TME Tuesday: One of My Best Resources

One of the benefits of being an Internship Director is the opportunity to learn new songs and ideas from interns. I require that interns write 75 therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) during their internships, and they submit their files to me during their fourth month at the facility. Twenty-five of the TMEs have to be original songs, and the others can be a combination of original ideas and things the interns learned from other people (including me). I have every file from every intern that I've ever had work with me, and their work is one of the best resources that I have. (That reminds me, I need to take my TME file list for my current intern - she wants some of my resources for her file...)

Now, I have a very strict policy that I will not share any of their ideas or TMEs other than within music therapy sessions. All resources that I have contain their source materials, copyright information, and relevant contact information as well. If someone indicates an interest in a TME that I did not write, I am up front and honest about that fact - I refer them to the resource and insist on giving credit where credit is due. I NEVER take credit for someone else's work, because someone stole one of my songs in a public forum once, and it affected me greatly. (I'll write more about that someday - not today.)

 One of the things that I love about this resource - the ideas of other people - is that they offer so many different perspectives. If I want to flesh out a session theme about frogs (just got some frog instruments in the mail, so...), I have my ideas, the songs in my songbooks, and all the frog songs that my interns wrote during their times with me. I have so many TMEs and songs to use that it is not difficult to put together a session strategy at all. In fact, I usually have way more than I need.

 Their ideas also spark my own ideas. I have a song that my clients love to sing that was inspired by a practicum student who trained with me a long time ago. The song we sing together is not the one that the student developed, but the TME she presented led me into the TME development for the other song. She gets credit for the inspiration because she is the one who inspired me!

I recently found one of the notebooks of TMEs from interns circa 2006-2009. I am now reminded of (old) new interventions and experiences to offer to my clients. I find it interesting what TMEs they collected from me as well. As I continue to go through these files, converting them from paper copies to digital files for my database, I'm looking forward to memories and new inspiration from one of my best resources - other music therapists.

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