Bonus Post: From the Other Side of My First CMTE

Can I get all fan-girly for a moment?
 
I just finished my first CMTE course as a participant in a very long time, and I have to rave about the presenter, Cathy Knoll. Cathy embodies who I want to be when I grow up - passionate, caring, and cogent. While I wish I had more things to take back with me after the time spent in the course, I did remember some very important things about working with my students that I needed to hear again.

It has been a long time since I was able to take advantage of the free continuing music therapy education courses (CMTEs) offered during the AMTA conference. I signed up for two of them - Music Therapy Interventions with Children with Autism and Ethics, Music Therapy, and Spirituality. They are separated by 8 hours of napping, watching television, developing new ideas for the website and business, and working on my own presentations. I may spring for a room service pizza later - who knows! After dinner, I'll go down to talk ethical thought. It will be past my bedtime, but I think I'll be able to stay awake (especially if I get that nap that I really want right now!).

 I'm dealing with small anxiety moments - mainly associated with specific people - in a variety of ways. Some of the ways are mature - others, not so much. I am looking forward to having time to be alone. The "Privacy Please" tag is in the door lock, so I am going to try my best to do some relaxing in a place where I know I won't run into anyone. I have some snacks, too!

 Cathy Knoll gave me some things to think about and some inspiration as well - things to offer other music therapists. I have all the materials I need to work on those projects, so I know what I'll be doing (after I review my presentations) - creative stuff! I love it!!
 


Time to nap - keep an eye out here. I'll write more occasionally. Here are some pictures of some of the things I've seen so far...
I'm also keeping an eye out for SMU students who need selfies... Haven't met any yet, but the conference hasn't started yet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sing A Song Sunday - The Time Change Song (Fall)

It's the time of year where most of us here in the states get to fall back one hour. This is a wonderful time as it gives us a chance to get an extra hour of sleep and to reset our internal clocks to be in sync with the earth's rotation a bit more than we are during the summer. I love this time of year and really dread moving to Daylight Savings in the Spring. Today' song is directed towards choir members and can be found here . There is also a spring version, and I'm sure I'll post a link to that one next year when we [shudder] spring forward yet again... Here is a YouTube video of a guy singing the song. I'm so very sorry for the pitch, but at least he's out there trying his best. Yipes. Anyway, the song itself is based on a hymn composed in 1907 by John Hughes. The words are by Dean McIntyre and were written in 1995. I find the song a bit tongue-in-cheek, but they give me a giggle every time I read them, so enjoy!! Sorry for the lack of diagram
Read more

Being An Internship Director: Why I Do Very Little Active Recruitment

Image
I am not someone who participates in every single internship fair or makes ads for my internship program to put on social media. I do not feel an obligation to anyone to fill all of the openings that I have every year. I operate on a "if you build it, they will come" type of viewpoint. I figure that the interns who are meant to be with me will find me. As a result, I do very little active recruitment. I will be part of the AMTAS Virtual Internship Fair this upcoming Sunday. I am not really expecting too many applications coming from this meeting, but I am interested in how it is going to be run. I decided to sign up because I want to see what others are doing and offering out there. So, this Sunday, I will be sitting in front of my computer, listening to what others share about their internships. One of the things that I like about being a National Roster Internship Director is that I have the ability to decide how many interns and when those interns work with me. I occasiona
Read more

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea
Read more