CBMT Exam: Practice Questions and
Answers Already Passed
A 17 year old is demonstrating a sudden decline in grades, increased unexcused absences, and
inability to concentrate when in school. Facial affect has changed from friendly to flat. When
approached, the student states he is fine. Reports indicate the client responds to music, so a
music therapy referral is requested. To assess possible causes of the change in behavior, a music
therapist should FIRST
A. Observe the student in other classes
B. Discuss concerns with the guidance counselor
C. Identify current stressors in the student's life
D. Review the student's individualized education plan (IEP)
C. This is the only choice that allows the music therapist to determine potential causal factors
A music therapist is using ballroom dancing to facilitate intimacy in a relationship between a
client, who has dementia, and his wife. During a session, the client's favorite big-band music is
played, but he is having difficulty standing up and dancing with his wife. The BEST intervention
would be to recommend that the wife
A. watch a big-band dance video with her husband.
,B. sing to her husband as they sit facing one another.
C. hold her husband's hands and move in time to the music.
D. sit silently next to her husband while they listen to the music.
C. Having the wife hold her husband's hands and move in time to the music with him is an
intervention that brings both partners together in an active interaction that approximates dancing
and facilitates intimacy.
A 52-year-old woman hospitalized for ovarian cancer requests music therapy to help her relax
and sleep. During the initial session conducted at bedtime, the client shares her fears and life
story before the use of any music intervention. After validating the client's feelings, the BEST
direction for the music therapist to take is to
A. discuss favorite songs important to the client's life.
B. improvise soft guitar music to help the client go to sleep.
C. compose a song together reflecting the client's disclosure.
D. close the session and bring the client's favorite music to follow-up visits.
,B. Once the client has discussed her fears and shared her story, she may be more ready for sleep.
Introducing soft guitar music at this point would be germane to accomplishing the stated
therapeutic goal.
A music therapist has been jointly treating a client with vascular dementia and the client's
daughter, once a week for one hour. Recently, the client has become more withdrawn, presenting
with a reduced emotional response and increased passivity. Despite changes, the daughter
continues to encourage the client to be active and
engaged, yet the client is agitated and combative. Which of the following is the music therapist's
BEST response?
A. Continue treatment using the music to address agitation and combativeness.
B. Discontinue treatment as the client's passivity will increase with disease progression.
C. Remove the daughter from the music therapy session immediately.
D. Re-evaluate the session length and interventions used during music therapy sessions.
D. When working with clients who have vascular dementia, re-evaluation of treatment length
and frequency, as well as type of interventions is an important aspect of care due to the often
sudden onset of symptoms and continued loss of functioning. While music therapy can be
beneficial, music can also, at times, be over-stimulating, possibly causing distress.
When completing a behavioral assessment, information relating ONLY to behaviors observed,
not interpretation, is considered
, A. subjective.
B. irrelevant.
C. prejudicial.
D. objective.
D. Behaviors that are observed are considered to provide objective information.
A 7-year-old girl with a severe developmental disability is receiving music therapy in a
residential setting. She is nonverbal and prone to be fearful and anxious in new situations. When
brought into the therapy room for her first session, she actively resists and begins to cry. The
music therapist, working in an improvisational model, might do which of the following?
1. Meet the child by playing music to express the intensity of her crying.
2. Reflect the child's sound and breathing with careful musical phrasing.
3. Comfort the child by holding and rocking her while singing soothing lyrics.
4. Sing without words so the child hears another voice that corresponds to how she is feeling.
A. 1, 2, and 3 only
B. 1, 2, and 4 only
Answers Already Passed
A 17 year old is demonstrating a sudden decline in grades, increased unexcused absences, and
inability to concentrate when in school. Facial affect has changed from friendly to flat. When
approached, the student states he is fine. Reports indicate the client responds to music, so a
music therapy referral is requested. To assess possible causes of the change in behavior, a music
therapist should FIRST
A. Observe the student in other classes
B. Discuss concerns with the guidance counselor
C. Identify current stressors in the student's life
D. Review the student's individualized education plan (IEP)
C. This is the only choice that allows the music therapist to determine potential causal factors
A music therapist is using ballroom dancing to facilitate intimacy in a relationship between a
client, who has dementia, and his wife. During a session, the client's favorite big-band music is
played, but he is having difficulty standing up and dancing with his wife. The BEST intervention
would be to recommend that the wife
A. watch a big-band dance video with her husband.
,B. sing to her husband as they sit facing one another.
C. hold her husband's hands and move in time to the music.
D. sit silently next to her husband while they listen to the music.
C. Having the wife hold her husband's hands and move in time to the music with him is an
intervention that brings both partners together in an active interaction that approximates dancing
and facilitates intimacy.
A 52-year-old woman hospitalized for ovarian cancer requests music therapy to help her relax
and sleep. During the initial session conducted at bedtime, the client shares her fears and life
story before the use of any music intervention. After validating the client's feelings, the BEST
direction for the music therapist to take is to
A. discuss favorite songs important to the client's life.
B. improvise soft guitar music to help the client go to sleep.
C. compose a song together reflecting the client's disclosure.
D. close the session and bring the client's favorite music to follow-up visits.
,B. Once the client has discussed her fears and shared her story, she may be more ready for sleep.
Introducing soft guitar music at this point would be germane to accomplishing the stated
therapeutic goal.
A music therapist has been jointly treating a client with vascular dementia and the client's
daughter, once a week for one hour. Recently, the client has become more withdrawn, presenting
with a reduced emotional response and increased passivity. Despite changes, the daughter
continues to encourage the client to be active and
engaged, yet the client is agitated and combative. Which of the following is the music therapist's
BEST response?
A. Continue treatment using the music to address agitation and combativeness.
B. Discontinue treatment as the client's passivity will increase with disease progression.
C. Remove the daughter from the music therapy session immediately.
D. Re-evaluate the session length and interventions used during music therapy sessions.
D. When working with clients who have vascular dementia, re-evaluation of treatment length
and frequency, as well as type of interventions is an important aspect of care due to the often
sudden onset of symptoms and continued loss of functioning. While music therapy can be
beneficial, music can also, at times, be over-stimulating, possibly causing distress.
When completing a behavioral assessment, information relating ONLY to behaviors observed,
not interpretation, is considered
, A. subjective.
B. irrelevant.
C. prejudicial.
D. objective.
D. Behaviors that are observed are considered to provide objective information.
A 7-year-old girl with a severe developmental disability is receiving music therapy in a
residential setting. She is nonverbal and prone to be fearful and anxious in new situations. When
brought into the therapy room for her first session, she actively resists and begins to cry. The
music therapist, working in an improvisational model, might do which of the following?
1. Meet the child by playing music to express the intensity of her crying.
2. Reflect the child's sound and breathing with careful musical phrasing.
3. Comfort the child by holding and rocking her while singing soothing lyrics.
4. Sing without words so the child hears another voice that corresponds to how she is feeling.
A. 1, 2, and 3 only
B. 1, 2, and 4 only
