Monday - After a Week Away
I am going back to work today after an entire week of missed therapy sessions.
I was feeling fine yesterday, and this morning I woke up with a stuffy nose and scratchy throat. Coincidence? Doubtful. Psychosomatic? Possibly. Affected by the fact that I missed my allergy medicine yesterday? Definitely. I'm back on it now, so I will probably feel better pretty soon.
I always dread going back to work after an absence, mainly because my very active imagination fills in all the possible situations and makes me feel a bit stressed about going back in. Sometimes, those fears are manifested, but most of the time, they are not.
I will probably spend most of my commute thinking about chairs being left out, trash all over the carpet (because both of those things happen on a regular basis), and broken things with no explanation of what happened. I will also try to practice my mindfulness outlook through allowing those thoughts to occur and then releasing them without judgment (still a work in progress). I will take some time to sift through the emails that will have little to nothing to do with me, and then get my session strategies going for this week. It is Musician of the Month week, so I know what we'll be doing at least half of the time.
I'm thinking through a new way of session strategizing - something that supplements what I am already doing rather than replacing my entire way of doing things. I feel that what I am doing now with my way of strategizing is working well for me, but there are still some gaps in what I am doing and what I want to do with my clients. I'm going to work on figuring out ways to strengthen what I am doing for my more temporary clients as well as for my long-time clients.
My recent conference and training attendance has bolstered my resolve to change how music therapy is done at my job. I am not entirely sure how I will be doing this, but I am thinking about it pretty much constantly right now. I want to be going a bit more deeply into coping skill development. My clients want more centers (good news - that concept worked), and I am trying to figure out what I can do to combine the two things into one. I really need to make specific lists of what I have for centers and what my clinical goals are to see what matches...
Good - I have the start of a plan - making lists. I think I will focus on how I can use my centers to reinforce what we are already doing. There will be a sacrifice on my part - more centers means less client interaction with me, but it also means that I can focus what interaction time I have a bit more to the individuals before me.
It's going to be interesting because centers only really work when clients can be trusted to complete skills independently, or I have enough staff members to supervise each center (which NEVER happens). So, in addition to center-based strategies, I also have to come up with strategies that do not include the centers.
That's exhausting. It really is. I've had to do that over and over again. The other thing that makes this type of planning exhausting is that I never know what to expect from staffing or clients until the session begins, and things change in a blink during sessions. I can do that - I do it all the time - but I really don't want to.
Well.
This is turning into a rant rather than something that is supportive or forward thinking. Time to reestablish my intention for this post. Hm.
Today, I have five groups that I will see. One of those groups will be an in-class group (which I absolutely HATE - uh-oh, more ranting). The rest will be in the music therapy room. I will spend some time thinking through my strategies for this week and for the future. I will spend some time making music with my clients, and I will enjoy each of them as individuals with personalities and specific things that they bring to my work.
When I get home this evening, I will heat up some of the food that I made yesterday afternoon. I will spend some time thinking about my way of doing things both at work, and here on my website. I will upload some presentations to the website, and I will work on my current prayer shawl. I have a place for four things to do on my to-do list, but I haven't filled that in yet. I think I'll wait until this evening to decide what I will do. Maybe I'll do something along the lines of something contemplative, something for my website/business, something for others, and something that makes my environment better. Maybe I'll have another thought when I get home. Who knows.
There. A bit of refocusing, and I am no longer in such a rant-y mood. I am feeling a bit better. It's now time to start my day by taking a shower, dressing in my facility t-shirt and pants (it's going to be about 70 degrees F today!), and getting ready to go back to work. It's time.
Happy Monday, music therapists!
I was feeling fine yesterday, and this morning I woke up with a stuffy nose and scratchy throat. Coincidence? Doubtful. Psychosomatic? Possibly. Affected by the fact that I missed my allergy medicine yesterday? Definitely. I'm back on it now, so I will probably feel better pretty soon.
I always dread going back to work after an absence, mainly because my very active imagination fills in all the possible situations and makes me feel a bit stressed about going back in. Sometimes, those fears are manifested, but most of the time, they are not.
I will probably spend most of my commute thinking about chairs being left out, trash all over the carpet (because both of those things happen on a regular basis), and broken things with no explanation of what happened. I will also try to practice my mindfulness outlook through allowing those thoughts to occur and then releasing them without judgment (still a work in progress). I will take some time to sift through the emails that will have little to nothing to do with me, and then get my session strategies going for this week. It is Musician of the Month week, so I know what we'll be doing at least half of the time.
I'm thinking through a new way of session strategizing - something that supplements what I am already doing rather than replacing my entire way of doing things. I feel that what I am doing now with my way of strategizing is working well for me, but there are still some gaps in what I am doing and what I want to do with my clients. I'm going to work on figuring out ways to strengthen what I am doing for my more temporary clients as well as for my long-time clients.
My recent conference and training attendance has bolstered my resolve to change how music therapy is done at my job. I am not entirely sure how I will be doing this, but I am thinking about it pretty much constantly right now. I want to be going a bit more deeply into coping skill development. My clients want more centers (good news - that concept worked), and I am trying to figure out what I can do to combine the two things into one. I really need to make specific lists of what I have for centers and what my clinical goals are to see what matches...
Good - I have the start of a plan - making lists. I think I will focus on how I can use my centers to reinforce what we are already doing. There will be a sacrifice on my part - more centers means less client interaction with me, but it also means that I can focus what interaction time I have a bit more to the individuals before me.
It's going to be interesting because centers only really work when clients can be trusted to complete skills independently, or I have enough staff members to supervise each center (which NEVER happens). So, in addition to center-based strategies, I also have to come up with strategies that do not include the centers.
That's exhausting. It really is. I've had to do that over and over again. The other thing that makes this type of planning exhausting is that I never know what to expect from staffing or clients until the session begins, and things change in a blink during sessions. I can do that - I do it all the time - but I really don't want to.
Well.
This is turning into a rant rather than something that is supportive or forward thinking. Time to reestablish my intention for this post. Hm.
Today, I have five groups that I will see. One of those groups will be an in-class group (which I absolutely HATE - uh-oh, more ranting). The rest will be in the music therapy room. I will spend some time thinking through my strategies for this week and for the future. I will spend some time making music with my clients, and I will enjoy each of them as individuals with personalities and specific things that they bring to my work.
When I get home this evening, I will heat up some of the food that I made yesterday afternoon. I will spend some time thinking about my way of doing things both at work, and here on my website. I will upload some presentations to the website, and I will work on my current prayer shawl. I have a place for four things to do on my to-do list, but I haven't filled that in yet. I think I'll wait until this evening to decide what I will do. Maybe I'll do something along the lines of something contemplative, something for my website/business, something for others, and something that makes my environment better. Maybe I'll have another thought when I get home. Who knows.
There. A bit of refocusing, and I am no longer in such a rant-y mood. I am feeling a bit better. It's now time to start my day by taking a shower, dressing in my facility t-shirt and pants (it's going to be about 70 degrees F today!), and getting ready to go back to work. It's time.
Happy Monday, music therapists!
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