Tools That Make My Music Therapy Life a Bit Easier

I am on a constant quest to find ways to work smarter and not harder. I strive to figure out tips, techniques, or tricks that help me organize my materials, make more time for the things that I like the best about being a music therapist, and minimizing the time it takes to do things that I don't like about being a music therapist. As a result, I have collected and created lots of systems to keep myself going. Some of them have worked for me - others have not. So, I keep trying. I keep thinking of new ways to do things, I test them out, and then I evaluate them to see if the data supports the use of those ways (sound familiar to any of you music therapists out there??).

I am often asked how I find ideas for therapeutic music experiences, and my initial response is almost always to laugh because I don't really know. I don't have a system for finding ideas, they just come to me. My systems come into play when it is time to write things down so I can remember those ideas after the initial idea has arrived (if I don't use my systems, the ideas often leave me). The problem with trying to tell other people about my systems is that those same systems don't always work for other people, but I figure, if it works for me, it may work for someone else, so why not share?

So, in no particular order, here are some of the systems that I use to make my music therapy life a bit easier on me:
  • Bullet Journal - I know, this is one of the things that non-bullet journalers just don't understand, but my books help me so very much. I have a journal for my home time (I'm using the Passion Planner right now, and it really seems to work for me - I was initially skeptical, but no more!), I have a teacher planning book which I've converted a bit into my therapy planner, and I have a traveler's notebook for notes and ideas that is always in my purse. Between these three (yes, I have three) books, I find that I can keep track of tasks, ideas, session strategies, and all sorts of other information as well. I don't do any fancy decorations or anything other than using colors to indicate specific things. I am fully committed to the bullet journal way of life!
  • Data Collection Checklists - Most of my treatment sessions are groups, so I find that I have lots of documentation to do every week. Often, most of that documentation is repetitive. I have to complete 9 notes with the same information on therapeutic music experiences (TMEs), common goals, and indicating information (date, time, length of session, etc.). Rather than write these same bits of information over and over again, I've developed a checklist and a copy/paste system that decreases the amount of time significantly.
  • Session Strategy Sheets - This is a system that is always in flux. Currently, I do most of my strategizing in my head because I know my clients pretty well, but there are times when I have to engage in some more formal processes. So, I have a sheet for that! (It's in my Teachers Pay Teachers store - for FREE!) This sheet helps me organize the group goals, each individual's goals, my materials, treatment domains, and all the therapeutic music experiences that I can offer to my clients on one sheet! Right now, my file is in a pdf format, but I am working on a digital word document to release as well. I am also putting together a session strategy sheet for individual sessions, but that's not my current focus, so that goes in the ideas bullet journal for later consideration (all the systems work together!)!
  • TME database - Yep, I have lots of ideas already put together into a database that I use all the time. It has taken lots of time, but that time has been well spent. On those days when I am just not feeling very creative at all, I have a long list of TMEs at my fingertips (literally). I've written about this on this blog at least once a year (usually more than that), so if you are interested in learning more about my system here, look for posts that have the label TME Tuesday for some examples.
This is not an all-inclusive list of the systems that I use, but these are definitely the most important ones to my continued interest in music therapy. What types of systems do you use in your music therapy practice? Anything like these?? Let me know in the comments below!

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