Thinking of the Future Through a Different Lens

Over these past two weeks (the amount of time that I've been doing a different type of work schedule), I've been thinking about what I'm going to be doing in the future. I am an internship director, and I am contemplating what sorts of things I need to prepare future interns to do in a post-coronavirus world.

Before all this started, I didn't focus on the thought of telehealth therapy at all. It wasn't a consideration in my particular job, and I don't like spending tons of time editing and recording videos, so I really just ignored the need for these types of thoughts in my training program.

No more.

It has become evident that we need to be thinking about this since it has happened and many of us have been scrambling to figure out what this entire type of therapy is and what we can and should be doing.

Now, my thoughts are still jumbled together and not really clear yet, but this blog is a place where I work through my thoughts, so here I go.

It is evident that we music therapists have to realize that situations such as these are possible - I mean, duh, right? I don't think that posting a video of my singing a song is music therapy, though. I think that we need to have those sorts of resources, but I do not think we can call them music therapy if they are just posted on YouTube without a therapist-client relationship occurring. I am perfectly capable of posting myself singing songs, but so is every other person out there. My training as a music therapist does not make me more qualified to post videos of myself singing than other people out there. So, just making a video is perfectly fine, but it does not qualify for my definition of what music therapy is. It does not allow for personalization of the music experience or working on specific goals for specific people.

Yet, I am going to be doing some of these videos. Why? There is room in my life as a music therapist and a musician for non-therapy musical interaction. So, this is something that I can do right now that doesn't take up any sort of resource other than my time. It is part of my self-care and will provide a product for other people. If no one else listens, my dad will!

I am so much more comfortable calling livestream sessions music therapy. That satisfies my need for a relationship to occur to make this way of interacting be music therapy. I know that there are problems with how technology changes the interaction, but this is so much more like what I think music therapy is. There are opportunities for interaction with a client - the music can be changed in the moment to accommodate the needs of specific clients.

Right now, I am trying to figure out how to get my future interns to think more about this type of interaction. I don't have a way for them to interact in a telehealth situation with my clientele, but I can figure out some way to start building their repertoire for when this type of thing happens again or so they can offer more and more opportunities for clients all over the place.

This is now a reality, and it is one that I am trying to think through.

Well, for now, I am going to work on a new file for my Teachers Pay Teachers store and maybe something to post for my dad...