Another Use for My Bullet Journal - Theme Brainstorming

I enjoy using a bullet journal for many aspects of my life, and session strategizing is no different! I have a couple of journals that I use on a regular basis - there's my home journal, my work journal, and a collections journal. Today we are going to focus on my collections journal.

To put it simply, a collections journal is where you keep lists of things that aren't time bound. My collections journal is where I keep my lists of movies I want to see and my bucket list and just a variety of thoughts. It occurred to me that this journal would be perfect for storing my session theme brainstorming ideas! Off I went into the process of recording my ideas!!

I am going to allow myself to doodle and brainstorm on these pages, so I decided on using a two-page spread for each theme. If the pages get filled up, I'll thread the pages to the next set of pages (threading is where you indicate the next page that relates. It looks like this: 47-->52). I will sketch out my songwriting ideas and work through ideas for visual aids on these pages. The picture above is the first two-page spread for my dinosaur theme. I have placed specific songs at the upper right hand. There are materials listed at the top right (things I already have or have seen already made by others), visual aid ideas (for me to make for my Teachers Pay Teachers store), and my Therapeutic Music Experience (TME) ideas make up the bottom half of the right page. I indulged my creative side by using different colors and fonts along with framing each page. To finish things off (and to make it look different from other pages in this journal), I outlined the outside of the pages with a color from the theme. The last thing that I include on my pages is an indicator of where I am storing the materials needed to complete these TMEs - right now, it will be an indication of a specific month - February, I think. That's the Habitat/Animal month right now.

Now, I don't use these pages for session strategizing. I have a completely different type of page for making my sessions match the client goals and objectives. I use these for brainstorming, so they have short ideas and TME titles with short descriptions rather than full out TME plans. I'll take these ideas and turn them into formal TME plans later on. This is just for a bit of thinking.

Also, I don't do lots of thematic planning in my music therapy clinic. I tend to be more of a responsive therapist than a planned therapist. I do like having several TMEs collected (along with appropriate visuals and other materials) so I can pull them out when a client arrives with an interest in something like dinosaurs. With my bullet journal pages, I have a quick reference to several TMEs (I've already listed five different things to do with dinosaur things) that I can access as the client and I are getting started in our therapeutic relationship. I can easily pull the box that stores all of the materials, TMEs, and music for the themes that I have coordinated.

Themes don't work for everyone - at least, not these types of themes. There are many music therapists who never think of using thematic programming, and that is okay! For those of us who do use themes, it is always interesting to see what others have come up with. It is never exactly the same from therapist to therapist. (And, isn't that what it should be? My clients are not exactly the same as clients of another therapist, so why should I be exactly the same as the other therapist...hmm). For me, themes are an organizational tool more than anything else - a way to categorize things so I can find them when I need them. Themes also offer me things to do when I get into creative slumps - there are ready-made sessions within my different categories! I can create playlists for specific themes as well - burn them to CD, and then keep them with the materials. Voila! Session in a box!?! - Ew, no. I don't like that! How about "Session Ideas in a box!!" That's a bit better.

Here are my boxes!

I currently have three theme spreads in my bullet journal - dinosaurs, insects, and movies. I have another list of theme ideas to work on as well. I think this will never ever be completely finished, and that's fine with me. I hope that I never lose my interest in coming up with new ideas for music therapy interactions! Having these spreads to brainstorm in will help me keep going with new ideas all the time. I think I'll go through my TME database today to list out all the TMEs that I've already formalized (or that my interns have written over the years) and then keep going with my current dinosaur syllable/rhythm cards project for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Once those are finished, I can print them out, make them into visuals, and then store them in my February box for easy reference later on. First, though, I am going to think a bit more about my themes and keep on brainstorming things to do with my current (and future) clients!

See you tomorrow? I hope so!!