And so it begins...

My new interns started two days ago. I always start them off on a Friday because it is the day where I do not have to do as much therapy as Monday through Thursday. Interns arrive, get a brief tour as we turn in paperwork to HR, and then we move into Music, Movement, Art and Rhythmic Sensations (MMARS). For the next 5 hours, interns get to run around playing games with all of the students that attend school at my facility. Then, after we have played tag, sang songs, completed an art project, attempted to develop our gross motor coordination. we move into orientation. The end of the day, after I have staggered the poor things with 4 pages of assignments, the dismissal policy, and other orientation information, I always ask for questions. The interns never have any.

These two have some advantages and some disadvantages.

The advantages -
  • I have had a nice long break from being an internship director. That is a good thing and something that I will schedule in from now on...
  • I have really thought about my training style and philosophy
  • I have revamped my forms and assignments, linking them to the AMTA Professional Competencies
  • The interns will be going through this experience together - for the first time I have started with two at the same time rather than staggering intern's start dates
  • They will have each other for the duration of the internship - always before, interns have bonded really strongly with one of their co-interns, but not the other.
The disadvantages -
  • I have never had two interns start at the same time - this new experience will be interesting, but I think I will like it...
  • Some things that I have changed are too new for me to remember
  • There is no clear way to determine who gets the good chair and who gets the bad chair...
  • They will have each other for the duration of the internship - this could be a problem if they do not like each other
My pledges to my interns:
  • There will always be chocolate
  • I will be the best supervisor that I can be
  • I will encourage each intern to develop her own philosophy of music therapy and style of practice
I hope that this experience will be a good one for both of the interns as well as myself. Here's to the next 7 months!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music. As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience. DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals. Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more