Thoughtful Thursday: Putting My Best Foot Forward

Today is an intern audition and interview at my facility. I have a student coming down to see if we are a potentially good match for her clinical training. I do this. I want potential interns to come to the facility to see what they are getting into before they make a commitment to me and to my clients. I know that it is a financial difficulty for students, and I know that this requirement makes me less of an option to those who cannot visit, but I have to do this. My clients are not the type of clients that people envisage when they think of kids in a special education facility - they are the ones that have not made it in any other special education facility. An intern HAS to see them in order to understand that there are some daily experiences that happen in my school that just don't happen in other schools. Without seeing it, I think that many interns would be very surprised when they arrived to see things that happen on a regular basis.

That's why I insist that applicants come to my facility to spend a day with me and with my clients.

If there was another way, I would try it, but there is no other way. We cannot Skype with folks due to HIPAA regulations and a lack of technological set-up. I could do that type of interviewing at home, but that really doesn't do much to indicate whether the potential intern is comfortable with my clients, whether they can create therapeutic music experiences that engage my clients, and whether I feel that I can work with that person for seven months of my professional life. I have tried interviewing people over the phone or outside of my usual pattern, and those situations have ended up being not-so-good ones.

Now, I don't offer everyone an interview, but I do expect that an applicant will arrive if they submit the application for consideration. I spell out my expectations in the fact sheet information and also on my application. Intern applicants have to electronically "sign" a section that indicates that they are aware of the on-site interview/audition requirement before they can submit the application to my site.

Today's intern applicant will be welcomed, given a very short tour, and then will start a period of observation. At some point, chosen by the applicant, the applicant will lead a 10 minute therapeutic music experience for one of my group sessions. The requirements? Sing and play a functional instrument for accompaniment using group descriptions for strategizing. I want to see what applicants can do under pressure - sitting in front of an unknown group of clients, being judged by an MT-BC, and having to establish a quick therapeutic interaction with diverse clients. After that, school lunches and a quick question/answer period before finishing up the day with two more group sessions and then the formal interview. My current intern will have an opportunity to talk to the applicant to answer questions without me and without having to report to me. That's the day.

My process has developed over many years of being a supervisor, and I feel that it is a good method for letting applicants know what types of behavior management strategies are typical in my work setting. It is not unusual to hear kids screaming obscenities or to see a child try to get out of a non-preferred task by becoming aggressive. Being a music therapist for these kids means being able to adapt music to them in every moment. It means being comfortable enough with my own skills to completely abandon the session strategy in favor of something that works better for the clients in front of me. It means having strength to stick to behavior expectations and to weather the tantrums and extreme negative behaviors while remaining patient and focused on the end goal of assisting clients in finding a way to navigate the world without ending up in jail or hurting others. It means being able to understand that such behaviors happen for reasons that are often not related at all to what is happening in music therapy, but also knowing that the process of learning takes time, consistency, and patience on the part of the client and the clinician.

Maybe the description for my internship program on the National Roster Internship List should go something like this...

Does this sound like fun? Do you want to work with an extremely challenging group of children and adolescents in and through music? Do you mind being yelled at by a 9 year-old with a significant trauma history, a developmental diagnosis, and other diagnoses of psychiatric nature? If this sounds like the type of challenge that you crave in a music therapy internship, then sign up for mine! You will get all of this and more in seven months in rural Kansas!!

It's a thought.

The other side of this entire process is that of mine. I am nervous when someone comes from "the outside" to observe and interview me for a position as their internship director. My current intern asked me why I get nervous, and the honest answer is that I want people to want to be an intern with my students. I want to be selected as their supervisor for the culminating experience of their education. I want these folks to choose me and mine for their lives. 

Maybe I could decrease my nerves if I invited any and all applicants for the internship, but I don't want people to spend money without completing the requests that I lay out in my application. If someone doesn't seem engaged enough to complete an application, then they probably aren't all that enthusiastic about actually working with me. Why should I put them through the time and expense of an interview if they can't seem to read directions??? Okay, rant over.

I have brushed my hair, cleaned off a corner of my desk, placed some of the piles of stuff in my office away, and am as ready as I will ever be for this interview/audition today. My nerves are going full-blast, but that is to be expected. I am hoping that we can hear loud children in the classroom next door, but that clients are appropriate during music therapy. I want applicants to experience the type of things that happen around here, but I want music therapy to be a place where we can focus on the audition. All I can do is hope and work for the best.

Time to be a good example of music therapy for my clients.