"NTM" TME Challenge Check-Up: Not My Best Performance, But...

For a time now, I have been striving to increase my clinical creativity through developing new therapeutic music experiences (TMEs). I have been trying to find some "New to Me" TMEs to bring into my clinical practice to help me increase my repertoire for the benefit of my clients. This practice has been something that I come back to on a regular basis, and it seems to be helping me find some new ideas.

My self-imposed rules are pretty arbitrary, but seem to work. The major rule is that I have to include some sort of therapeutic music experience that is something I haven't done before. It can be a TME written by someone else or it can be something that I've come up with on my own. The proviso that I can use something that someone else came up with has been the best decision I have made for this particular goal. I have tons of materials and resources, and it is fun to bring a new song, written by someone else, into my therapy setting to see what will happen. Many times, these songs are just that - songs. They do not have a therapeutic process attached. I still have to come up with those parts of the TME. 

Last week, I took a glance through my TME database and found a Halloween song that I had composed about five years ago. I don't think I had ever used it in sessions before, but I took it out, memorized it, and then used it for most of my Halloween improvisation TMEs for the holiday. It was already fully fleshed out into my particular TME set-up and format, so I didn't have to do too much to get it ready for use.

So, I brought the song into a variety of sessions. As all therapeutic music experiences do, the TME and the song itself morphed to accommodate client differences and presenting needs. It was fascinating to take an idea (that was mine to being with, apparently), and then make it fit the diverse client groups that came to music therapy.

I've been tracking my progress on this goal. Originally, I wanted to do a "NTM" TME every day, but that became unsustainable pretty quickly. I changed my criterion to every week, and that really didn't happen either, but I am still dedicated to this particular goal and objective for myself. I am finding that the number criterion is not a good target for me. So, I am going back to the beginning for this particular personal professional goal.

The trick to writing a good goal or objective is to root it into a desired outcome. My desired outcome for myself this year was to refresh many of my music therapy practices. I am finding myself in ruts in my practice. This happens every so often, so it's not extremely concerning, but if I am not careful, I end up doing the same thing each and every day, and that is boring. So, at the beginning of this school year, I set myself some goals designed to help me find and sustain my creativity in the clinical area.

One of those goals was my "NTM" TME challenge. Another was to use the piano or keyboard one week per month and the last was to use the Orff instruments that I have available to me one week per month. These creativity goals made up a portion of the goals that I am working on in my desired outcome of refreshment, including expanding my knowledge base and working on various projects.

Progress is happening. Slowly.

The biggest thing that I have to continue to remind myself is that slow progress is better than no progress, so it doesn't matter how fast I get to the point of making my current goals habitual. It only matters that I take steps forward every day.