music, therapy, and me

I have been unable to write the past two days. I'm not exactly sure why, but I know that I have been a bit preoccupied by the sheer stupidity of things happening out in the world. There are times when outside concerns take over my attention and push me down. I have also had some back problems lately that have also made me inwardly focused. The outward pull and the inward push have taken over my attention and have made it difficult to do much of anything, but I have made it to work and done my job. I am currently debating whether I want to take a later morning, and I think I will. I think I will try my best to go to work and get there on time rather than early. I have already worked more than my contracted hours this week, so I can do a regular day. When I am in these types of moods there are several things that I have to do. The first is to block political messages from my social media feeds. Lots of friends will be going on 30 day breaks. The constant calls for action make me feel...

So, I was driving home on Friday afternoon, and I passed two dead armadillos by the side of the road - they were about five miles apart, and I just started singing about them. I'll post the song somewhere, but it is just an absurd little dirge that popped into my head. That's how music happens for me. Things that endure pop into my head and stick there. I sang the song to my sister, and it stuck in her head as well, but she isn't singing the right melody yet. I will have to sing the dirge to her several more times until it sticks. I doubt that I will ever use the song in music therapy, but it fulfilled something for me. The lyrics are simple - Flat armadillo, flat armadillo, flat armadillo, flat armadillo by the side of the road. I also played around with some lyrics, but I didn't develop it any more. There are times when things just don't need to be developed into a therapeutic music experience. They just are. I haven't been taking the time to sing lately. I wi...

It is Saturday again, and I am two hours away from a video meeting with a friend who is also a music therapist and four hours away from getting a new tire. In that time, I have to blog, shower, clean out the car, and eat something for breakfast. I had some homework to do before meeting, and I did it, but I decided that my health will not allow me to do what I want to do. It involves an evening class that I just will not be able to do due to my work and medication schedules. After the response to later medication ingestion from the past two weeks, I know that I cannot dedicate six weeks of late night Tuesdays that will affect my early morning Wednesdays, but I did write out my responses to the application questions. That helped me think about what I want to do next. Are you ready? I want to do everything I possibly can to support music therapists, students, and interns in doing their jobs. This has always been my mission - for my website, for my business, for everything that I am passio...

Yesterday was a challenging day. Not because of clients - they were just what I expect from my clients - but the staff and the universe conspired against me - AGAIN! I was called to the principal's office to discuss an event that happened during my Tuesday sessions. I have a client who is targeting me and new staff who do not understand that the reason that he is targeting me is to get attention from a preferred staff member who is not in the session anymore - for some reason unknown to the teachers in this school. When the preferred staff member arrives, this client will stop engaging in targeting me and will sit next to the preferred staff member. I have requested that this staff member stop engaging with the client during his outbursts and instead attend to all the students who are engaging appropriately. I have asked this staff member over and over again to not reinforce the attacks by paying attention to the client. Anyway, this client attacked me on Tuesday - hit me in the fa...

Here it is... Yet another Wednesday, and I don't have a writing plan. I really hate when I do not have a plan. My brain craves structure. I like planning, and being without a plan causes stress in my life. Add in the fact that this is Wednesday, I am perpetually exhausted, and I really don't want to go to work today, and this day is not going the way I want it to. It was hard to get up, and I am going to take a later than usual day. So, a website for Wednesday... Have you all checked out Bear Paw Creek ?  Bear Paw Creek is a music and movement focused company that produces movement props. Janet Stephens, the owner, is the sister of a music therapist, and started making these props to help music therapists (and others, but let's be serious - this is a music therapy blog, so...) tote things around. Starting with bags, Janet moved into making other props as well - scarves, balloon balls, body bands. I do not get any sort of financial recompense for sending you to Bear Paw Cre...

Here I sit - again - staring at a blinking cursor on my computer screen as I scramble for something to write about. You know what? I am just going to go back to what I know the best - talking about writing therapeutic music experiences (TMEs and my selection for what to call what I do with my clients during sessions) and making sure that others can replicate those TMEs with their clients. So, TME Tuesday is returning - at least for today. I will try to make this a thing, but my brain is not tracking themes for writing very well at the moment. (It is now on a super-sticky post-it note on my monitor - that usually helps - super-sticky post-its are a wonderful invention for my brain and organizational needs!)   It has been some time since I created something completely new, from scratch, and then written it down so I could replicate it. I tend to engage in lots of improvisation in my work, but those songs just evaporate when I try to write them down. As such, I have to write things do...