music, therapy, and me

Not many words today - lots of pictures!! Join us at 2026 Creativity Camp - link to registration and all the details here . 

Today is a lazy Sunday. I spent my Friday engaged in music therapy resource creation, my Saturday in actively avoiding anything other than sorting materials and clearing carpet, and now it is Sunday. Today's plans include a shower, washing bedding, a movie at the local theater, and spending some more time with music therapy stuff. I have to arrange my first-ever full conference scheduled for the second weekend in August. That is something that is zapping my energy right now. I have cleared some spaces in my home which has helped a bit with my attitude. Basically, I shifted piles from here to there, but I also went through those piles and started the sorting process. I want to get materials sorted into zones in my house. Instruments in one location, visuals in another, books in yet another. You know what I mean. This morning is something that I treasure. After working as a church music director for 26 years, it has only taken me 2 years to start to treasure my Sunday mornings. No mo...

I spent a good part of yesterday putting together three projects as well as the task analyses for those projects in preparation for Creativity Camp 2026 . It was fun to create things to share with others, and I have three more projects to complete to get ready for Camp. I like it when I feel that I have made some progress towards reaching the end of my quests. Today's quest is to make a difference in the upstairs portion of my home. There is laundry to put away, dishes to wash, carpets to vacuum, and all of that cannot be started until some of the music therapy materials are stacked and sorted. Before all of that can happen, though, I have to go pick up my grocery order and get the food put away. I will also need to eat as I keep moving through my to-do list. I am feeling kinda jumpy and twitchy today. I don't know why, but my back itches, and I just keep having muscle twinges in my arms. I don't know if this is a reaction to my summer SAD or if I am just overwhelmed and th...

This is the most challenging season for me, and it makes it difficult to get motivated to do ANYTHING! I am getting ready for a large life change (retirement, here I come, kicking and screaming and trying to pretend that I know what I'm doing) that is adding stressor after stressor after stressor. My brain is struggling with all sorts of things, so I am taking out my self-care and brain sparking routines to help me get started on some creative projects. When I find myself in a creativity slump, the only thing that really works to get me feeling inspired or remotely interested in composing or drawing or making things for my music therapy clinic is to create using rules. The rules are arbitrary, made up by me, and something that I can break at any time if inspiration takes hold. I have found that my rules for creating help me break out of a stagnant state. When I am in need of some new songs, I break out my composition kit and my rules. Chance composition is the best technique for me...

One of my favorite movies is called Bowfinger . It stars Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy (in a dual role), Christine Baranski, Heather Graham, and a bunch of other people. There is time when one of Eddie's characters is experiencing a crisis brought on by the rest of them, and he is talking to his spiritual leader. He has established a mantra of "Keep it together," which becomes an acronym for him and is also his name - easy to remember. "Keep it together, keep it together, K-I-T, keep it together." Since I love this movie, this has become one of my mantras over the years. I love it because it reminds me of something I love as well as gives me something to think about and hold onto during times that challenge me. This is one of those times. I am entering a time of year that is usually pretty difficult for me to navigate. I am not fond of the summer months where I live. I tend to have more depression symptoms during the summer months than the winter months, and this y...

When I was in my undergraduate training, learning how to be a music therapist for the first time, we did all sorts of data collection during our clinical practica. We did time sampling and frequency counts and all sorts of mathematical processes to interpret the data that we took. As a graduate student, I had to delve deeper into data analysis. Data drove everything in those environments, and there is a role in my current job, but it is not as difficult as it was when I was in school. Here are some setting details: I am an educational enrichment therapist. This means that I see every student in the school for an hour a week. I do not do eligibility assessments, formal assessments, or carry any IEP goals. All students have music therapy whether they want it or not. All of the goals and objectives that I carry are internal rather than formal. Most of the music therapy sessions are groups. Individuals are rare these days. Okay. Now that you know where I am coming from, let me explain how ...