music, therapy, and me

Y'all, I FINALLY got to see my Monday groups, and they were not having it!  I forgot that my Monday groups are usually ones who struggle with being in music therapy - the "I'm too cool for everything" adolescents. You know the ones - they just sit and stare. No active interaction, slouching in their chairs, and not wanting to work or play or do anything that might ruin their reputations. I can usually con them into interaction in one way or another, and yesterday was no exception. By the end of the session, they were playing instruments and making some noise as part of a dragon parade.  That session led into two others back-to-back that were also not really feeling the whole Monday thing. No one was engaging in behaviors of concern, but no one was really engaged in what I was dishing out either. I do not think that today's groups will be any different. I am in a strange place in my life that I have never been before. I am on the cusp of leaving the daily interacti...

It's back - the reason why I no longer participate so much in the greater music therapy community - people squawking about things that are outside what I feel is the purview of music therapy and then shaming anyone who dares to present a different viewpoint. I view this as the Politicization of music therapy, and it is something that I do not appreciate from the greater music therapy population in general. There are so many bullies out there on social media, and when you try to call them out, they go into devastation mode bringing their bully buddies into the conversation. Currently, it seems the bullies are calling out anyone who dares to provide any sort of commentary that contradicts or asks for clarification about the current bully trends. As far as I can tell, the current issue seems to have started with someone who objected to the use of profanity in a specific post and now has morphed into a criticism of anyone who objects to assertions about politics and therapy. I am tryin...

'Tis the season for MJ to be a bit scattered and overwhelmed! This is the week before the Online Conference for Music Therapy , and I am the treasurer and continuing education director for the conference. Right now, I am getting emails sent out to people from all over the world, and I am fielding questions from all sorts of folks about all sorts of situations! In addition, I just saw a position that I would enjoy doing, so I am thinking about applying. The worst case scenario is that I would not get the job, so why not try?? I have some time to get things together, but I would have to become a member again of an organization that I have stepped away from. Ugh. I have some time to think about this situation, but not much. This tends to be my busiest time of year - OCMT and everything else just seems to show up at this time. If I need to do something in an urgent manner, it will happen during OCMT week. It is pretty funny to note that there are 51 other weeks in the year, but I end u...

Today will be the last bit of my Paid Time Off due to the need to get some CT scans done to see what is going on with my liver and my kidneys. This is not my favorite thing to do, but that's okay. It has to be done. So, I am sitting here, awash in medical anxiety, and entering my "nothing by mouth" phase of all of this. I have some errands that I need to do in town before and after my tests, and I am not sure if I will be going to work at all today - that will depend on my reaction after the test. The last time I had a CT scan, I fell in the waiting room - just toppled over - thanks, balance disorder! I may not make the window of my realistic time for driving an hour to work before driving another hour home for just working an hour or so. We will see what happens later. I only have one therapy group, one leisure group, and one individual session on Fridays. The rest of the time is my dedicated planning/preparation time. I usually make file folder activities for our classr...

I forgot to take my medications last night until about 2 hours later than usual. These are my big, pain relief, nerve dulling medications that affect my sleep, awareness, and response time, so it is a pretty big deal when I forget them. I opened my eyes when the alarm light turned on at 4am, but I also did not get out of bed until almost 5am. My brain is still fuzzy, and my eyes don't focus right until the medication starts to wear off. So, that means that today will be an even later day. Today is a four-group day. Three of my four groups have already been with me this week, so I have to come up with something new for them to do when they are in the music therapy session. The other group is my once-per-week group, so they haven't explored any of the things that I have available right now - yet. So, the first thing that I have to do is to figure out what I am going to do with my clients. They went through a series of silly songs with me on Tuesday, so I am thinking I will bring ...

I did not want to get up. This seems to be a recurring theme on this blog at the moment, so forgive me when I try to pick this apart right now. I did not want to get up. I wanted to sleep as much as I could, but the clock and the alarm light insisted that it was 4am, and time to get going. So I did. Wasn't happy about it, but I got up. I played some phone games while in bed first, but I did eventually rise from my warm, cozy bed to sit at my computer and compose some of my thoughts. We had a snow day on Monday, but that day started with early morning panic and anxiety rather than coziness. I got up just fine yesterday and got to work 30 minutes before my report for duty time. Today is a different story. This is my typical Tuesday feeling, and it came right on time for yet another 4 day work week. I haven't seen one of my groups for six weeks now, and I find that I am missing them. I see all of my other Monday groups on Wednesdays, so I am not missing those clients - we are stil...