Just Plain Old Thinking About Stuff
I'm at home today after two days of working with kids. This post-surgery life is new to me - exhaustion has set in and is just kicking my behind!
As I am sitting here, eating my breakfast of spaghetti and meatballs, I am starting to think about various and sundry things about music therapy.
Last night, I participated in a conference call with lots of folks that I really respect in the world of music therapy. It was interesting to be part of the conversation about this and that. I enjoy talking to other music therapists about music therapy - interns, professionals, folks older or younger than me, students, folks who practice a different music therapy philosophy than me - all therapists are interesting to me. It fascinates me that we have so many ways of thinking about the same thing - the use of music as a therapeutic medium.
Yesterday was a good therapy day (even though it exhausted me physically!!). I spent my day working with some of the residents at my facility. Now, all of my students have had major changes in their lives recently. They have new classmates and/or new classroom staff and/or new classroom locations. Some have had all three! In addition, the residents of the facility went to new living assignments yesterday afternoon. Everything has changed.
These changes have led to unsettled classroom groups. Add several new residents into the mix, and no classroom group is relaxed. Let's introduce music therapy into the environment...
I met five new residents yesterday. They all had different approaches to participation. I met the "I'm too cool for everything" kid, the "I'm going to pretend you aren't there" kid, and the "I'm going to show you how bad I am so you'll leave me alone" kid. Now, I've met these types of kids before, so I know how to approach them in music therapy. By the end of each of the sessions that I ran yesterday, all kids were participating and interacting with me as the therapist. I consider that a pretty good day.
I enjoy being an internship director. This comes up because I started a new intern a week ago, and I have an applicant traveling to audition for the next placement tomorrow. The best things about being an internship director are the challenge that it brings on me to be clear, to think about music therapy in new ways, and watching each intern grow significantly over the 120 days of the program. I love reminiscing with each intern about the things that challenged them in the first several months that are no longer concerns. Now, don't get me wrong - being an ID is lots of hard work, but it is very rewarding as well.
I am ready to go take a nap, so I'm going to close with my final thought for this post...
Music therapy is what I was meant to do. I was meant to be a music therapist. I am glad that I found this and hope that it is always my way of interacting with the world!
Time for a nap!!
As I am sitting here, eating my breakfast of spaghetti and meatballs, I am starting to think about various and sundry things about music therapy.
Last night, I participated in a conference call with lots of folks that I really respect in the world of music therapy. It was interesting to be part of the conversation about this and that. I enjoy talking to other music therapists about music therapy - interns, professionals, folks older or younger than me, students, folks who practice a different music therapy philosophy than me - all therapists are interesting to me. It fascinates me that we have so many ways of thinking about the same thing - the use of music as a therapeutic medium.
Yesterday was a good therapy day (even though it exhausted me physically!!). I spent my day working with some of the residents at my facility. Now, all of my students have had major changes in their lives recently. They have new classmates and/or new classroom staff and/or new classroom locations. Some have had all three! In addition, the residents of the facility went to new living assignments yesterday afternoon. Everything has changed.
These changes have led to unsettled classroom groups. Add several new residents into the mix, and no classroom group is relaxed. Let's introduce music therapy into the environment...
I met five new residents yesterday. They all had different approaches to participation. I met the "I'm too cool for everything" kid, the "I'm going to pretend you aren't there" kid, and the "I'm going to show you how bad I am so you'll leave me alone" kid. Now, I've met these types of kids before, so I know how to approach them in music therapy. By the end of each of the sessions that I ran yesterday, all kids were participating and interacting with me as the therapist. I consider that a pretty good day.
I enjoy being an internship director. This comes up because I started a new intern a week ago, and I have an applicant traveling to audition for the next placement tomorrow. The best things about being an internship director are the challenge that it brings on me to be clear, to think about music therapy in new ways, and watching each intern grow significantly over the 120 days of the program. I love reminiscing with each intern about the things that challenged them in the first several months that are no longer concerns. Now, don't get me wrong - being an ID is lots of hard work, but it is very rewarding as well.
I am ready to go take a nap, so I'm going to close with my final thought for this post...
Music therapy is what I was meant to do. I was meant to be a music therapist. I am glad that I found this and hope that it is always my way of interacting with the world!
Time for a nap!!
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