My name is Meleah Joyner, and I am wrapping up my internship with The STAR Center in Jackson, TN. I decided to write this blog about a school I worked with in my time at STAR. I had the privilege of getting to work with a small group of students in grades 6 and 10, who had varying disabilities and diagnoses. When sessions started, we quickly began experiencing behavioral issues. It became evident that we needed to establish clear rules and boundaries. While preparing and researching for my group, I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEtXlFYk1yY. In the video, Rachael Willeke, MT-BC, discussed her strategy for creating group rules. Part of her idea was to incorporate the group rules into a song. I thought that Rachael’s ideas would be great to try out with our group of students. We needed more specific, consistent rules in the group, and using Rachael’s strategy for creating group rules would allow the students the opportunity to voice their opinion about group rules.
To start the rule-making process, our group had a conversation about what they wanted the group to feel like. Some of the students’ answers included: less silly, more silly, peaceful, no bullying, a safe space, happy, on-task, and calm. One student in the group has a history of abuse, and I was especially moved by one of his answers. He expressed that he wanted the group to be able to trust each other and feel like a family. Next, I guided the students to review their ideas and find common ground in their answers. Then, we began to discuss potential rules and guidelines we could create so that the group could be what the students wanted it to be. The students were able to agree on two main ideas for their group rules: 1. Be silly and have fun. 2. Be nice and respectful, not inappropriate. The third part of our group rules stated why we had the previous two rules, “Because we want this to be a happy and safe place.”
After establishing the rules together, we used the next two sessions to create and practice the song for our group rules. Initially, at least one of the students was not a fan of the rap portion of our song. However, the students eventually learned the song and often sang along, appearing to enjoy it as demonstrated by singing along, smiling, and positive behavior. Now that we had established our group rules song, we sang it towards the beginning of every session as a way to reinforce our group rules and goals before continuing the session.
During one session, I said that we would sing the song again whenever someone was breaking the rules. However, I decided against that. I didn’t want the group rules song to become a punishment for these students, but wanted it to be a fun way to reinforce the group rules and improve group cohesion. I created laminated copies of the group rules (see image) and put the rules where the students could see them while we sang our song. If students broke a rule later in the session, I pulled out the group rules visual and asked, “What rule are we breaking?” and encouraged students to point out their error.
Over time, the students demonstrated improved group cohesion and positive behavior. They displayed much more kindness and empathy toward one another, and listened better as well. Recently, they even learned how to play a popular song together as a band! I am very proud of these kids and will miss getting to make music with them. They’ve taught me a lot, and I’m glad I have an original song to remember them by. I encourage any music therapist who is starting sessions with a consistent group of people to consider creating and writing a group rules song together. Of course, this would not be appropriate for some settings/populations, but I believe it’s a great idea for groups similar to ours.
