Back to Blogging...It Has Been a While

Hello, all.

It has been quite a bit of time since I have blogged, and I am happy to be able to be back at the computer and writing something. I threw my back out and have not been able to sit, stand, walk, or lie down without extreme pain for the past two weeks...or is it three weeks? I am not really all that sure what the timing is, but it has been a long time. I have tried to blog, but I have not been able to sit for long enough to do anything. I have also been saving as much energy as possible for work - I spent an entire week at home because I couldn't drive. It has been quite the adventure in pain and inability to do things - all sorts of things. I now go to physical therapy for my back, and I am waiting for my insurance to deny the ordered lumbar MRI to see what is going on in my lower back. I assume that they will deny it since they have denied every other diagnostic test that my doctors have ordered over the past three years. That, however, is another story.

I am getting ready for some professional development for myself! I have signed up for a free group situation through Berklee - I am going to be part of the Music Education and Special Needs Group, and the course starts in about 40 minutes from now. I am interested in developing some techniques for my music therapy clients to assimilate back into general music education settings when they leave my facility and return to their community schools. I am not sure if this will be something that has value for me, but I am willing to find out.

I am not sure how I learned about this opportunity, but it came across my email, and it seemed intriguing. I signed up and am now getting ready to see what it is all about. There is some sort of project involved, so I have been brainstorming ideas about what I could possibly contribute - without knowing anything about the course except the topics that we are discussing. The course runs from now to the 21st of May, so I will have about six hours of Zoom for the next seven weeks. Oof. I am hoping that I will be able to access this course through my tablet if I cannot manage sitting at my computer for that long. I think it will work, but I will need to check that out.

How early is too early to sign in? I am getting my time-related anxiety responses right now. I will log in 15 minutes early - that is still 9 minutes away. Wish me luck, all. I hope to be a good representative of our profession in this special group.

One of the best things about being laid up lately is that I have come up with some new ideas to share with the music therapy community. I am working hard behind the scenes on getting these projects going. If you would like to be one of the first to know about some new session materials that I am developing, please sign up for my quarterly newsletter on the website here.

Only four minutes left...here I go!

Thanks for being here. 

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