music, therapy, and me

The Archives (Let me just say, I know I am a nerd!) I just spent three hours in the music therapy archives housed at Colorado State University and an additional couple of hours looking through materials housed in Dr. Bill Davis's office. I have scanned 140 pages of historical material directly related to clinical training and skill development. I am exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time. If you ever need to access information from the archives, please do. It is a nondescript building on the CSU campus, very loud from all of the ventilation, and not very interesting to look at, but VERY accessible and easy to understand. Dr. Davis and the archivist, Linda Meyers, have been extremely accommodating. I went in with some inkling of what I was looking for (that helped), and Dr. Davis helped me find more information in the archives. Linda gave me a space to work, access to electricity, and left me to it. We have over 70 boxes of materials in the archives. There is information abo...

Colorado, Here I am! I made it to Fort Collins in nine hours. I started the trip at 4:18 am. The trip went very quickly which was great, considering the scenery for most of the trip. Western Kansas is not too very stimulating, but it does seem to flash past quickly at 74 mph. I am looking forward to my first trip to the archives. BIG thanks to Carol Ann for the paper - it definitely steered me in the right direction for my sojourn into our past as a profession. My room is very small. I guess you get what you pay for, and I obviously did not pay for a closet or a comfortable chair. The price was right what with the price of gasoline. Back to research!

Looking forward to 91/2 hours alone in the car... It may sound strange, but I enjoy long trips in the car. I always have and probably always will. I especially like driving places by myself. I'm going to Colorado tomorrow and will be on the way before dawn, driving to the west in my little car. I am also glad for the evolution of cell phones. This may seem like an unrelated comment, but let me explain. Before the advent of cell phones, people looked over at someone like me, alone in the car, chattering away and attempted to put as many miles between us as possible. Nowadays, folks just assume that I am talking to someone on a hands-free device and continue to talk to their friends on their cell phones. Here is my car trip tradition. I already have directions to the hotel - Yes, Tawnya, I did download the directions at the beginning of June and have posted them on my bulletin board where I ALWAYS put trip details. This way I can find them in a hurry. Today I will do laundry, pick up...

Colorado Bound It is fall break, and I am going to Colorado for several days. The trip is purely for research purposes, but I am going to try to include some sightseeing in the mix while I am out and about. It was supposed to be a family vacation, but my CA family decided it was going to be too expensive to come out. I'm a bit disappointed, but I have to get into the archives, so have to go regardless. I am looking forward to going somewhere, even if the somewhere is related to my job and education. I am a competency geek. I enjoy the AMTA Professional Competencies and use them in my training sessions often. I am curious about how they came about and will be looking at the process taken by therapists before to find out. Jolly old fun! Only three days to go.

Saying Goodbye, why is it sad? Yesterday, we finally said goodbye to our boss and colleague. A Muppets song kept running through my head... " Saying goodbye, why is is sad? Makes us remember the good times we had." The song goes on, but I cannot. I feel that saying goodbye is an important process in a professional, but ESPECIALLY in a therapeutic relationship. My experience as a transplanted youngster probably contributes to this feeling. I had to say goodbye to lots of people when I was in elementary school. I am used to being the one who is leaving rather than the other way around. It is strange to be on the other side of the experience and be left. Currently, I have been acting as a quasi-therapist to many of my co-workers as they express feelings of grief and progressed in the DABDA process. It is amazing how many people have come to the music room to chat about how they are feeling about our boss moving on in the world. Someone mentioned that I should spearhead somethin...

Reinventing Yourself There are some things that happen in a lifetime that are difficult to understand. One of those things is the phenomenon of changing your personality to suit someone else. There are natural times to change: starting a new school, changing jobs, moving your home, starting a new relationship, but I always have questions about the need or impulse to change. My personality includes many contradictions (as I am sure many of ours do). I am a bit perfectionistic ("Ha," my sister, the equally perfectionistic is saying, "A BIT???"). I am a mess when it comes to housecleaning. I have lots of ideas, but often peter out when it comes to implementing these ideas. I enjoy new experiences, but do not often seek those new experiences. I will travel anywhere, as long as I have a job - most of my "vacations" have something to do with my vocation. I am, at heart, a person who enjoys structure and patterns. I like knowing how my friends are going to reac...

Monkey Moments in Music Therapy Yesterday was a monkey day in the music therapy room at my facility. Please read on so I can explain. There are some days where things move along swimmingly - clients entrain and get into the groove with little extra effort from the therapist, the therapist is able to be effective with many different clients, and staff members seem to understand the therapeutic outcome of every experience. Then there are other days. In honor of my current interns, I'm christening these days, "Monkey Days." We had such a day yesterday. The therapeutic aspect of the day was not too bad. The one group that has been giving me gray hairs was relatively controlled - I termed it "controlled chaos" - and the clients appeared to be in the therapeutic groove in the other groups, but some of the staff members seemed to do everything possible to sabotage, interrupt, and dictate the therapeutic process. At one point, my junior intern made a sound that sounded ...