Bongo Barry

I heard yesterday that a colleague, Barry Bernstein, passed away on Wednesday morning. Barry was an acquaintance of mine from my undergraduate days who remembered me 15 years later when we met at Camp Encourage this summer. We played a little music and led a campfire over the 4 days of camp. I was impressed and inspired by the things that he did with the campers. My thoughts and prayers are with his family as they mourn the loss of their father and husband.

Pipe Dreams

I bought lotto tickets today. The jackpot is up to $213 million, and my dad likes the idea of buying chances when the jackpot gets that high. So, I have been escaping into fantasies of what I would do with a portion with the money.

The first thing I would do is give my parents a portion for their retirement. They could pay off the house, take a trip, and stop working! Mom could finally craft and garden all the time, and Dad could drive her crazy!!!

The second thing that I would do would be to split up the rest of the money into retirement accounts for myself and my siblings. With my part, I would buy this gorgeous complex that is for sale across the street from my facility. It is an old convent with beautiful buildings. I would like to turn it into a conference and retreat center. We would offer CMTEs on a monthly basis. It would be a good challenge.

Aaah. Now all I have to do is win tomorrow. Won't happen, but I am having fun dreaming about it.

Creative Flow

There are times when I have a rush of ideas that just come flowing out of me. It usually coincides with the full moon - imagine that - but I become almost manic when it comes to creating interventions, cleaning my home, and thinking of new things that I "should" be doing during my time away from work.

I am currently writing this blog entry, but I did many other things today. I washed dishes and cleaned off my countertops in the kitchen, washed my bedding, made homemade cards, learned about my new music notation program, wrote a couple of Therapeutic Musical Experiences, emailed my academic advisor with several projects, enrolled for field studies at school, paid tuition, and annoyed the cat. My day is not finished. For the first time in weeks, I did not feel like I wanted to take a nap at 3pm.

The downside of this upswing is the new moon period. I have always (according to my mother who has known me the longest) had mood swings that followed the waxing and waning of the moon. When the moon is dark, I have less energy and creativity. It is interesting to track the times when I compose and when I struggle. I wish I could bottle the extra energy for use during the dry periods.

Off to do something else - more song ideas are floating around my head. Gotta get them down in the computer.

CAMP

I love camp. I love everything about it. The mosquitoes, the sunburns, the shaving cream fights, the interrupted sleep - it's all good! I spent four days in the company of 45 campers and approximately the same number of staff at Camp Encourage. This camp is a place for kids ages 8-18 on the Asperger's side of the Autism Spectrum and some typically developing peers to be away from their family, to act like kids, and make friends.

I have to say that I originally thought that I would be going to camp to run music therapy sessions. When I attended the orientation session, I found that that was not so. I was assigned to "assist" the other music therapistst that were attending camp. I was disappointed, but was able to get the camp director to agree to let me lead one session during the last day of camp.

Once I got to camp, I found that, in addition to music therapy and arts and crafts, I was a general go-fer. I spent lots of time taking things from here to there, tracking down specific people, and running from one side of the camp to another. I loved every moment!

The best thing about camp is the way that kids learn. Kids went to the zipline and zipped from a tree platform 30 feet above the ground. Kids who cried when their families left them at camp spent little to no time fretting about their families as they were zipping around. They went to the pool, participated in the campfire, threw things into the fire, and pondered the mystery of the gum tree. They covered themselves and quite a few others with shaving cream. They talked to complete strangers. They gorged themselves on the very good food and then got sick. They attended science, arts and crafts, and music therapy. They played Yu-Gi-Oh and Star Wars Trivia to their hearts' content. It was a great four days.

I'm going back. Back to camp, where I am sure that I will be allowed to run music therapy sessions from now on.

Camping

I'm going to camp tomorrow. This camp is for children and adolescents on the Autism Spectrum. While I have worked with kids on the spectrum for many years, and while I have camped in all types of situations, I have never combined the two experiences. I am thrilled and VERY excited about going to camp this summer.

I leave tomorrow morning for the 4-day, 3-night camp. I am lugging craft supplies, visual file folders, musical instruments, my digital camera, and my equipment for the week. I have been assigned to "assist" the music therapists who will be running sessions. This will be an experience. I have difficulty "assisting" and will have to remain in the role of "assistant" while taking pictures. I am in charge of sensory stimulation, assisting with field games, and leading arts and crafts.

Camp has always been the best environment for me. I've been to day camp, overnight camp, survival camp, science camp, church camp, and snow camp. I have always wanted to go to space camp, but I would not survive the vestibular testing, so have accepted by limitations and have not tried to go to space camp.

I'm taking my guitar. There is nothing better than playing as the sun rises in the early morning. As I am a VERY early riser, I anticipate time outside watching the sun rise, reading my book, composing music, and attempting to keep myself quiet. I'll find my place and visit it each morning.

I hope that this is a good camp.

Refreshment

'Tis the season for school therapists who get to work an extended school year to rest and rejuvenate. So, here is my time to relax. Now, I have a VERY strong work ethic, so I relax for a bit of time and then get back to work. I slept all of today, but now am ready to start problem solving and getting things ready for my next challenges.

I am now faced with a change in treatement philosophy for one group of students at the school where I am the therapist. While the new philosophy is not all that new for the Autism community, it is VERY new for the teachers that I work with on a daily basis. They are excited and are trying to incoporate my treatment into their new format. This is fine, but there are some things that will not work within the format easily that I have to adapt to make music therapy effective for their students.

I like this process of working through a potential problem until it is not a problem any longer. By the end of my Fall break, I will probably have a solution to this situation that will work. If not, I will have a couple of options that should work. We will see.

We Evolve or We Die

There has recently been lots of controversy in some music therapy circles about how things are not being done the way that the circles would like to see. This is generally in the form of complaints about the national association and includes discussions about advocacy, protection of perceived professional "rights," and the "Us vs. Them" mentality that still figures in the now united, formally split association. One of the things that struck me as interesting was the perception that the association should drop everything to address my needs on my schedule. If I have a complaint, it needs to be addressed immediately!

This has started me thinking, which is never a good sign. I wonder if it is possible for any professional organization to be all things to all people. I know that it is impossible for any person to be all things to all people. Why do we expect our association to be able to cater to our every whim? Having said this, I find that the association itself is not always what I wish it would be.

MY major criticisms are these.

• There are too few people trying to do to much work at the association office.


• When approached by committees for changes, promises are made, but not kept.


• When committee members ask to take on additional responsibilities, members of the association do not allow that information to pass on to the ones willing to do the job.


• Our public face - website - is confusing and difficult to navigate in.


• The fees are outrageous for membership as well as for conferences.


• Conferences have a skew towards the researchers rather than the clinicians.

There. That's my tirade. Now...

Here's what I think we can do about it.

1. Restructure the website so it is easily navigated - get someone who is willing to format the website in trade for registration or membership fees. I'd do it!
2. Move conferences from big locations to less gigantic places. What's wrong with Wichita, Kansas? Or Ontario, California? Or other places where there are sufficient places for therapists to stay, a convenient airport, and limited attraction for other conferences - people in those places would be willing to give us discounts so we would show up. I think it would work.
3. Ensure that clinical proposals have equal representation at conferences.
4. Restructure the committee formats - give committees more responsibilities. Give committees tasks that will alleviate some of the work burden on the national office staff members. These could be as simple as sending paperwork to the committee chairs directly. It could also involve maintenance of some website resources by others outside of the office.

Tirade over.