My Time Consuming Quest

I have been on a quest lately...

It's taking over my front room and spreading to my back room and just piling up everywhere. Even through the mess, I am really excited about what I am doing in my free time.

I have signed up to be an exhibitor at the Midwestern Region Conference for the American Music Therapy Association.

This is a big deal for me because I've never really thought about doing this before and several people have encouraged me to think about it and now I am moving out of my comfort zone and into my unsteady future by putting myself out there for others.

I have started my process of making visual aids for my exhibition hall debut. I have made a stack of visuals for all sorts of therapeutic music experiences, and I am getting myself organized so I have things to offer my fellow therapists.

The bits and pieces that go into making complete visuals are currently stored in a small box awaiting lamination. I have pigs and coins and animal cards and dinosaur rhythms. Everything is about halfway finished at this point and nothing is completely ready.

There are lots of things that go into being an exhibitor. I have to think about how people can pay for materials, how to get materials to and from (that part has been the easiest for this particular conference - it's within driving distance), how to display things, and what to include. At this point, I'm just making the things that I love from my idea bank, TME file, and store. The pile of things on my living room floor is diverse in therapeutic purpose and in presentation as well. I have a bit of time before things have to be finished, but I am feeling a bit rushed even with six weeks to go.

 Today, I am looking at a stack of mini file folders ready to be turned into something that other music therapists could use with clients. It's time to get started on this part of my display, but I'm not really sure what I will end up doing with these little visual aids.

 If you are new to this blog, then you don't know that I LOVE making visual aids to use with my clients during music therapy sessions. I find the entire process of making things, testing them with clients, and then refining them to make them better very stimulating and fulfilling. These are the things that I do for fun - making visual aids at home, writing songs to go along with them, and writing up their therapeutic music experiences so that other music therapists can replicate the experiences with their clients.

 I share some of my visual aids on my Teachers Pay Teachers store at a low cost for fellow music therapists. I have some that are mine alone - either because I have not used original art or haven't digitized the files yet. I have others that are part of my sing about songs therapeutic music experience collections (available at this link). I enjoy the hours that I spend writing songs, developing visuals, and establishing the therapeutic function of each piece of music as well as every single visual aid, but this process is taking over pretty much every other thing in my life these days.

 Good thing I love it.

 I hope that I'll see you at the Midwestern region conference later this spring...ooh, it will soon be spring. If you are there, please stop by my table to see what is around - I envision lots of visual aids, books, and some charms and planners and small notebooks and stuff. If you aren't going to the MWRAMTA conference, then you can always let me know if you would like to see my catalog. I'd be happy to send some things along to you!!

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