COVID-19 and Music Therapy - Juggling the Responsibilities, the Constant Changes, and the Need To Do the Job

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. Overnight, my facility went from full capacity to two-thirds capacity. My sister's school went from live to fully online interactions. Many of the music therapy business owners that I know went from live interactions to losing significant chunks of business and having to spend significantly more energy and resources to figuring out new and different ways of engaging clients into therapeutic relationship and progress towards goals. The past five months have been significantly challenging for all of us, and the current shouting matches that are going on seem to be a result of the ever-changing climate that we all find ourselves in. 

I am an essential health care worker.

My job was considered to be part of the essential parts of my facility. This was simultaneously comforting and terrifying. I have been working most of my regular caseload since this entire thing started. I have not had to have the financial worries of many of my music therapy peers, so I am coming from a place of privilege at the moment. (Isn't it interesting how privilege can have nothing at all to do with who I am as a human??) I have been pretty silent in the music therapy forums that I am part of because of this privilege - I don't feel comfortable offering suggestions when I haven't had to do the same things that the others did. 

I can tell you, though, that being employed during this time has not been easy to navigate either. While my job was pretty steady, the ways I have had to do therapy has changed about every three weeks since all this started. I envied my sister who did not have to go anywhere during the last three months of her school year and then who had a summer off. She had to scramble to figure out how to get her students to learn, but once she found a way, she was able to find a consistent routine that seemed to work for her and for her students. I was not able to find the same sort of consistency.

Through the past five months, and looking towards the uncertain future, I am trying to get answers where there are none. I am asking questions that people cannot answer because none of us know what is going to happen. My school opened to the same two-thirds of my caseload last Wednesday and the missing third will start live school this Wednesday. We have students coming from lots of different counties, and we are not sure what types of things our students have been doing while they have not been at school.

This seesaw of a year has been exhausting for me. Every time I think I have figured out a schedule, the world goes all over the place, and my best laid plans no longer fit.

As a clinician, I have tried to be a consistent person for my clients and co-workers. I have striven to offer new experiences and ways for them to express some of their own insecurities and emotions. I have had to learn how to sing through a mask and how to use my eyebrows to express what the rest of my face usually takes care of in communicating. I have tons of thoughts about virtual music therapy, but I cannot focus on those thoughts because I have other things to do. As a music therapist, I want to be figuring out how to get things done in the virtual world so I can help others, but it is not happening at the moment.

I wonder if any of us, in the music therapy and regular worlds, will be able to navigate a new "normal." I can see a future where some people never return to live therapy or school now that there are virtual options available. We will have to figure out how to be music therapists in interactions that do not include in-person contact. We will need to figure out if that is "therapy" and how to make it something that we can do within our scope of professional practice. Is it therapy simply because a therapist generated the content? I think not, but that is something that we will have to discuss and act upon in the very near future.

I am going to end this, put on my uniform, and head out into the world to do my job, singing and interacting with my clients. Thank you for reading. Please add any of your own thoughts to the comments section. You can indicate whether you want the comment published or not in the comment because all comments are moderated before publishing. Thanks for being here and there and being a music therapist.