TME Tuesday: Changing Up My Way of Thinking About How to Categorize My TMEs

I am in a season of experimentation and change in how I do many things. Perhaps this is spurred on by the constant changes that are occurring in my life - personal as well as professional. Perhaps this is just me trying to gain control over SOMETHING! Who knows?? I am starting some new routines and thoughts as I am in this season of evolution as a person.

One of those changes is to increase the purposeful use of materials that I already have available to me.

This post, of course, is focused on my therapeutic music experience (TME) file and format. After all, it is Tuesday. I am sitting here, getting ready to start my first breathing treatment of the day after deciding to take the day away from work so I can use all the medications that science has given me to control my breathing, and I am thinking about some of the things that I have been working on recently.

Does anyone know how I am organizing my thoughts?? Time to get my camera (and the nebulizer) so I can show you instead of trying to just tell you! While the pictures are uploading (and I am breathing in chemicals to open up my lungs on this hot, humid, MISERABLE day), here is some of my rationale for why I am changing things up...other than needing something new to occupy my mind and to fill time.

I often find myself thinking about thematic programming. I like how preschoolers often learn about things - through immersion in general themes like letters of the alphabet. I enjoy making thematic TMEs and finding ways to pull a common experience or idea through all learning experiences. If I was a school teacher, I probably would have been a Montessori teacher - someone who is Dewey-inspired and who supports discovery learning rather than teacher led learning. These were definitely the types of learning experiences that made the most impact on me as a learner, but I did not get to learn that way often.

So, the thought of thematic programming has always been attractive to me, but I am also the type of therapist who believes that it is important to go where the client leads you whether it is on the official plan or not, so thematic programming has not been something that I have really pursued during my years at my facility. I believe I have come to a place where I can finally merge my two passions - themes and client-led therapeutic interventions - into one place.

The problem??

I was always starting lists of themes for specific months and topics and putting them in various places around my therapeutic environment. Nothing was organized. Since one of my other ongoing quests in my life is that of finding my organization systems and then using them successfully, I thought that I might need a way to organize my thoughts on these subjects in a way that I could maintain and use in all sorts of projects.

So, you know what that meant!

A book of ideas!

This book that I have here was one that came to me in an Etsy purchase that I made about six months ago. I like getting mystery boxes and this traveler's notebook came with the cover, the charm, and two notebooks inside. I loved it when it arrived, but I did not have a use for it, so it just sat in the box until this most recent inspiration struck!

I can use it as my theme/idea/calendar book!

A friend of mine gave me two more traveler's notebook inserts (what we call the little books inside the cover), and I was ready to go. The first book is my ideas book. It is the place where I put down any and all ideas as they come to me. You can see the cover page, my key, and my cat post-it notes here.

The second page includes and intention statement and some of the ideas that have arrived in my brain in the last week or so. This is where I will be putting rough concepts before I move them over to the next book - my TME book.

The TME book has the same type of cover page and theme, some different cat post-its, and a key for organizing my productivity on various tasks. Here is where all of my other post-it notes will go until they are completely into my database. I finally have a place where I can put my half-finished ideas until I get them done!

The last two inserts are exactly the same thing. They are my calendar pages. Both of them have cat post-its in the front covers, but the rest is a bit different. One of the inserts that was included with the box was a monthly and weekly calendar insert. I don't use these types of inserts, so I was at a loss on how I was going to use this book. I was staring at it when I remembered that one of the things that I enjoy doing in my sing about mini TME subscription releases is to highlight certain recognition days and celebrations. I have not done much with this in my own clinical interactions, but why not?? So, these last two inserts became my calendars for those special events. You can see what I did for August in this photo.

Rather than using this as a dated calendar where I put in the dates in their proper week location for this year, I decided to make this a permanent collection. All of the months start with the first of the month in the first Sunday position regardless of when it falls in this year's calendar. This way I will not have to change things up next year. It is a perpetual calendar that offers ideas for themes or specific programming that happen every August first. I added a bit of washi tape as decoration and those two books are done!

I placed my current clinical foci on the far right column. These are the themes that I have already assigned to each month. It is also where I place the monthly celebrations. Weekly celebrations go in the boxes at the end of the month. I can add on or white-out over things that need changing. I anticipate that I will be using the weekly calendars to list specific TMEs to go with specific themes for each month. For example, I try to incorporate some sort of social-emotional learning or coping skill development every month. This month's focus is patience with a tangent into being aware of others. I can certainly see a need for placing many different options for this particular topic and coping skill so I can continue to meet my client's individual needs within the theme.

The benefits that I have already experienced with this book is that it fits in my backpack so I can take it with me everywhere! If inspiration strikes when I am at work, I can note it and then pick it up again when I am able to do so. I have all the tools that I am currently using in one location, and I have consistent themes designated for each month at the moment.

This does not change my database or format, but it does offer another way of organizing my materials...and (!!) it incorporates one of my favorite things - planners, organizers, and BOOKS I CAN WRITE IN!

Ooh, the nebulizing meds are starting to kick in. Better go. See you tomorrow??