Therapeutic Music Experience Explosion!

So, I've been writing about my current self-imposed challenge - my "NTM" TME challenge. (See the first blog post explaining everything here!) 

It's been three days.

Do you know what I've noticed? I can do this. I can find a therapeutic music experience (AKA: TME) that I haven't used in therapy before and then use it! I include using songs and then turning them into TMEs - something I love to do! (See my Song Conversion Sunday posts for more information about this particular process.) I take some time the next morning writing up the TME into my specific format (Here's a post with my format and some of my ways of thinking about music!). I'm doing all of this while at work, making my work time a bit more therapeutically productive.

This week, I've developed TMEs for an old vocalise/camp song, a brand-new to me Good Morning chant, and two variations using a book about emotions as the center of the experiences. Four TME plans in three days. This is wonderful to me!!

See, I've been feeling stagnant in my interactions with clients. This happens to me every so often, and it frustrates me more than anything else because I love using music to serve my clients. When I'm bored with what I am doing, my clients are probably bored as well. That's a problem, and it leads to an increase in behaviors of concern from my clients which lead me into self-analyzation and constant frustration with myself and thoughts that lead me towards burnout. I figure, if I'm no longer relevant to my students, then they deserve someone else.

Usually, this is a cue to make myself create and engage and focus on something other than the spiral of frustration. It's up to me to do these things because I am the only music therapist at my facility, and I don't really socially interact with other music therapists (as a rule). My major social interaction with other music therapists is on social media. and that doesn't really count as either social or interaction, as far as I'm concerned...

The problem that I have is that I often forget, or just don't notice, that I need to be doing something proactively to combat these feelings and my pattern. It takes a break from work for me to figure out that my real issue is boredom with what I am doing rather than issues with the workplace. It seems silly, because I talk to music therapists about all of this on a pretty regular basis, but I can't really seem to see it in myself. This is actually pretty funny to me.

Let me explain...

One of the other things that I do (other than blogging) is that I offer continuing education courses for music therapists. When I get into my ruts, I use many of the tasks, challenges, and recommendations that I've included in my first course, Composition and Creativity. That's why I made the course - these are the things that help me find my creativity and keep me feeling productive and relevant for my clients. I figure, if it works for me, then it will work for other music therapists out there as well. Please check the course out, if you are ever looking for some inspiration. I'm working through some of those techniques right now - this is helping me with my current "NTM" TME challenge.

So, I'm working my way out of a rut. I've led three new TMEs in the past three days. I've written four TME plans that have come out of these three new TMEs. I haven't composed a new song in this challenge yet, but that's not a requirement for this particular self-imposed challenge. I just have to lead something for clients that I've never led before. One thing per day - this is my current challenge. Do you know what? There are side effects to this.

I am improvising more songs.

I feel more productive as I engage in writing up these ideas.

My clients seem interested in new things, but they still want the old, familiar things as well - this reinforces some of my feelings about being relevant.

I have removed some of my self-imposed expectations of always writing new songs and making lavish visual aids. (Now, I'm still doing some of those things, but this challenge doesn't require any of it!)

I am looking at the materials that I've collected and am finding things that fit my client groups and my current goals for each group.

I am adapting procedures to fit the different groups that I work with in order to find additional uses for the same music or thought. 

I am reserving this process for work only so that I have something creative that I do when I am sitting in my office. I'll continue to do my visual aid production at home - that's part of my self-care routine (by the way, I have a GREAT idea for a finger puppet theater that I'm going to work on for my Teachers Pay Teachers store! How fun!!), but I now have something that I can create that has work applications.

I'm actually surprised that I haven't put all these things together before, but we all have to learn on our own, right? It took me 26 years of professional experience to learn these things about me. I hope that it doesn't take you that long to learn similar things about you. If you are in a rut, let me help pull you out.

Anyone want to join me in a "NTM" TME challenge?

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