music, therapy, and me

I have one more day with kids before the official end of the 2024-2025 school year. Today is the end-of-the-school-year bash, and I have been very cranky about it in the last 24 hours. Before I get to that, though - Graduation went well. We had our usual spinning clients and technological issues, but it went well. After that, the "specialists" at our school (AKA the ones running the aforementioned bash) got together to start putting things together for the event tomorrow. That's where my stress began. I am in charge of the photo booth at this bash thing. I have arranged for the props and have started the backdrop for said booth. We have two, large, inflatable doo-hickeys coming this morning to be set up. Now, in the past, we have had difficulties with said doo-hickeys. They are not able to be run on the same electric line because they blow the breakers. They are never the size we expect, and we often have to rearrange things (like photo booths) after the inflatables arriv...

My regular therapy year is now over. "That" client behaved wonderfully in music therapy yesterday, and today is graduation day at my school.  It is scheduled to storm, which is typical for graduation day, but we gave up on the idea of having an outdoor ceremony MANY years ago since it kept storming on graduation day.  Two principals ago, administration insisted that we go outside, but storms kept that from happening. The current administration is perfectly happy to have the ceremony inside which is more than fine with me. I cannot figure out how to run electrical lines across wet grass safely, and I don't really want to have to do so. That is neither here nor there since we have FINALLY come to a mutual understanding that outside is not the place for graduation. We will celebrate our students today. We have ten young adults who are either aging out of our services or are moving from children's services to transition services. Some will stay with us for the next severa...

It is the last regular day of the 24-25 school year, and I am ready to have two weeks away from work. All I have to do is get through a session with "that" client before I am finished with music therapy for a little bit. I don't want to dwell on that because it just makes me anxious and upset, so off I go into the world of music therapy. I have six days before my family members descend upon me to provide support for my medical procedure in eight days. The house looks a bit better, but not great yet. There is still lots of work to do. Sheets are washed and on the two beds for the mom and aunt. I bought new towels and pillows yesterday. I still have too much stuff around my home. That's always my problem. Too much stuff. For today, I have no idea what I am going to do with most of my groups. We did choice time for most groups last week, so I have to come up with something to do while planning for the next two days. We have graduation and an end of the year bash to set u...

I am a creature of habit. I like structure, I like routine, and I like it when things progress the way I have planned for. I do not do well with surprises or with changes at the last minute - ESPECIALLY when those changes did not have to be last minute at all! For example, I have been told by people moving into my office space that I have to give up that office space, but my supervisor has not told me of this development at all. This is not how I like to operate. One email would confirm that I am moving from that space and consolidating into my other space, but no. That doesn't seem to happen all that often. It amazes me how little people think about the ripples that spread when they make decisions, and it also amazes me that we do not take the time to talk to the people that are caught up in those ripples. I am often stuck in the riptide caused by other people, and I often do not know why I am swirling around. Today, though, I have to put that aside and work on my home environment...

I am happy that it is finally Friday. This has been a week in the music therapy room, and I think I am getting to some solutions for "that" student who I do not have to see until Monday and then not for two weeks after that. Knowing that I have some things to try is a good feeling. I spent this morning stressing about making sure to get the payment for the gardener on the back window - thinking it was Saturday instead of Friday. I was disappointed when I realized it was Friday. That's nothing new, but it disappoints me every time. Today is my preparation day. I have decided that I will be working on my treasure hunt today while moving things from one storage room to my office space. I have to give that up - of course, my supervisor has not told me this yet - despite many different opportunities to do so - but it is better to move my own things than it is to find that someone else has done it. They never put things where I want them to go. Yesterday, I put things away in m...

Forgive me if I am repeating the same things over and over, but "that" client is starting to display patterns that I am going to use for developing therapeutic interactions. Basically, "that" client wants me to sing and play my guitar and nothing else. The problem with that?? Every other client in the room wants to play instruments and listen to music recordings! One client hits me when I am singing songs that are not preferred but does not tell me that - just hits me. We had a good session yesterday. For nineteen minutes. At the 19 minute mark, I turned on some music. As soon as I put my guitar down, "that" client started to escalate. Please note that nothing was being played at the moment. It wasn't the song, it was putting the guitar down that was the antecedent to the severe behavior of concern that occurred. Noted. The problem? "That" client is not the only client in the group therapy session. I cannot deny the other clients the opportun...