music, therapy, and me

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was to go to camp. I went to day camp, overnight camp, science camp, Bible camp, sports camp, horse camp - you name it! There was something quite nice about leaving home to spend time outside. I was a camper, but where I REALLY loved camping was when I was a camp aide or counselor. I loved the summer that I spent in the Ozarks, being a camp counselor. I would still be doing that during summers if I hadn't become really sick and unable to return due to a lung fungus (sounds fun, doesn't it?? It wasn't!). Anyway, I have often wanted to work at a camp of some sorts, but music therapy came up and took over my professional goals. This is kinda where the impetus is behind today's Creativity Camp - my desire to be camping and also being around people. Creativity Camp is the type of camping that I like the best now - inside and not in the lung fungus inducing humidity! Today, I will be meeting with some music therapists to make ...

This weekend is my second ever Creativity Camp designed to challenge my fellow music therapists to design and use visual aids to supplement client goals. This is a passion project for me - something that I have dreamed about for many years, tried out once, and now have the time to focus on more and more. So, I am trying this again - the second ever Creativity Camp by musictherapyworks.com! The best part about this camp is that it is something I can do here from my own home. No bugs. No heat emergencies (I'm prone). No humidity that just does not go away. I am looking forward to this weekend, but camp is not the only thing that I am creating these days. I have found several completed projects and other unfinished projects. Finding things that I have started spurs my creative impulses and makes me think about how to finish these projects and send them out into the world. I have some resources that were designed by others - mostly files from TPT - that I have songs to add to the visua...

My sister, a second grade teacher currently on summer break, is a great resource for all sorts of things. Currently, she is helping me come up with ideas for my upcoming Creativity Camp session. Her brain works from a different perspective than mine because she has different life experiences than I do. Her experiences at professional conferences is vastly different from mine. There are so many more education professionals, so their conferences are vast compared to our music therapy conferences. She has left conferences with iPods and enough dry erase boards to cover her bulletin boards. Her experience with what can happen at conferences or professional gatherings is different from my own, so her perspectives are valuable to me and challenge me to do things better than my experiences. I completed all of my projects, an errand to switch my retirement accounts over to a new IRA, and received my car registration in the mail. I still need to uncover my desk and get things ready for camp on ...

Wednesday is one day in the week where I write something not necessarily based on a theme. I give myself this time on Wednesdays and Saturdays to just write without the need to offer music therapy information. It is a bit like a timeline cleanse for me, and here goes today's effort in just being me. It has been three weeks since my last day of formal work outside my home. Since that time, I have tried my best to figure out what I want to do with my time and energy, and it is a continuing process. I am also starting to get an itch that I need to have a job. I am resisting that itch until September at the earliest because I need to be bored before I can start up again. Meanwhile, I am working on my own music therapy projects for my small business - conferences, services, website revamp, etc. It is strange to have only errands and appointments that take me out of my house these days. I was able to make an appointment at 9 am yesterday without having to submit a time off request. I wen...

One of the things that I wish I had learned way back when I was an undergraduate is the skill of thinking through therapeutic music experiences from an ergonomic perspective. Not just what will I do for my clients, but how will I preserve my joints and body as I am interacting with clients? This has become more of a consideration as I have aged, but it would have been good to be thinking about this more as a young music therapist so I could preserve my knees and back. I am a big fan of only taking in what I absolutely need in a session with multiple options for how to use those things in many different ways. Since this is something I think about, it has become a consideration when I am developing my session strategies. When I had a music therapy room where my clients came to me, this was less of a concern. Now, since I am no longer clinic-based, this will become more of a focus when I am designing sessions. Of course, I am not sure that I will be working with clients in my near future,...

It is Monday again, and I am sitting here, looking around my messy office space, and wondering what I will write about today. I didn't make much this weekend, but I did continue working on current projects. I have stitched in the signatures to the winter and turtle books (somewhat crookedly, to be sure - have to disguise/camouflage that in some way) and am starting to put in the signatures to the Christmas book. It is time to decorate books now, so I am going to look around for some turtley things. I already have plenty of winter stuff and Christmas stuff is always easily found. I did make a shelf. I am a fan of all things Disney, and one of the ways that has manifested is purchasing Doorables. If you don't know what I'm talking about - just look at the photo here. They are small characters in a particular style, and I love them! I had them in a small wooden house that I have had in my home for many years, but it was difficult to see them as they were all crammed together. ...