music, therapy, and me

By the way, this is an extremely opinionated post - I figure that this is my blog, and I encourage different perspectives and point of view, but, ultimately, this is my place to think about my profession and where I fit in it. Feel free to comment, unfollow me, or write responses to what I post - I will read everything and select what I want to share with the bigger world...Now that's been said...here we go. This has been a strange year for us all. The "way we do things" is changing in all aspects. I started crying a couple of weeks ago when I was watching a movie where people went to a restaurant to eat with people not in their immediate families. I miss just going shopping because it is Saturday, and I want to get out of the house. (I don't do that these days because of the need to remain as germ-free as possible due to my role as a live, in-person, essential health care worker. The responsibility is always there...) My sister has not met her current crop of second ...

It's that time again - time for my students to go back to school tomorrow, so rather than come up with a TME to share, I thought I would challenge you all to use a specific song and make it into a TME.   FULL DISCLOSURE: I will use your ideas in my music therapy interactions with my clients, but I will NEVER share them outside of my own clinic without explicit permission from you, and I will make sure that you are listed as the source of the TME idea in my TME file for perpetuity. I will NEVER profit from your idea in any way. Someone stole one of my songs and TMEs once - I don't want anyone else to ever have to go through what I've gone through. So, here's the deal. I have a song that could have so many different uses in a music therapy session, and I'd like to know what you all think and how you would use it. This is a participation deal. Please comment below. In your comment, tell me if you want me to publish it so lots of folks can see you...

When I last wrote, my future was very unclear to me. At this point, my future is still unclear, but I know that I will NOT be having to rearrange all sorts of stuff to accommodate surgery. Turns out that I have a partial tendon rupture in my left middle finger to go along with a fractured left ring finger, but my hand specialist thinks that three months of splinting will heal things up a bit. Now, while I am grateful that I am not trying to juggle two interns and significant time off from work, I am still a bit scared about what this hand injury means for my future, but I am going to try to focus on other things now. Thank you for reading about this. 2020 has really been strange, hunh? So, me and my very strong left-side dominant self are trying to figure out how I am going to do even the most basic of things. My recent self-care practices are on hold because I can't use my left hand to do much of anything. Writing is out, typing is difficult, but I still need to be engaging in sel...

I am probably not going to be writing lots on my blog for a bit - and here's why... I am currently having to navigate something that has only happened once before with me, and that is a life-changing injury. The last one was a total ACL repair on my left knee, and this one is a tendon tear in my left hand middle finger. I'm not going to share how this happened, it is not relevant, but I am currently wavering between "it will all be okay" and "I'll never be able to play the guitar again!" I think this will come out the former rather than the latter, but those pesky other thoughts keep bursting into my head! While there is never a good time for something like this, the timing of this situation has hit me hard. I now hove to figure out how to juggle a new intern, a current intern, AND my job in a way that will be able to fit around surgery, recovery, and rehabilitation. I have to find someone who can drive me to my appointments, and I have to figure all of ...

I LOVE it when someone wants a specific visual to go along with a therapeutic music experience (TME) that they have in mind. The next file highlighted in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and post series is the result of just such a situation. I am an internship director and in that role, I come across interns with a wide variety of experiences and interests. One of my recent interns had found the Pete the Cat stories and was interested in developing some TMEs to go along with some of the books. Now, I don't know this story at all, but when my intern mentioned the book, I started thinking about some of my own shoe songs and this file came into being.  As always, this file includes an original song for you to use in your music therapy sessions. I love it, and I hope that your clients will enjoy it as well.

...struggling to find anything to write about, so here is a list of the things that are going through my brain at the moment... Reading - nothing. I finished my book and have not identified the next book that I want to lug around with me. I thought about a Steven King novel, but that's not really calling out to me. I may re-read the Harry Potter series. Drinking - water. Lots and lots of water. Wearing - my knee brace and jammies before I take my shower and get dressed for work. Working on - intern paperwork and session strategies for next week when I have half of my caseload back. I am also putting together a set of recipe cards for a swap that is scheduled by Friday. Feeling - tired, restless, frustrated, and unprepared for the week ahead. Wishing - that I didn't have to wear a mask in the world. Looking forward to - doing music therapy with clients next week. It has been a while. Avoiding - doing anything that seems like work - I just want to stay at home all day and one day...

First of all, SURPRISE!! I decided to take a bit of time and change what the blog looks like these days. It is time for a change. Let me know what you think because I am open to changing it yet again, if it is not something that is easily accessible for others. Second, I am back to needing to think about what sort of theme call out to me for my Sunday posts. I tried to start video sharing, but I am not often all that interested in sitting in front of editing software for hours on end, and then the computer takes up all my bandwidth so I can't watch television while things are uploading, and there are all sorts of other complaints that I have about all of this that really aren't worth anything at all!! Anyway, what I want is a topic that interests me and keeps me writing every Sunday morning so I can crank the posts out on a day where I am busy with one of my part-time jobs. Over the years, I have had many different Sunday themes and post series, and each of them has run its cou...

