Sometimes You Just Gotta Get Things Off Your Mind...

I spent over an hour yesterday, writing a blog post about some very strong opinions of mine. As I finished it, after agonizing about what I was thinking and putting out there, I decided NOT to publish the post. This was primarily because I never like being the center of controversy - I am much more of a "let's all find a way to get along" type of person, but I do have strong opinions and ideas, and writing is how I process those ideas. So, this particular post will probably never be put out onto the web for public consumption, but the process of writing it was cathartic for me and allowed me to think through my stances on some of the issues facing our Association these days.

I wonder how many of us music therapy types out there in the world do some sort of active processing. I know that many music therapists state that they engage in professional supervision as an essential part of how they do their job. My supervision was taken away by my administrators this year, and I do miss the opportunity to engage in professional discussion with my peer supervisor/supervisee. I have never had a long-term professional supervisor as part of my job. I have always depended a bit more on my own processing and evaluation. My most comfortable processing technique is journaling and blogging was a natural extension of that technique.

So, I write.

As you notice, if you go through past posts on this blog (and I have MANY past posts - been doing this since 2006!), many of the posts have more to do with the "me" part of the blog title than the other two parts ("music" and "therapy"). There are times when I treat this blog like a personal journal, but there are other times when I try to address things that are happening in our professional world. I try to share thoughts, ideas, and techniques that work for me in my role as music therapist in an attempt to help out other music therapists. There is no reason why you have to discover how to make mallets when I can share that information with you - right? Take advantage of the knowledge and experience of those who have gone before and learn from the ones who come after...

Now, I am wondering if I could make some mallets with my currently broken fingers. That would be a good YouTube video to make...if I can manipulate the yarn and the needle...hmmm. 

Anyway, after my long drafted post yesterday, I am a bit more clear on where I stand on some of the things that our Association is doing and on some of what I view as bullying voices in the music therapy community. If you would be interested in talking to me about my opinions, I would be happy to share what I think in a conversation with whomever. You can leave a comment here or contact me through my website or on social media - I would love to hear what you think about the state of music therapy these days.