Last Quarter of 2021

How did it already get to be the end of October?

I am not ready for today to be today. Work isn't the issue at the moment. Home things are taking over my bandwidth, and it is almost distracting to have to go to work to do the things that are paying for my home things. If I could take the next month off, I think I would get ready for this move. I had hoped to be doing these moving things during one of my school breaks, but it just didn't happen that way.

Life doesn't always happen the way you think it will.

It is already one third of the last quarter of the year 2021. I have been able to be at work for this entire year - no full isolation situations at my facility. I have shared this year with two interns who have had to figure out how to do music therapy in our pandemic reality right along with me. I am currently trying to figure out how to do music therapy without an intern - something I do quite often as an internship director - get back into doing music therapy as full-time clinician.

I am enjoying the opportunity to get to know all my clients again. One of the most difficult parts of being an ID is sharing my therapeutic relationships with other therapists. I am selfish enough to enjoy being THE music therapist, but I am enough of a mentor to know that there is plenty of relationship to share with others. I am enjoying the time in my office by myself but I also miss the camaraderie shared between two music therapists.

I am still feeling happy. I still find myself grinning at interesting times. I am spending lots of time by myself, and that's fine with me at the moment. I miss my kitty. I miss my Dad. I am feeling like I have a challenge ahead which is one of the things that I love about life - challenges.

I have three groups today and two dyad sessions. We are going to spend some time singing today. I am going to use the drum to center us and then sing as much as I can about as many things as I can. I want to tear down my cymbals to put them away in the shelves that I have. I want to stack the drums a bit and move things around. I also desperately need to vacuum up all the carpet dust and things in the office.

All I am thinking about, though, is getting home and packing things up in totes and boxes and taking down bookshelves.

All my students are thinking about is the Costume Parade happening today and the parties in classes this afternoon. We are all distracted. Let's hope that we get through today and into the rest of the month without too much difficulty.

Next month is moving month. My Thanksgiving will be held in my new home. That's the plan, and I have almost convinced myself of that fact. The anxious voice in the back of my head keeps telling me not to get too invested, but I am invested! The rational voice in the front of my head says that most people get the homes that they want without the types of issues that my parents had over and over and over again, but I lived through those issues and they still try to take over my excitement. It is time to fully commit to what the next month will bring.

I will be moving into my new home. I will be leaving the place I have lived with my Boo-Belle for a new place to live without her. I will move into the new house, find my way into doing things differently from how I do them, and then make my house a home for me. If nothing else, the purchase of this new place to leave is getting my sister to make plans to come to a state that she swore she would never come to again! What a sacrifice she is making for me!!

The rest of this year is coming. 2022 is on its way. I am hoping that things will happen the way I am thinking that they will. We will see, won't we?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music. As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience. DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals. Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more