  Sooooo... Yesterday, after the dinner I had finally decided to heat up and consume fell from my hands and scattered all over the carpeted floor (and, OF COURSE, it was Zoodles alfredo with lots of sauce) and I burst into hysterical tears, I decided that, for the good of humanity, I needed to get into my bed and just be surrounded by things soft and fluffy. This second week back has been rough, and I am very thankful that it is almost over. I don't like that I have to do therapy groups today - I have never had group sessions on Fridays before (by deliberate design), so this is not something that I am looking forward to, but it is what it is, so I can't really complain - if I do, nothing will come of it, so why bother? Anyway, it is almost the weekend, and I am looking forward to it all. Two days of only doing what I need to do - which is to clean up every possible surface - well, that's kinda sad... I have determined that I need to schedule in fun the same way that I sched...

This has been the type of month where I have been, like everyone has, having to change plans for other plans that have to be changed to yet other plans at the last moment. It just seems to be the way the world works now. I have lots of music therapy friends right now who are facing some difficult decisions about this profession and how they fit within it. There are some who are not able to keep their businesses open and others who have been let go from their jobs because they were not considered "essential" to their facilities. The same thing is happening in all professions. I have a friend whose husband has to take a 35% pay cut to accommodate the difficulties happening in our world right now. It seems to be an epic wave of uck crashing down on us all, followed by the second and third waves which are just as devastating. I am amazed by the resilience and determination that I see in my music therapy friends and acquaintances right now. Some are pivoting with every new wave, t...

This is where I long to be - not necessarily at this particular place - a part of the Allerton Gardens on Kauai - but in a place where I can be in restful solitude near some water, outside, and enjoying some peace. Alas, this is nowhere near where I am at the moment - not in location, not in environment or ambience, or in attitude. Instead, I am in what feels like a constant swirl of newness and shifting landscapes. One moment, I am clear about what I am going to be doing today and the next moment brings all sorts of change to my door. This is not unique to me and my experience this year. There is some comfort in that thought. You know, the song from High School Musical "We're All In This Together" goes through my mind pretty consistently when I am writing my blog lately. We truly are in this situation all together - the entire world - and it is fascinating to me how people in various places are coping...or not...with what is going on. I will see the last third of my stu...

It is Tuesday again, and I am ready to highlight my Teachers Pay Teachers store once again. Instead of going over one of my visual aids, I thought I would feature my forms today. These forms have several different functions, specifically for internship directors and supervisors and music therapy clinicians to help with strategizing and strengthening their use of music in sessions. This is a direct glimpse into how my brain works - don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a thing, so here it goes! I like forms. I like having them, but I have rarely found what I want or need from many of the forms that are part of being a music therapist. The National Roster Internship Site Evaluation that is offered by the AIAC? Adequate, but not exactly what I needed at my national roster internship, so I made my own (not part of these files...yet!). I have done that with lots of materials and forms - made my own or made newer or more functional versions of those things.  Are yo...

Everywhere I look these days there are angry people. There doesn't seem to be many people who aren't angry about something or another, and most of our anger seems to be part of the entire COVID-19 situation that we are part of at the moment. Some are angry because they are not allowed to do what they feel they should be allowed to do. Others are angry because they want to limit what others do in a protection mode. Others seem to be yelling JUST BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE IS YELLING, SO HERE IS MY CAUSE THAT I WANT PEOPLE TO HEAR ABOUT! I am not ashamed to admit that I am struggling with all of the negativity that is happening around me, and I am isolating myself from as much of it as possible. As a music therapist, I am linked to music therapists all over the world who are struggling to navigate this pandemic. We are prone to wanting to help (hence the term "therapist"), and this virus has changed everything that we were used to doing in ways that are difficult to process....

So, the idea of making videos on Sunday mornings turned into more of a challenge than I really want to do on Sunday mornings, so I am going to abandon Sunday as the time of video production in favor of another evening with a follow-up post the day after to accommodate things like - "Oh, I can't use the internet when my computer is uploading things to YouTube because it takes over ALL the bandwidth and that is not good!" So, here is an oldie, but goodie from my YouTube channel. Enjoy!!

I cannot seem to find anything positive to write about this morning, so I am going to offer another chapter in the life of my protagonist, Persephone, as she goes through music therapy training in the future...this will be short and sweet because I've already spent about 45 minutes trying to come up with something else to write about. It's been some time since I wrote a Persephone chapter, so here goes! Now, where were we...    CHAPTER ELEVEN  The rest of the semester seemed to drag on once mid-term results were announced. Peers who had not passed were missing from seminars and lab classes as the program offered additional lectures and course work for those who would not be continuing in the program. Persephone's cohort had shrunk by about 20 students, leaving spots in her lecture tier empty. Her friends and acquaintances had passed, so her social groups were stable. Calla had found Persephone as soon as the results were posted. They had cautiously inquired about the stat...