16 Days...Well, For Me, 14 Days

It's about that time again. I am getting ready for the American Music Therapy Association's national conference. This is something that I do every year at about this time. The fancy clothes laundry is done and waiting to be put in the garment bag. A couple of the presentations are fleshed out, but not all of them. I have my driving directions and my budget all worked out. I am ready for the experience as well.

I enjoy going to conference every year and spend lots of time looking forward to the experience.

This is my first year in quite a while where I don't have to go to meetings. I get to go to presentations and see what others are thinking and doing in music therapy. I am taking 2 CMTE courses (one on Ethics and Spirituality to cover my Ethics requirement) and have to attend the business meeting on Friday (which I usually dash in and out of every year). I have four presentations to be part of (two of my own and two for OCMT) on Friday and Saturday. Once I finish my two presentations (Friday late and Saturday mid-morning), I get to contribute to the OCMT presentations and then I am finished. At some point, I will get into my car and drive south to home. I will decide if I stay until the end of the conference or if I leave early. I love driving to conferences - it makes things very flexible.

I also decided to take the Monday after conference off for recovery purposes. I find that I need a day to recuperate after the social whirlwind that is conference. I have a list of things for my clients to do in my absence, and I have rearranged every thing in the music therapy room so my clients can find things to do while I am gone. The only things missing right now are the karaoke CDs. I'll take them next week.

Two weeks from today, I start my AMTA journey. Will I see you there? If you see me, PLEASE introduce yourself. Thanks!

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