Favorite Things Friday: Community
Do you know how lucky we music therapists are?
We have a wonderful, giving, challenging community of other music therapists out there who are giving of their time, their talent, and their treasure to help others of us.
I'm enjoying a bit of music therapy community these days. In one of the groups, I'm the leader, so I get to foster a bit of community. In the other group, I am one of the masses, so I get to participate in the community. I am finding that participation in both of these groups is stimulating my deep passion for this profession and reinforcing the choices that I made for myself in my choice of profession. I really hope that you have these types of moments as well.
So, what is so stimulating these days?
Let me start with the community that I've joined - that of creativity. (My posts for the past two days have referenced this creativity challenge - check them out!). As part of this creativity challenge, we are posting specific thoughts about how we are intentional in our creative interaction with the world. We share these thoughts with the entire group. I enjoy reading the responses from different music therapists - we all approach the same information very differently, almost creatively!! (Do you think that may have been the point?) Reading what another music therapist says about their creative process gives me the gift of deeper thought about my own process. That is something very valuable.
The other community, the one I create every so often, is that of interns. I just finished an intern-specific webinar series that included a very interactive and sharing group of interns. While I can't get into any details about what we talk about (that's part of our confidentiality agreement and ethical considerations), I can tell you that we discuss things that many interns think and feel during their internships. Some communities just sit and listen to me. The best communities engage with me during these discussions. They offer examples from their lives, they support each other, they ask questions, and, most importantly, they challenge my ideas (especially the opinions) and make me think about what I am really trying to say. This last group was such a community. I am hoping to meet many of them in person at the AMTA conference in November to see faces that go with the comments and discussions that we've had over the past two months.
The next community of interns in my intern webinars starts meeting next Thursday. Let's hope that this group will be as much a community as the last group. It's important to find your group.
I didn't have much of a group when I was first learning about music therapy. I was always a bit of a follower in school - it was difficult to make friends who meant anything to me. So, I spent my first three years trying to be part of the popular crowd. I was miserable, fearful of saying things that didn't really follow what the others were thinking, and trying to compare myself to those folks all the time. It was exhausting. In my junior year of college, I had several things that all crashed in on me at once. I had really bad roommate issues, several friends and family members, my age. died in accidents, I was taking an insane load of courses, and I fell into my first long-term depression. It was not a good year.
I entered counseling through the counseling center at the university where I had an opportunity to talk about me for an hour a week. My counselor didn't do too much of the talking. She listened. She would ask me what I thought I should do about the various situations and obstacles that we identified, and I always had strategies and thoughts about them. She gave me the gift of community through simply listening.
The upswing of all of this is that I decided (and it was a very conscious choice) that I really didn't like many of my classmates (sorry, if you are reading this, but I really didn't like many of you all back then). I didn't need to be spending my valuable time trying to make them like me. They were never going to like me and that was fine with me. I stopped being afraid of being an authentic me - I started offering opinions that were different from those of the group. I opted not to engage in the social activities that they expected. Those social activities did not appeal to me. As a result, my senior year was happy. I was happy.
When I first started my career as a music therapy professional, I didn't have a community. I was very isolated until I found my third job. Then, I started working with a diverse group of people who called themselves music therapists. I learned quickly what type of therapist I wanted to be and what type of therapist I did NOT want to be. I started to define who I wanted in my group, in my community.
As I've aged in this profession, I have found my community. I have figured out the type of person that I enjoy being around, the type of therapist who can simultaneously reinforce me and challenge me, the type of personality that fits with mine. I have learned that comparing myself to others is something that I am prone to do, but it really isn't productive in the long run. I do not want to be surrounded by people who believe the same things I believe. I want some challenge in my professional life. While I may not agree with what others say or believe, I will support their right to express themselves forever. These thoughts form the foundation of my community.
My community includes you. That's right. You. You are an important part of this small community as well as an important part of the larger community of our profession.
Find your group. Find your comfort and your challenge.
If you need a greater sense of community, reach out. We are out there.
