 verbal prompt by the end of the IPC year.
Goal: To increase emotional awareness
or To increase emotional expression
Objective: Following listening of a client-selected song, client will identify a lyrical phrase that mirrors a past and/or present emotional state or life experience in 75% of opportunities by the end of the session.
