Being an Observer...Again

I am relegated to being an observer in music therapy these days. My junior intern has taken over full responsibility for her caseload and my senior intern has two weeks left of her time with us. It is my time to observe and be an evaluator rather than a therapist.

This switch from being therapist to being a mentor/observer/evaluator is one of the essential roles of supervising music therapist, but it is the most difficult for me. I love being a music therapist - it is what keeps me interested in this profession after 26 years - and being the person in the corner who is always writing things down is not my preferred role. I want to be leading the groups and the individual sessions, but that's not my role at the moment. My role is to watch.

Now, do not fret for me, friends. I do not have an intern for April or for June, so I will get to do therapy for a long and extended period of time coming up after Spring Break. I enjoy interns, but I don't actively recruit for my open positions. There is really no benefit for me in having interns other than the professional challenges and the learning that I receive when working with persons with diverse backgrounds and education. So, I figure that I will get the interns that I am supposed to get and they will find me when they need me. If I don't have all positions filled all the time, that's perfectly fine with me - it means that I get to be therapist, something that I really need to be. So, you won't find me at internship fairs or posting links on social media for my internship program - I don't feel the need to do that to fill up all my intern spots. If spots are empty, then that's fine with me!

Back to being an internship director and an observer, a role that I don't always enjoy, but one that is really important...

I have developed a new observation form (SHAMELESS PLUG: in my Teachers Pay Teachers store for $1.00 if you are interested) that I am using to help me track intern competency development and to note progress on goals and objectives. It allows me to track instrument use, make note of other competencies, track professional goals and objectives, and make lots of comments. My junior intern is the first one who is using this feedback form, but it has really helped me focus my thoughts a bit on how to be an observer. Since I have now fully moved from a leadership role into a supervisory role, I will be using more of these sheets to offer suggestions, ideas, and guidance.

It is now time to get ready to go to work to sit and watch someone else lead therapy with our clients. I will become "the person who sits in the office" again pretty soon, but for now, I am just another person in the music therapy room - writing things on the clipboard and singing along with the songs, offering suggestions and listening carefully. 

It's time.