We have a wonderful, giving, challenging community of other music therapists out there who are giving of their time, their talent, and their treasure to help others of us.
I'm enjoying a bit of music therapy community these days. In one of the groups, I'm the leader, so I get to foster a bit of community. In the other group, I am one of the masses, so I get to participate in the community. I am finding that participation in both of these groups is stimulating my deep passion for this profession and reinforcing the choices that I made for myself in my choice of profession. I really hope that you have these types of moments as well.
So, what is so stimulating these days?
Let me start with the community that I've joined - that of creativity. (My posts for the past two days have referenced this creativity challenge - check them out!). As part of this creativity challenge, we are posting specific thoughts about how we are intentional in our creative interaction with the world. We share these thoughts with the entire group. I enjoy reading the responses from different music therapists - we all approach the same information very differently, almost creatively!! (Do you think that may have been the point?) Reading what another music therapist says about their creative process gives me the gift of deeper thought about my own process. That is something very valuable.
The other community, the one I create every so often, is that of interns. I just finished an intern-specific webinar series that included a very interactive and sharing group of interns. While I can't get into any details about what we talk about (that's part of our confidentiality agreement and ethical considerations), I can tell you that we discuss things that many interns think and feel during their internships. Some communities just sit and listen to me. The best communities engage with me during these discussions. They offer examples from their lives, they support each other, they ask questions, and, most importantly, they challenge my ideas (especially the opinions) and make me think about what I am really trying to say. This last group was such a community. I am hoping to meet many of them in person at the AMTA conference in November to see faces that go with the comments and discussions that we've had over the past two months.
The next community of interns in my intern webinars starts meeting next Thursday. Let's hope that this group will be as much a community as the last group. It's important to find your group.
I didn't have much of a group when I was first learning about music therapy. I was always a bit of a follower in school - it was difficult to make friends who meant anything to me. So, I spent my first three years trying to be part of the popular crowd. I was miserable, fearful of saying things that didn't really follow what the others were thinking, and trying to compare myself to those folks all the time. It was exhausting. In my junior year of college, I had several things that all crashed in on me at once. I had really bad roommate issues, several friends and family members, my age. died in accidents, I was taking an insane load of courses, and I fell into my first long-term depression. It was not a good year.
I entered counseling through the counseling center at the university where I had an opportunity to talk about me for an hour a week. My counselor didn't do too much of the talking. She listened. She would ask me what I thought I should do about the various situations and obstacles that we identified, and I always had strategies and thoughts about them. She gave me the gift of community through simply listening.
The upswing of all of this is that I decided (and it was a very conscious choice) that I really didn't like many of my classmates (sorry, if you are reading this, but I really didn't like many of you all back then). I didn't need to be spending my valuable time trying to make them like me. They were never going to like me and that was fine with me. I stopped being afraid of being an authentic me - I started offering opinions that were different from those of the group. I opted not to engage in the social activities that they expected. Those social activities did not appeal to me. As a result, my senior year was happy. I was happy.
When I first started my career as a music therapy professional, I didn't have a community. I was very isolated until I found my third job. Then, I started working with a diverse group of people who called themselves music therapists. I learned quickly what type of therapist I wanted to be and what type of therapist I did NOT want to be. I started to define who I wanted in my group, in my community.
As I've aged in this profession, I have found my community. I have figured out the type of person that I enjoy being around, the type of therapist who can simultaneously reinforce me and challenge me, the type of personality that fits with mine. I have learned that comparing myself to others is something that I am prone to do, but it really isn't productive in the long run. I do not want to be surrounded by people who believe the same things I believe. I want some challenge in my professional life. While I may not agree with what others say or believe, I will support their right to express themselves forever. These thoughts form the foundation of my community.
My community includes you. That's right. You. You are an important part of this small community as well as an important part of the larger community of our profession.
Find your group. Find your comfort and your challenge.
If you need a greater sense of community, reach out. We are out there.
Comments
Post a Comment