TME Tuesday: Finding the Fun in Being a Music Therapist

"My creativity is back."

This was a comment that I heard yesterday which just warmed my heart immensely. Creativity is such a part of being a music therapist that it is so heartening when it flourishes in our brains and our professional practices. The lack of creativity might lead to feelings of inadequacy, or stagnation, or failure. It is amazing how much a spark can help.

I live through ups and downs in my own creative mood and abilities. They are not uncommon for me any more - the dips and waves of creativity are things that I have learned to expect, respect, and work through. When I heard that comment yesterday, I felt less alone in my own process of being a music therapist. It's amazing how much validation we can find when we hear that others experience the same sort of things that we go through.

One of the things that I like the best about being a music therapist is the creativity that goes along with presenting music to other people. I take it a couple of steps beyond just the musical parts of this job, though. I don't negate the music, but I do enjoy making visual aids and coming up with thematic programming in addition to composing and performing.

Do you have fun as a music therapist?

What are the parts of this job that are the most fun for you?

I love it when my students ask for songs that I composed. I love it when I hear that our behavioral health technicians sing my songs with their children in their homes. I love it when a therapeutic music experience (TME) plan comes together and clients respond the way that I expect. I also love it when my clients take my TME plan and change it completely! I love writing new music and learning songs that others love. I love it when ideas come out of my brain faster than I can write them down.

For me, the creative process and ability to make a spark of an idea into a full-fledged TME has always been the most fun part of being a music therapist. 

One of the things that I tell interns and others is that I choose to do much of my TME development at home rather than at work. Part of this is because I have all the stuff here to complete what I need to complete, but a bigger part of this is so that there is no real difficulty with identifying my intellectual property as something separate from my job responsibilities. I also find that I can think a bit more clearly about client goals and musical interactions when I am not in the throes of being "the music therapist." I choose to work on visual aid development and TME writing as well as composition and all that when I am here at home rather than trying to do all of those things at work. It makes all sorts of things more simple for me by making this choice. 

Having said all of that, I am currently in the most difficult part of the year for my creativity. Summer tends to make everything more difficult for me to complete. It doesn't seem to matter what I try to do, the summer heat and humidity is just too much to handle and creativity goes out the window. Add into the mix the fact that I have less opportunity to do music therapy groups when I have interns present and I experience a still creativity pool rather than one that is bubbling and overflowing with ideas.

So, as I have written about time after time and in post after post, I do things to supplement my creativity. During the summer months, I tend to finish projects that I developed in better times of the year. I do lots of laminating and putting things into storage. I categorize things a bit more in the summer than in other parts of the year. It is fun to cut out my visuals. I enjoy putting finished visuals on my database, and I write down as many ideas as I can during these difficult months so I can work on them during the surge of creativity that comes along with autumn weather.

It is perfectly fine if you hate making visual aids. It is perfectly fine if you never want to laminate anything. It is perfectly fine if you never touch a laminator in your music therapy career, but I hope that you find some fun in being a music therapist. Fun in your work makes work less of a chore and more of a life confirming situation that you get to engage in on a regular basis.

I hope you find your fun, fellow music therapist.

 

(Shameless plug: If you are interested in visual aids, both digital and pre-made, let me know! I have a Teachers Pay Teachers store with many different visuals available for very little money.)