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Being an Internship Director - On Hiatus

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It is the Monday after Spring Break, and I am trying really hard to get back into my work routine. I did not sleep well last night - probably because I had the alarm set which always leads me into not sleeping well. I was up about 2 hours before my alarm was set to go off. I will be doing three groups and a dyad today, bus duty, and then occupational therapy after work.  I am currently stuck in limbo mode when it comes to my internship process. None of my applicants have completed their applications - I am waiting on one letter of recommendation for them all, so I am not ready for an intern in June. Three months is a bit too short of a transition period for me. I am also waiting to hear about a job application that I submitted, and things are changing at work as well, so it may be a good thing that applicants aren't showing much interest in the internship. I have not had an intern since the middle of January, and I am enjoying aspects of being the sole music therapist at the facili

Systems in Music Therapy: Color-Coding

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Fridays are for focusing on things that work for me in my music therapy life which I then share with others in the hope that someone else might benefit from my lived experiences. Today, as I am surrounded by the leftover piles on the floor from my intense need to rearrange my office space, avoiding the thought of what I still need to put away and find places for in this area before the HVAC guy arrives at some point, I am thinking about my most successful organization tool - color-coding. It seems really simplistic, doesn't it? That's because it really is! I use color-coding for many things, but it really is most important in my storage and use of visual aids in my music therapy space. I have lots of music therapy visuals. Many of them I have purchased over the years, but many more are ones that I have made for my clients. All of my visuals are stored in boxes, but it is sometimes difficult to find what I want. As a result, I color-code things to help me find things based on pr

Random Thoughts on a Thoughtful Thursday

It is a late start Thursday here at Spring Break central where I decided that I didn't need to sit up too much until just about now. I decided to take an easy day after a day of working which strained my back coupled with a surprise flat tire that just ratcheted up my stress to a point of pulling me out of whack, so I am now feeling the results. I am not ready for the next home visit, but I did stop by and tell my neighbor that we will be going into her backyard tomorrow at some point. My AC unit is on her side of the fence. She also agreed to allowing me to put in a gate in our shared fence so I could access the AC unit without having to walk around her side of the duplex, so that's good. So, this is a late post. My tire is fixed, I stopped by JoAnn's and bought some embossing folders and three sheets of spring themed paper, and talked to my neighbor, so it's already been a busy day. It only cost me $103 for the new tire and $6.42 for the crafting supplies. Not a bad d

Wednesday - Figuring Out the Next Steps

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I am halfway finished with a project, but only halfway there. I am at the state where everything looks overwhelming and where I just can't fathom being able to finish anything at all. I am also at the halfway point of my Spring Break, so I know that the time is ending. Here is my current situation. To avoid having to do anything with my library (my original focus for this week), I started moving my office desk from sitting out in the center of the room to against the wall. That required me to take things off of five shelves and pile the contents on the floor. I also had to take some non-decorative things off the wall because I can no longer reach those things. I worked on this project for about five hours yesterday - working until my arthritis and sciatica took over, so I have moved everything that needs to be moved. but there are piles of things on the floor that still need my attention. I am working on setting up zones in this space. The first zone is my "tools and things I

Being An Internship Director - On Hiatus

It is Monday. It is Spring Break. I have an appointment with a plumber to install a pressure regulation valve in my water system that will happen at some point today - who knows when?? I am falling horribly behind in my #100DayChallenge, but I am learning how to let things go, so that is what I will be releasing for the moment. I want to spend some time rearranging my craft area to give me some more room, but there are so many things that have to happen before I get there that I may not be able to accomplish that goal. We will see. Is anyone else reading through the Commission on the 21st Century Music Therapist report? I have not read it as much as I feel I should, but I am interested in what they recommend happen for the next 70 years. I am sure that this will go by the wayside like all the other recommendations and requests from AMTA members, but at least it is reiterated - yet again - that our educational and clinical training processes need reformation. Duh. This has been a consta

Sentimental Sunday: Post #547 - 7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Music Therapy

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Today's Sentimental Sunday post is the most viewed post on my blog - ever, and I am glad that I happened upon this one in my morning perusal on this Spring Forward Sunday. Here it is - the 7 things I wish someone had told me about music therapy post.  The sad thing about this post is that I think we still do not talk about these things much in the music therapy world. It has been almost 10 years since I wrote this first post and not much changes in the world of music therapy...ever. I still think that we, as a profession, are on a precipice.  We have to do better, as a collective group of professionals, at preparing our future professionals for this life. I am reading through the report of the commission for the 21st century group very slowly. My initial reaction is that what I have read is very similar to what was recommended 10 years ago, but I haven't delved into things the way I should before I start to talk about it all.  I am frustrated with how long it takes to get any

Spend Time Creating: Space

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It is Saturday, and I am back to blogging after a three day hiatus. I haven't blogged lately just because. I have no excuse except I just dinna wanna write anything. I have also not done anything on my #100DayChallenge since last Saturday, so I haven't been very productive outside of doing my regular work practices. I am trying to be okay with that, but there is always a little bit of self-criticism and flagellation in the back of my head. My goblins come out to play. I am officially on Spring Break at this moment. The entire break is before me at this point, and I am going back into old habits of establishing so many goals and objectives that I may not be motivated to accomplish. I have a home repair scheduled for Monday and a home evaluation on Friday but nothing else to take up my time, so I am on my own for filling up the week. One of the self-critical moments that I had yesterday (while in the midst of low-grade anxiety about my fingers and having to physically assist stud