music, therapy, and me

Today is the day before one of the biggest things I have attempted solo in my small business journey - the day before a brand new conference! To say that I am thrilled, terrified, and absolutely counting on this experience becoming something that I just do from now on is an understatement. I am hoping that things will go off without a hitch, but I have contingency plans -- just in case! If this was a physical conference where we were going to sit in the same room and do things, then there would be many more things to coordinate, but this is an online conference so there isn't that much to do before things get started tomorrow morning. That is the benefit of doing online conferences, most of the work is done before the conference starts and then you go into monitoring mode. This will be the first conference where I am acting without a group helping out. That is a bit concerning, but like I said, I have contingency plans. This is where being part of the Online Conference for Music Th...

I have been a professional music therapist, board certified, for 33 years now, so I feel like I have earned the title "Vintage Music Therapist." Having a bit of perspective that comes with being something and somewhere in a profession leads me to spend time thinking about all things music, therapy, and me. I spend lots of time thinking about music therapists and clinical interactions with the clients who come before us all. I am also part of many music therapy social media groups, threads, and what have you, so I see all sorts of things that happen in the clinical world outside of my own experience. One of the biggest difficulties with our profession at this time is one that has challenged us forever. It is the mismatch between where music therapists want to exist and where jobs are available. For many years, I have told interns that there are jobs available in this field, but those jobs are not always exactly where the interns want to be located. Professionals either have to...

Ah. Today is deadline day, and I did NOT do any composing yesterday. My self-imposed deadline is gonna whoosh on by me unless I get going on it!  That's the problem with having no outside influences working on my deadlines. The only person who knows that I want to release things on the 5th and the 22nd is me -- well, and now you. I picked these dates randomly so there is no reason why I have to stick to those calendar dates other than I like structure to my days and my life. There you go. So, since I did not do my composition work yesterday, it is waiting for me today. I did manage to complete my other priority tasks on my planner entry, but composition just did not occur. I did not just fritter my time away, however. I sorted my permanent markers and put them into color sets into bags. I am feeling good about getting some of my stuff rearranged and sorted. That has freed up a little bit of space down here, and I am looking forward to getting more space to move and relax. Don't...

I have to write several songs today. I have a self-imposed and totally arbitrary deadline of tomorrow for sing about october , and I have a couple of ideas that need songs to go with them. It is time to get to the keyboard and start to write songs. I have the rough ideas started already. I used my project book for brainstorming and came up with several new ideas for the month. Now it is time to put the finishing touches on the edition and release it out into the world. This is the part of being a music therapist that I love the best right now - writing songs and finding things to do with those songs that support typical goals and objectives of clients from all sorts of populations! There is something really satisfying about writing music for clinical application that just fills my cup. I will grab my songwriting kit (more about that kit here ) because my composition process always starts by writing songs using a pencil and paper of some sort. I will sit down with the keyboard and just ...

This weekend was mostly spent in bed, but I did accomplish a weekend challenge from one of my Facebook groups. Every weekend, one of the group members posts a challenge for us to create. This weekend's challenge was a Christmas-themed challenge, and I decided to participate. We had to figure out something with paper that included the following: envelopes, Santa, a holiday saying, glitter (nope for me), and lace. We could replace one of the elements with a button, so I took out the glitter part because I am hopeless with glitter. Here is what I created...  This is an envelope that I made out of cardstock. I covered all of the flaps with scrapbook paper, added some paper lace die-cuts, a picture of Santa, and a holiday sentiment. It is a fancy gift card holder that I will give to our family friend, Mary, this Christmas. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The entire thing folds into the envelope shape and is held together by the string which wraps around the button on the front...

Sunday comes around about every seven days, and here it is again. I didn't write last Sunday - I don't remember why - so I am here for this week's version of Just a Song Sunday , and I think I have a good topic today... For as long as I have had the means to do so, I have made playlists. Now, when I started, it was taping the radio onto a cassette tape, but now I can curate playlists from various sources to match every mood that I bring and that represents every client that comes to music therapy. It is an ongoing project, to be sure, but it is wonderful to have all sorts of songs at my literal fingertips. The power contained in playlists is not something that should be underestimated. In fact, one of my music therapy heroes (total fangirl here!), Jennifer Buchanan, has a book all about the power of playlists. It's called Wellness, Well Played: The Power of a Playlist  and discusses how playlists enhance our lives. I love Jennifer - she is a dynamic music therapist from...