music, therapy, and me

Bongo Barry I heard yesterday that a colleague, Barry Bernstein, passed away on Wednesday morning. Barry was an acquaintance of mine from my undergraduate days who remembered me 15 years later when we met at Camp Encourage this summer. We played a little music and led a campfire over the 4 days of camp. I was impressed and inspired by the things that he did with the campers. My thoughts and prayers are with his family as they mourn the loss of their father and husband.

Iso-Principle I am challenged by having to explain Altshuler's Iso-Principle to someone who is a music therapist, but who has never heard the term before. This challenge is one that I will undertake, mainly because I think the Iso-principle is one of the most essential tenets in music therapy theory. It amazes me how many music therapists have never heard of the principle or who have not heard about Altshuler. The iso-principle, as I understand it, explains that people will pay attention to music that best matches the mood they are in at any given time. An agitated person will respond better to music that he or she associates with agitation (e.g., "angry music") better than music that does not have an association with that particular emotion. Engagement in the music therapy procedure or technique will be quicker if the therapist shapes the music to the individual's emotion rather than attempting to shape the individual's emotion to music the therapist thinks will ...

Pipe Dreams I bought lotto tickets today. The jackpot is up to $213 million, and my dad likes the idea of buying chances when the jackpot gets that high. So, I have been escaping into fantasies of what I would do with a portion with the money. The first thing I would do is give my parents a portion for their retirement. They could pay off the house, take a trip, and stop working! Mom could finally craft and garden all the time, and Dad could drive her crazy!!! The second thing that I would do would be to split up the rest of the money into retirement accounts for myself and my siblings. With my part, I would buy this gorgeous complex that is for sale across the street from my facility. It is an old convent with beautiful buildings. I would like to turn it into a conference and retreat center. We would offer CMTEs on a monthly basis. It would be a good challenge. Aaah. Now all I have to do is win tomorrow. Won't happen, but I am having fun dreaming about it.

Creative Flow There are times when I have a rush of ideas that just come flowing out of me. It usually coincides with the full moon - imagine that - but I become almost manic when it comes to creating interventions, cleaning my home, and thinking of new things that I "should" be doing during my time away from work. I am currently writing this blog entry, but I did many other things today. I washed dishes and cleaned off my countertops in the kitchen, washed my bedding, made homemade cards, learned about my new music notation program, wrote a couple of Therapeutic Musical Experiences, emailed my academic advisor with several projects, enrolled for field studies at school, paid tuition, and annoyed the cat. My day is not finished. For the first time in weeks, I did not feel like I wanted to take a nap at 3pm. The downside of this upswing is the new moon period. I have always (according to my mother who has known me the longest) had mood swings that followed the waxing and wanin...

CAMP I love camp. I love everything about it. The mosquitoes, the sunburns, the shaving cream fights, the interrupted sleep - it's all good! I spent four days in the company of 45 campers and approximately the same number of staff at Camp Encourage. This camp is a place for kids ages 8-18 on the Asperger's side of the Autism Spectrum and some typically developing peers to be away from their family, to act like kids, and make friends. I have to say that I originally thought that I would be going to camp to run music therapy sessions. When I attended the orientation session, I found that that was not so. I was assigned to "assist" the other music therapistst that were attending camp. I was disappointed, but was able to get the camp director to agree to let me lead one session during the last day of camp. Once I got to camp, I found that, in addition to music therapy and arts and crafts, I was a general go-fer. I spent lots of time taking things from here to there, track...