My Longest Hiatus in Quite a While - Getting Back Together

Oh, dear. This has been a long writing break, and I really don't like all that time without adding to this blog. I will be getting back into my routine (I hope), but first, let me catch you up on what is going on out here.

Wednesday - snow day #3 due to very cold temperatures here. I ended up with the flu at the end of the day. The cat has arthritis which requires weekly shots and lots of medications. Canceled choir because of the flu.
Thursday - more flu. 
Friday - a little less flu and the start of the Online Conference for Music Therapy 2019. 
Saturday - more and more of the Online Conference for Music Therapy 2019, exhaustion - no more flu (hooray) but start of yet another infection which will mean specialist appointments and probes and ugh. Fall into bed at 7pm.
Today - waken at 3am and start the day. Catch up on OCMT 2019 emails and start getting ready for work and for this week.

So, now that we are all caught up, let me try to get back into my routine of writing about music, therapy, and me.

This will NOT be a Song Conversion Sunday. I am not able to concentrate on my selected song because my brain is still buzzing from the conference yesterday.

I am a bit frazzled by some of the presentations that I watched yesterday - feeling the way I used to feel after every presentation - that I am seriously lacking in skill and purpose. There are some wonderful things happening in the world of music therapy, and I got to hear about many of them! This type of thought process happens to me (less so now than it did when I was a younger therapist, but I am still prey to this type of erroneous thought), and it takes some time to get out of that type of thinking into more productive conceptualization.

I always tell therapists that their story is important to share with others. Many times, we fall into the trap of thinking that what we have to talk about is not important because of the wonderful things that others are talking about - things we haven't thought about in our own lives. I've found that there are just as many people out there who are interested in what I am doing in my small part of the music therapy world as there are people that interest me. My ideas may not be research projects, but they are still valuable to me, and to others.

The trick to all of this is to focus on what makes you happy - and then talk about that! I like developing ideas and therapeutic music experiences and composition and encouraging creativity. I celebrate when I get to share therapeutic music experiences with clients who show evidence of learning, growth, and goal achievement. I love competency-based clinical training and organization tips to help music therapists work smarter, not harder. I revel in watching other therapists find ways to understand difficult concepts. This is what I love about being a music therapist, so this is what I tend to share with others.

What about music therapy makes you happy? Your passion is your story, and I want to hear it!