Community
Last night gave me a chance to be part of a music therapy community. I have been hosting webinars this summer through my business website, www.musictherapyworks.com. This has been an interesting and fun experience that I am planning on continuing.
Anyway, what I find important about these experiences is the opportunity to connect with others who are interested in music as a therapeutic medium. I now know many folks who are in various places in their music therapy journey. These folks are not people that I would have had the pleasure of meeting in any other situation, primarily because we are far apart geographically, but now I have had an opportunity to interact with more folks that I would have ever engaged with in other situations.
Last night's webinar was supposed to be a swap shop where participants shared ideas with each other. It ended up being me sharing several of my ideas and a couple of conversations that were scintillating. We talked about co-treating, about inservice ideas, and about feeling somewhat isolated in a sea of therapists. I think that the next swap shop will be more interactive for everyone. Several attendees said that they would prepare ideas for the next one!
Connecting with others who understand about music therapy is an important aspect of being a therapist. The conversations that we had reinforced to me that the issues that I deal with on a daily basis are not unique to me. Other therapists encounter the same situations in their own workplaces. This sense of "we're all in this together," allows us to bond as a group with a common experience.
My community is starting to grow. The benefits of social media have been a boon to me - I am an introvert who is more comfortable engaging with others from my home computer than going to a social event organized by a music therapy group. On the other hand, it is strange that my community is all over the world sitting in front of computers rather than sharing the same air.
We made a tentative plan to meet at the AMTA conference for lunch. I hope that we can do that - it would be really nice to see faces of the music therapists and music therapy students that are enriching my therapy community.
Anyway, what I find important about these experiences is the opportunity to connect with others who are interested in music as a therapeutic medium. I now know many folks who are in various places in their music therapy journey. These folks are not people that I would have had the pleasure of meeting in any other situation, primarily because we are far apart geographically, but now I have had an opportunity to interact with more folks that I would have ever engaged with in other situations.
Last night's webinar was supposed to be a swap shop where participants shared ideas with each other. It ended up being me sharing several of my ideas and a couple of conversations that were scintillating. We talked about co-treating, about inservice ideas, and about feeling somewhat isolated in a sea of therapists. I think that the next swap shop will be more interactive for everyone. Several attendees said that they would prepare ideas for the next one!
Connecting with others who understand about music therapy is an important aspect of being a therapist. The conversations that we had reinforced to me that the issues that I deal with on a daily basis are not unique to me. Other therapists encounter the same situations in their own workplaces. This sense of "we're all in this together," allows us to bond as a group with a common experience.
My community is starting to grow. The benefits of social media have been a boon to me - I am an introvert who is more comfortable engaging with others from my home computer than going to a social event organized by a music therapy group. On the other hand, it is strange that my community is all over the world sitting in front of computers rather than sharing the same air.
We made a tentative plan to meet at the AMTA conference for lunch. I hope that we can do that - it would be really nice to see faces of the music therapists and music therapy students that are enriching my therapy community.
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