The TME File - My Bag of Tricks
When I was a lowly freshman in my undergraduate program, more than 2 decades ago, my professor started me off on a habit that has served me very well over the years. We had an assignment to develop 25 Therapeutic Music Experiences (TMEs) - by the way, that's what I call them now, we called them "applications" in the olden days - for a variety of clinical populations. We had to think of applicable therapeutic goals, how to arrange the environment, and how to run the TMEs themselves. I remember it being an arduous task. We all took most of the semester trying to figure out how to write these note cards. This project became the beginning of my TME file.
When I went to my internship, my internship director required that I develop 50 more TMEs. Her format was a bit less formal than what I had learned at school, but it fit in really well with what I was used to doing at school. I added to what I already had and kept it going as part of my professional practice.
I still have those cards and have moved my process into the 20th century (Yes, I know that we are currently in the 21st century, but I'm not quite where I want to be with the TME file yet...). I have a database and everything!
My current format for TMEs is based on the information that I gathered during my first attempt at developing clinical ideas. I've added to it, shifted it around, and eliminated things as they have become irrelevant, but the basic structure is still the same. I find that simply writing down my ideas strengthens those ideas in my head. I also find that I can refresh my sessions by flipping through old ideas and rediscovering TMEs that I've used and forgotten. This is my greatest tool for music therapy, my TME file!!
If you are interested in seeing my format, use this link for a blog post to the format. If you have questions or want more information, please let me know. You can contact me via contactus@musictherapyworks.com.
Anyway, I have worked with music therapists who do not write down their ideas for sessions. That's fine. Everybody does their own thing when it comes to music therapy. For me, however, placing things in a written format helps me to organize my thoughts.
I use my file as a storage place. There are half-formed ideas, snippets of melodies, songs that started off one way and ended up as a completely different thought, and there are cartoons, news articles, and other things that seemed appropriate at the time. About a third of my TMEs are on my old note cards. The rest are stored on several jump drives so I won't have to start over again unless I get hit by a electromagnetic pulse. (Please don't do that to me, universe!) I love having everything that I may want to do with a client in my hands.
DISCLAIMER: Just because I like to write TME ideas down does NOT mean that I only do things that I have in my file with my clients. Many of my experiences with clients are improvised and then written down later (if I can remember them later).
It's time to update the file format. I'm trying out some ideas for how to make the TME file a bit more searchable and more accessible to me wherever I am.
How do you organize your ideas? Does anyone else have a TME file?
Thanks for reading!
When I went to my internship, my internship director required that I develop 50 more TMEs. Her format was a bit less formal than what I had learned at school, but it fit in really well with what I was used to doing at school. I added to what I already had and kept it going as part of my professional practice.
I still have those cards and have moved my process into the 20th century (Yes, I know that we are currently in the 21st century, but I'm not quite where I want to be with the TME file yet...). I have a database and everything!
My current format for TMEs is based on the information that I gathered during my first attempt at developing clinical ideas. I've added to it, shifted it around, and eliminated things as they have become irrelevant, but the basic structure is still the same. I find that simply writing down my ideas strengthens those ideas in my head. I also find that I can refresh my sessions by flipping through old ideas and rediscovering TMEs that I've used and forgotten. This is my greatest tool for music therapy, my TME file!!
If you are interested in seeing my format, use this link for a blog post to the format. If you have questions or want more information, please let me know. You can contact me via contactus@musictherapyworks.com.
Anyway, I have worked with music therapists who do not write down their ideas for sessions. That's fine. Everybody does their own thing when it comes to music therapy. For me, however, placing things in a written format helps me to organize my thoughts.
I use my file as a storage place. There are half-formed ideas, snippets of melodies, songs that started off one way and ended up as a completely different thought, and there are cartoons, news articles, and other things that seemed appropriate at the time. About a third of my TMEs are on my old note cards. The rest are stored on several jump drives so I won't have to start over again unless I get hit by a electromagnetic pulse. (Please don't do that to me, universe!) I love having everything that I may want to do with a client in my hands.
DISCLAIMER: Just because I like to write TME ideas down does NOT mean that I only do things that I have in my file with my clients. Many of my experiences with clients are improvised and then written down later (if I can remember them later).
It's time to update the file format. I'm trying out some ideas for how to make the TME file a bit more searchable and more accessible to me wherever I am.
How do you organize your ideas? Does anyone else have a TME file?
Thanks for reading!
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