Drum Therapy Reflection #1

Drum Therapy with the Hougang Care Center

This is my first reflection for my service. For this reflection, I have chosen to focus on the first learning outcome of awareness (LO1). I have had no previous experience with an activity like this, and this is also one of the main reasons why I chose to do Drum Therapy. I have never played the drums before, and I thought that being able to play the drums, especially with disabled people, in order to help them, would be very rewarding for me. I think that it was definitely a good idea to choose something that I had never done before as my service, because this way I know that I will learn a new skill as well as help other people in the process.

I think that one of my main strengths in drum therapy would be either my collaboration skills, or my organisational and planning skills. I am someone who is always willing to work with others, and I think that I contribute quite well to group tasks when I am involved in them. I definitely think that collaboration is a really important skill to have within an activity such as this one, where we have to be working together in order to give the clients the best experience possible. I also think that my planning and organisational skills are quite good, and that when I can, I contribute my ideas to the planning of the different sessions. I know that once I am given an opportunity to do so, I will be able to plan further and make sure that the clients make the most out of these sessions.

I would like to improve my drum playing skills, because as I mentioned earlier, I would also like to learn a new skill. During the sessions, I will therefore also be learning new rhythms and beats at the same time as the clients. I think that it is a very interesting new skill to learn, mainly since without this service, I don’t think I would have taken the time out to learn how to play the drums. Also, although my collaboration skills are already quite good, I definitely think that I could improve them by learning to work with the people in the service, that I do not know well, and that I do not usually work with.

I think that my involvement in this activity has definitely made me aware of my strengths and areas for growth, also because I have become more aware of the things that I could improve on. I have become more aware of the skills that would be useful for me to have whilst participating in this service, and I definitely think that improving these skills would help me to grow as a person. We have not had any sessions with the clients yet, but I definitely think that after a few sessions with them, I will be able to further identify my strengths and areas for improvement within this service. Overall, I have enjoyed the planning sessions that have happened so far.