Friday - Quiet Day for Contemplation

It is Friday again. The wind is blowing from the east (it seems). It is getting really hot out here - one thermometer said 95 degrees Fahrenheit and the other one on my way home said 102 degrees. My allergies are horrible as things are blooming, growing, flourishing, and blowing around. I am on every single medication that I take, and my nose is STILL running, I am hoarse, and I cannot take a full breath without coughing, sneezing, or THE MOST FUN OF ALL doing both at the same time.

Today is a day off from work. That's a good thing. I am sitting here, in pajamas, getting ready for a day of nothing. It is also payday, so I will pay my bills, but that's all I have to do. I can sleep all day, if I want to. I want to do a paint pouring project (my first ever) today, so that's something that I will try as I am in between naps.

On one of my social media posts, I saw a job post for a part-time music therapist at the facility where I did my music therapy internship. I interviewed for two jobs as a music therapist at that facility, but I did not take either as they were unable to meet my financial responsibilities at the time. Music therapy apparently died out at the facility, but they are starting it up again. This makes me simultaneously happy and sad for many reasons.

When I was an intern, way back in the last century, there were three full-time music therapists and two interns in the music therapy department of this facility. We all had full caseloads seeing daily classroom groups, seeing individuals at least twice per week, and doing all the other things that music therapists do. I worked under the supervision of all three music therapists, and also worked with two other interns.

They now want a part-time music therapist. I am glad that there is an awareness of the benefits of music therapy at the facility, but I am very sad that they have not continued the strong tradition of music therapy that I experienced way, WAY back. I hope the facility will continue to offer positions and build up the department again.

My internship supervisors, Sheryl Kelly, Mary Goldenetz, and Angie Powell-Bollier, turned me into a music therapist.

When I went to my internship, at the Children's Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies in Phoenix, AZ, I was a typical music therapy student. I had been to all the classes. I had finished my clinical practica, and I was ready to take on the music therapy world! Those three music therapists shaped my student enthusiasm into the skills needed to be a therapist. I wasn't there (to therapist status) when I walked in, but I sure was when I walked out of that 6 months! I was challenged, I was supported, I was made part of the team, and it was the making of me. They made me the best therapist that I could be, and they supported me as a music therapy individual before we had things like individual internship agreements or competency-based education and clinical training. I got what I needed and my fellow interns got what they needed to complete our education as music therapists.

This is what I strive to do with the interns who arrive at my facility. I try my best to make sure that each intern is supported, challenged, and heard while they are in my setting. As each intern is different, each internship is different as well. The legacy that I experienced in my internship program lives on at my facility, about 1000 miles away from where it started.

I admit that I would love to go back to CCNS, but I know that I am way too expensive for them now. I also know that things would not be the same, but the nostalgia wins out and I keep dreaming! I wonder what the rest of the music therapy world is like in Phoenix right now... I know that there is not as much humidity and things growing out there - attractive thought at the moment as I am sneezing my head off and am hoping to crawl back to bed. 

Happy Friday, all. I hope that you have some nostalgia creep into your life to remind you of happy times.

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