music, therapy, and me

It is almost time. In 11 hours and 15 minutes, the 16th Online Conference for Music Therapy will start, and it will be a 24 hour, international experience where we discuss music therapy all over the world. This is a labor of love for me - one that I got into completely by accident but that I continue because I enjoy it so much. I am doing less of the actual conference work than I ever have before. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. I will only be the primary moderator for one session - at the very end. I am the second moderator for four sessions. Gone are the days when I had to be at every session - thank goodness! I work lots behind the scenes of the conference, so having a bit of a break from being on camera is a very good thing for me. It allows me to respond to the countless emails about "I didn't know that the conference started at my time," and "where are the links to the conference" emails that I am bombarded with during the conference itself. The...

I was the recipient of a cough in the face yesterday. This happens when you work with humans, and especially when you work with kids, so it is not unusual, but I felt this one brush the hair on my arms and move up my body into my mouth. I tried to blow the germs away (very effective, I know), but I am not sure that I was able to fend off the germs wafting all around me. I have already had the flu once this season, and I would REALLY like to avoid the experience a second time! Two of my students (in two different sessions) looked sick yesterday. They were flushed and juicy, and I am just waiting for the note from nursing stating that they should not be around others. The thing is, working in a residential facility means that any germs will go through the entire community - clients, staff, teachers, therapists, and back again. It is not a pretty picture. Next year, at this time, I will be elsewhere, dealing with the germ culture someplace at that location - wherever it may be. Germs are ...

I am an old music therapist. I am getting ready to retire from my full-time job as a school-based music therapist in a psychiatric treatment facility and associated day school after almost 30 years there. I have been around a long time. My music therapy heroes are starting to pass away. Barbara Wheeler was one of those music therapy heroes who left this world this week. After a long career in academia, she "retired" and started more music therapy programs and acted as a consultant for programs around the world. She seemed to spend more time with other music therapists than she did at home, and that is the type of music therapy life that I am striving for myself. Another music therapy pioneer passed away. Dr. Roy Grant, a music therapist from Georgia, also left our world on January 24th. His music therapy legacy comes in training students and expanding music therapy services for the people in the vicinity of the University of Georgia. Coming to the profession of music therapy ...

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...