Off I Go...
Yesterday, our COTA at work bops into the music therapy room to tell me that she wants the space and will be talking to the principal about me moving to another room. I was flummoxed and upset. I have been asking for alternative plans to the music therapy room (which is brand new and inadequate for what I do) during the entire planning, construction, and moving process. Each time, I've been told things like, "You'll get used to your strangely shaped room." "We don't want to move you to that space since we might need to use it as a classroom and then you'd have to move." [That's what I was told for a room just like the room that the COTA wants me to take.] "We're not going to move the music therapy room again. This space is the space that you have. Get used to it!"
Know what? All of a sudden, I'm being asked to move... again... to another space... to accommodate the needs of someone else.
I know I am spoiled. I know that there are therapists who never have an office, a room, or a central location for music therapy. I had a taste of what other therapists go through on a daily basis over the past two years. Music therapy is not appropriate in a closet or in the hallway. I know that I am fortunate to work at a facility that keeps music therapy as part of the treatment milieu. The rest of this rant may not be something that people want to read if they don't have a room of their own...
I've been in the current music therapy room for less than five months. I have finally figured out where I want my instruments, visuals, and chairs to be stored. It's been a long process, but I was settling.
I am tired of moving. In the past 19 years at the facility, I have moved seven times. Each of those moves have not been my ideas, they have been spurred by the fact that someone else wanted the space I was in for themselves. I have been consulted on what I need for therapy once. That big, beautiful room was taken when it was determined that the case workers needed more offices. My big, beautiful room was taken to convert into offices. That left me with the current room.
I have been unhappy about the current room since it was initially proposed to me. When I asked for folks to consider other alternatives, I was told "You will learn to enjoy your new room." I've had to figure out new ways to do therapy in the past (almost) five months. My clients can't move as readily as before, so less movement TMEs. I've had to take lots of things home in order to accommodate the lack of storage space, but I am making it work.
Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I make things work when I'm told I have to do so. Maybe I don't ask the right questions at the right times.
I'm going to talk to my principal about this idea today. I would like more space to do music therapy, and the new room (which, funnily enough, was my first room when I started working at the facility - it was taken away so we could start a new classroom) would be enough space to do what I think my clients need to do. That would be great! There are problems with the room right now. It has no carpet. The brand-new flooring would have to be carpeted to decrease the acoustic signature of the room. It is way too loud now. I would need to be able to control the temperature. Also, my built-in custom cabinets for my larger instruments would have to move with me. That would require construction on the room I'm in now as well as the room that I would move to.
I am also going to ask for the plan for when the next person walks into the new room, takes a look, and says, "I could use this room as my _______." When that happens (and it will because it has happened every single time so far), I want to know what is waiting for me and my program. I want it in writing. I want the president to sign off on the plan. I am tired of being shuffled around as others have whims, and I WILL NOT GO BACK TO DOING MUSIC THERAPY IN THE CAFETERIA AGAIN! (That was an unfortunate episode right after I had to move from the current room in question the first time!)
I bet that the cost of moving me and the cabinets and carpeting the room will be too much for my facility to accommodate at this time. We will see.
Know what? All of a sudden, I'm being asked to move... again... to another space... to accommodate the needs of someone else.
I know I am spoiled. I know that there are therapists who never have an office, a room, or a central location for music therapy. I had a taste of what other therapists go through on a daily basis over the past two years. Music therapy is not appropriate in a closet or in the hallway. I know that I am fortunate to work at a facility that keeps music therapy as part of the treatment milieu. The rest of this rant may not be something that people want to read if they don't have a room of their own...
I've been in the current music therapy room for less than five months. I have finally figured out where I want my instruments, visuals, and chairs to be stored. It's been a long process, but I was settling.
I am tired of moving. In the past 19 years at the facility, I have moved seven times. Each of those moves have not been my ideas, they have been spurred by the fact that someone else wanted the space I was in for themselves. I have been consulted on what I need for therapy once. That big, beautiful room was taken when it was determined that the case workers needed more offices. My big, beautiful room was taken to convert into offices. That left me with the current room.
I have been unhappy about the current room since it was initially proposed to me. When I asked for folks to consider other alternatives, I was told "You will learn to enjoy your new room." I've had to figure out new ways to do therapy in the past (almost) five months. My clients can't move as readily as before, so less movement TMEs. I've had to take lots of things home in order to accommodate the lack of storage space, but I am making it work.
Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I make things work when I'm told I have to do so. Maybe I don't ask the right questions at the right times.
I'm going to talk to my principal about this idea today. I would like more space to do music therapy, and the new room (which, funnily enough, was my first room when I started working at the facility - it was taken away so we could start a new classroom) would be enough space to do what I think my clients need to do. That would be great! There are problems with the room right now. It has no carpet. The brand-new flooring would have to be carpeted to decrease the acoustic signature of the room. It is way too loud now. I would need to be able to control the temperature. Also, my built-in custom cabinets for my larger instruments would have to move with me. That would require construction on the room I'm in now as well as the room that I would move to.
I am also going to ask for the plan for when the next person walks into the new room, takes a look, and says, "I could use this room as my _______." When that happens (and it will because it has happened every single time so far), I want to know what is waiting for me and my program. I want it in writing. I want the president to sign off on the plan. I am tired of being shuffled around as others have whims, and I WILL NOT GO BACK TO DOING MUSIC THERAPY IN THE CAFETERIA AGAIN! (That was an unfortunate episode right after I had to move from the current room in question the first time!)
I bet that the cost of moving me and the cabinets and carpeting the room will be too much for my facility to accommodate at this time. We will see.
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