Happiness Initiative
This week consisted of three days of not only being a music therapy internship supervisor, but of actually being a music therapist!!
One of my biggest challenges as a supervisor is the time when my interns need to be independent and have some time alone in their sessions. This situation, while great for them, is harrowing for me.
From the times when I start to feel scattered, restless, and out-of-sorts, I have learned that I really need the daily contact with clients to keep me actively engaged. This has led me to make several decisions, starting right now!
I will no longer accept two interns at a time unless it is necessary to do so. If I do have two interns, I will make sure that I still have plenty of therapeutic interaction with my clients. I will never fully leave the music therapy clinic. If there is a teaching position in my future (doubtful, but you never know), I will be an adjunct professor instead of a full-time professor. You couldn't pay me enough money to transfer my clinical population from persons with intellectual /developmental disabilities to college students. (No offense meant to college students, I am just not suited to being a classroom teacher or professor - I love students in the clinical arena.)
So, what does this have to do with the happiness initiative?
It is so much easier to focus on the positive when you feel a sense of accomplishment. I can see the faces of my clients when they realize that I really mean that they can hit the drums as hard as they can! I love the process of finding someone's song along with them!
I am happiest when I am listening to a song improvised by a group of children with diagnoses on the autism spectrum.
Off to be a therapist some more! I hope you find the same joy in being a music therapist that I do.
One of my biggest challenges as a supervisor is the time when my interns need to be independent and have some time alone in their sessions. This situation, while great for them, is harrowing for me.
From the times when I start to feel scattered, restless, and out-of-sorts, I have learned that I really need the daily contact with clients to keep me actively engaged. This has led me to make several decisions, starting right now!
I will no longer accept two interns at a time unless it is necessary to do so. If I do have two interns, I will make sure that I still have plenty of therapeutic interaction with my clients. I will never fully leave the music therapy clinic. If there is a teaching position in my future (doubtful, but you never know), I will be an adjunct professor instead of a full-time professor. You couldn't pay me enough money to transfer my clinical population from persons with intellectual /developmental disabilities to college students. (No offense meant to college students, I am just not suited to being a classroom teacher or professor - I love students in the clinical arena.)
So, what does this have to do with the happiness initiative?
It is so much easier to focus on the positive when you feel a sense of accomplishment. I can see the faces of my clients when they realize that I really mean that they can hit the drums as hard as they can! I love the process of finding someone's song along with them!
I am happiest when I am listening to a song improvised by a group of children with diagnoses on the autism spectrum.
Off to be a therapist some more! I hope you find the same joy in being a music therapist that I do.
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