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TME Tuesday: Practical Considerations When Designing TMEs

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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,...
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Make It Monday: Making Time to Be Creative

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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. ...
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Just A Song Sunday: The Elements of Music That I Pay Attention To in Sessions

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  As I go through my stuff here at home, I am reminded of the things that I have done with various instruments, materials, music. I remember specific clients who loved certain songs or certain instruments. I have the opportunity to find old things that have gone out of style with current clients, and I get to figure out new ways to use familiar objects. It is an interesting thing to revisit what has been important in your therapy life, and this is a season where I am doing just that. I started being interested in the ways we adapt music and musical elements during my graduate studies. In discussions with my fellow students, we determined that we did not often think about how we were changing the music to match our clients - we just did it. It seemed that we were missing out on opportunities by not really thinking about how we were using our primary therapeutic tool - the music. The fellow student that I talked to about this topic focused on the research to demonstrate how the eleme...
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Creativity Camp Is Coming!!

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Next week, at this time, I will be up early and stressing about hosting my second ever Creativity Camp. This is a passion project of mine - something that I have long wanted to do and FINALLY have the time, energy, and motivation to pursue. Thank goodness for being able to retire with my full pension after 30 years of working as a full-time music therapist!! So, here comes Creativity Camp!! You may be wondering about this entire thing and why this is what I am doing right now, so here comes an explanation... Growing up, my family was comfortable. My mom was a stay-at-home mom until I was 11. My dad was a plant manager for several plastics companies in the 70s and 80s. We had stable housing and enough to eat, wear, and do. We were not rich, but we were stable.  As kids, we did not get everything that we wanted when we wanted it. We had less "things" than many of our friends, but again, our family was stable. Mom and Dad were together, and it was a safe upbringing. My mother wa...
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Fun Friday After a Sleepy Thursday

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It is 6:38 am, and there is a bird chirping loudly and repetitively outside my home. We had a thunderstorm this morning, so everything is wet and somewhat cool outside. There may be more storms in the near future, so I guess the bird is just communicating as much as possible before the next round shows up. I am feeling like I am being a slacker right now, not working, and trying my best not to engage in these feelings of uselessness and FOMO. I want to spend some time upstairs today, sorting through and cleaning up my stuff. I have storage items coming tomorrow to help with that process. I want to be able to walk around my upstairs without having to step over things. I also need to spend some time on marketing and printing out materials for Creativity Camp which will happen next weekend. I also need to take a shower and make my bed with clean sheets. Lots of things I need to do. We will see how much I actually get done today. Yesterday was spent mostly in napping. I worked a bit on one...
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Thoughtful Thursday: Thunderstorms and Not Feeling Guilty About Leaving

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It is thundering this morning, and I am glad. I like storms as long as they don't come along with tornadoes, and this one seems to be just a regular storm. I am guessing that my mowers won't be coming today, but I will put their check on the door as usual, just in case.  I am experiencing some issues surrounding the fact that I am not at work while all my co-workers are working right now, but I am also enjoying my time alone. This changes from moment to moment. My life has changed significantly in the past two weeks. I no longer sing for adolescents. I sit at a computer and try to make things for music therapists to use and sing with their adolescents. I miss the human interaction, but not enough to consider going back. I felt a creative itch last night. I wanted to make something, but I had some decision fatigue and avoidance coming on, so I asked my mom and sister for some themes. I ended up being challenged to make a winter themed journal and a turtle themed journal. I put...
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Wednesday Woes - Trying Something

It is day 13 of my retirement journey, and I looked at job opportunities this morning. I didn't do anything other than look, but I was feeling the itch of "you're not doing anything." I am trying my best to not do much as far as employment goes for the next six weeks before looking seriously. The root of this itch is having to pay for tires yesterday (my car needs EXPENSIVE tires).  I didn't think about my former job until 3pm yesterday, but I woke up thinking about it all. I am curious about who is there now, but I don't want to be creepy about it all. I also am happy to be at home at the moment, but I want to also be around people doing something useful. It is strange being able to do what I want when I want. It is also strange to not be making music in the company of other humans right now. I have found that I am enjoying listening to music a bit more than I did before. I have put my stereo on CD rather than on my Kindle because trips do not take as much ti...
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