Getting Ready for Conference

I finally decided to go onto the WRMWAMTA SUPER REGIONAL CONFERENCE PAGE and see when I was going to be presenting a bit over a month from now. I'm glad that I did because I found that both of my presentations are on the same day (I thought they were on different days...). I am ready to go talk to folks about different topics - Research-Informed Clinician stuff and Career Pivot stuff.

The conference is what we call a "super regional conference." The Midwestern region has combined with other regions several times over the past couple of decades. We went in with the Great Lakes region and the Southwestern region. Now, it is the Western region's turn to work with us.

We will spend the weekend in Colorado, talking about music therapy, and making regional plans.

For the next month, I have the joy of going over my older topic (Research-Informed Clinician) and starting up my newer topic (From Slump to Career Pivot). I'll work on outlining the new topic this week and get things going. I've promised some creativity, so I need to get to that. I'm thinking vision boards, and when driving, I can bring materials with me to accomplish that creative endeavor. Hmmm.

I like the time between presentation proposal and presentation. At this point, I have no clear outcome for my presentation except what I wrote in the presentation proposal. After several months, it is fun to try to figure out what I meant when I wrote descriptions and learner objectives.

It's time to start this proposal process for AMTA 2017. I think I will try to get some of my formerly rejected proposals accepted (better than ever, of course), and I will be brainstorming more ideas as well. Then, we'll see.

I'm going to think about my career pivot presentation as I drive off into the cold, dark morning to get to work. I'm also going to spend time thinking about other things I can talk about (and talk about...). I hope to have some ideas pretty soon for AMTA 2017 while I get ready for this super regional conference!!

Happy Monday, all!

 

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