I just spent three hours in the music therapy archives housed at Colorado State University and an additional couple of hours looking through materials housed in Dr. Bill Davis's office. I have scanned 140 pages of historical material directly related to clinical training and skill development. I am exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time.
If you ever need to access information from the archives, please do. It is a nondescript building on the CSU campus, very loud from all of the ventilation, and not very interesting to look at, but VERY accessible and easy to understand. Dr. Davis and the archivist, Linda Meyers, have been extremely accommodating. I went in with some inkling of what I was looking for (that helped), and Dr. Davis helped me find more information in the archives. Linda gave me a space to work, access to electricity, and left me to it.
We have over 70 boxes of materials in the archives. There is information about academic programs, internship programs, committee meetings, vitae of all of the big names in music therapy, and, occasionally, snarky letters between music therapists. I had so much fun looking through the materials. I had to keep myself from following tangents. For instance, I found two of the music therapists that worked at my facility before me. I also found pictures of my professors from early days of the association - what a hoot!
I get to go back tomorrow to root through more materials. This is good. Tonight I will organize the materials that I have already scanned into my computer and will start to write more on my paper/treatise.
You know, I think that it is important to document ourselves as a profession, as professionals, and as individuals. There is something comforting in reviewing documents from the 60's and finding that the therapists then were just as concerned with how to train students as we are at the present. There are no simple answers, and it is reinforced when you look at the trace left by others.
I have always thought that my simple life as a therapist was not archive worthy. I'm starting to reevaluate my concepts and may be sending information to Dr. Davis about my program soon - poor man!
So, tomorrow more time in the archives. Saturday, some sightseeing in CO, and Sunday, heading home.
How can you resist this view?
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