Never, EVER, Make These Seven Music Therapy Mistakes

Time for another post based on a random blog topic generator - welcome to the "Mistake" edition of music, therapy, and me.

So, gather 'round, music therapists, to hear my song of woe. Listen well, and strive to learn from my example of mistakes and more...

Over my 28 years of being a professional music therapist, I have made more mistakes than I like to admit, but that's part of my mission with this blog - being honest about the good and not so good things that happen in this chosen life, so here goes...

1. Never, EVER - use a new song during an audition - If you are doing an audition for a job or for an internship position, use songs that you know so well that your brain can run your accompaniment without active thought. Does this sound strange to you?? Seriously. If you go into an audition where you have to lead therapeutic music experiences (TMEs), you will want your music to be almost routine. Nothing is worse than trying to remember how a melody line goes with the chord progression while folks are evaluating your skills...trust me.
2. Never, EVER - compare yourself to your music therapy cohort - This is a big one. You will hear stories from the people you went to school with for your entire music therapy professional life. Their story is their story and path. There is no comparison. I have difficulty with this one even now. It is perfectly fine that I do not have my Ph.D. or a private practice. My path is my path, full of my choices and things that I need to continue to be a music therapist. Celebrate the paths of others while you are celebrating your own. 
3. Never, EVER - assume that it is your fault when a bad session happens - Oh boy. You know the feeling that you get when a session does not work the way you thought it was? Anyone? Just me?? Well, okay. It has taken me a very long time to realize that I am not completely responsible for how my clients respond and choose to react to what I am doing. This outlook is very much shaped by my personal experiences working in a job where music therapy is not a choice for my clients but is a requirement. My clients occasionally decide before they even arrive in the session that they hate me and hate music and hate all the peers that they have to hear because music therapy is a place where voices are celebrated rather than quashed. If I mess up my musicking and my clients are scattered, then yeah, I can take more of the responsibility. If my clients are in a bad mood to start and actively resist EVERYTHING I try (even preferred music and TMEs), then I have done everything that I can do. That's the key - did I do everything I could think of to do in that moment? If so, then that's the amount of responsibility that I can accept. The rest is on my clients.
4. Never, EVER - use one song for only one therapeutic goal - there is no reason to limit any sort of music to just one thing. The very presence of music in the environment can stimulate several different types of goal areas, so there is never a time where I say. "That's the crossing mid-line song. Now let's do the crossing mid-line, rhythm stick song. Now let's do the crossing mid-line, rhythm stick, two-pattern song." That's not the best example of this, but I hope that my concept comes across. Anytime I get into that habit of thinking, I know that I need some creativity practice. There are always more things to address than just one goal when music is present. 
5. Never, EVER - think that music therapists are the only people who can use music as a therapeutic medium - One of my pet peeves are music therapists who get all snarky with other people who use music in their own therapeutic professions. Now, here's a caveat - if they say that they are doing "music therapy" without the proper credentials, then I have absolutely no problem letting them know where the boundaries are, but if they are playing music to assist their clients in communicating, I have no problem with that. AT ALL! If a speech therapist is singing with a client to encourage the client to speak - why not? If a psychologist is running a lyric analysis group with adolescents, I see no problem with that...as long as the professional doesn't label their work as "music therapy." We cannot control how our clients access music outside of our music therapy sessions. We cannot. That is an unrealistic viewpoint, so don't worry about it.
6. Never, EVER - become so attached to an instrument, visual aid, material, or prop that you are devastated when it is ruined - if you have a prop that you absolutely love, then don't bring it into the music therapy session. Trust me. Clients do not always know the quirks of keeping things intact, and anything that could happen to an item will happen...and it will break your heart! Leave those things at home and bring in stuff that you are less attached to into the session. I make multiple copies of all of my visual aids because I love making them and then I can lock one up in my "pristine" drawer where it will stay pretty and flat and unused. The others can go to my clinic area where they will be used and loved and wrinkled and become dilapidated. I can tolerate that type of use when I know that there is one in quarantine (if you will allow me to use that word after this year).
7. Never, EVER - become so attached to a client that you cannot walk away from treatment when it is time - this one is difficult. There will be clients that become part of your therapeutic identity all the time, but you must think about your own health, well-being, and need to be working in a place where you are valued. If you are staying in a job that makes you miserable because of clients, you need to evaluate exactly why you are staying.

I think that is enough for now. What music therapy mistakes do you want to share with the music, therapy, and me community? Let me know in the comments below...