music, therapy, and me

This is going to be short...again...because I slept in this morning...again. The days are getting shorter which often means an increase in my emotional state but a decrease in my awake hours. I have always been someone who gets sleepy when the sun goes down, so it means that I love my sleep and try to get as much as I can. I will probably have some crying jags between now and the time change in November - one of the last couple of time changes that we are going to have!! Hooray! Anyway, because of my need for sleep and my enduring love for reclining in my bed, I have less time to write than usual. I may start this, write a bit, and then come home and update it later.  ANYWAY... The topic for today is not enthralling, but it is something that I am considering as I move into the 11th month of home-ownership and am looking at tons of boxes in all my spaces - STILL! I would like to change this in the months that are coming up, so I want to transfer some of the systems that work for me well

My first attempt at a post today was not going the way I wanted it to, so I am now trying this whole writing thing again. I am taking a late day on this Thursday because I don't get my medication in me until after I finish work on Wednesdays - very late - so I am going to take this hour for myself...while stressing about "being late." I am not late - I will work my entire day of 8 hours. I also was at work late yesterday for a facility summit meeting, so I will end up doing more time than I am supposed to do this week like always. My guilt and anxiety over "being late" may take over, but I am going to try to resist my nagging feelings of concern in order to take some extra time for me this morning. I have been experiencing a bit of a loud week lately. One of the classrooms in my facility has been declared "structurally unsound," so I have neighbors again. Those neighbors are working on life skills so it is another of what my facility calls "specia

It is that time of year again. It is the time of year when I become a bit more judgmental about my creative efforts and what I think I SHOULD be doing rather than what I am actually doing these days. I do this quite often, and I am always very judgy when it comes to my own performance on my life and my skills. I am not composing these days. I am making birthday bags to celebrate people. I am creating task boxes from scratch for classrooms. I am trying to figure out how to coordinate another department when it comes to laminating (since I guess others cannot be trusted to turn on the machine by themselves - probably with good reason). I am supporting the creative efforts of interns while trying to get myself through the month of September. I am engaging in weekly discussions with music therapy students and interns. I am hosting monthly supervisor discussions as well. I have two part-time jobs that take my time and attention. I am having to navigate the world of contact irritants and al

We have officially entered the time of year that I call "Fact Sheet Season." I think that many people assign internship director contact as an assignment in the Fall semester of the senior years because I get more requests for fact sheets and application links during the months of September and October than any other months of the year. I also do not get much in the form of actual applications from this assignment, but I happily send out my fact sheet and links to my application to all who ask for them. It is interesting to me how people approach me during this process. I recently received an email that was not directed at me since it stated that the person sending it was going to be my practicum student this fall (I am not a practicum student supervisor - I have been in the past, but have not been approached to supervise a pre-internship student this fall). In the past, other people have sent emails that are not directed to me as well. I tend to return those to sender becaus

It is Sunday again, and I have nothing to synthesize. I basically referred to all of my ideas yesterday when I wrote about the AMTA Symposium. There was a comment that it is more difficult to find virtual presenters these days. I thought about that for a bit. I am part of a team that runs an international online conference, and we have more presentations than we need. I also know that I sent in two virtual presentation proposals for the conference that was cancelled, so I bet there were more people who submitted virtual proposals as well. I digress, though, back into my funk of yesterday. Time to shake myself out of this funk into something a bit more positive and more supportive of music therapy. The only other topic that I have on my idea board is about pet peeves in music therapy, and I am just not feeling that topic...yet, so I will figure out something else to synthesize. Time to head to my music therapy bookshelf!! (That's right, I have been able to make a portion of my libra

I will not be attending the inaugural AMTA symposium. I want you to know this from the get go. I have looked at the program and just can't justify spending the money to sit through any of those topics. I did hope that there would be something that would be valuable to me, in my role as clinician and clinical trainer, but it just doesn't seem to be so. I will be pursuing my remaining CMTEs for this cycle through other formats. So, here's my opinion about this symposium... First, it seems that we are trying really hard to give people some information but not enough to really let us know what all these "conversations" are going to be about. There are going to be many different conversations over the course of the four days.  Second, my schedule does not easily accommodate a Sunday-Wednesday conference. Lastly, this is a way to appease some of the voices out there, but it does not go far enough for me. How were presenters chosen? Who developed the topics? What do thes

One of the best things about being a bit overly passionate about any one thing is that I can write an entire series of posts about the topic without having to think much about something to write every morning. My major issue with the American Music Therapy Association Professional Competencies is that there is too much room for interpretation. I understand the need for some flexibility within the competencies, but as they are written now, they do not meet the requirements for objectiveness, clear definition, and being able to be evaluated in a yes/no or pass/fail system. So, I completed operational definitions for all of the competencies from the perspective of my job in my facility for my interns. (Lots of "my"s, aren't there?) Operational definitions take something that has lots of interpretations and makes that something into a series of specific tasks/skills. I know that my list of definitions is not complete, but it works for my internship program. Here's how it

There is so much more to competency-based education (CBE) than having a list of professional competencies as a small part of our educational programming. Just so you know, this is something that I am passionate about as we move into newer ways of educating and training future music therapists. This has been the topic of research projects of mine in the past (submitted for publication and loved by one reviewer and bitterly hated by the other reviewer - how can you ever hope to make it to publication when reviewers are that far apart in views?), and it continues to be something that I want to talk to music therapists about, so I do! My expertise, of course, is in using the American Music Therapy Association Professional Competencies in pre-internship and internship clinical training. I have developed a competency-based evaluation that I use in my internship program, and I developed the same thing for my educational program during my time as a graduate student. I find the AMTA competencie

Today is a day where I have some difficulty writing anything that I find interesting - even to myself. So, I will try to find something that is somewhat interesting before I have to take my shower and head out for the day. I did not go to work yesterday due to a lingering fever that has drained me of energy, so this has been yet another disrupted week. My fever broke in the middle of the morning yesterday, so I was able to find a bit of energy yesterday afternoon and did some organizing in the craft room. I also took a nap and then talked to some interns and students last night before sleeping downstairs in the cool of the basement. We are supposed to get a cold front coming through tomorrow and Friday, so I am looking forward to the easing of my heat/humidity pains and SAD. I have been spending some time thinking about one of my passions - competency-based education and clinical training. I submitted a proposal for a virtual session to the Ontario Association for Music Therapy for nex

There is something just frustrating about September for me, and it comes in the form of being sick. As a result, I have written songs about allergies, and about not feeling good, and about the ugh that comes with the month of September. I tend to spend at least some of my valuable sick time during this month. We have significantly high ragweed pollen in the air right now with very high temperatures outside and someone is pumping out essential oils in fragrances that make me stop breathing, so things are just prime for me to get sick. Enough self-pity. Here is the Allergy Song... (For the record, if I was writing this today, I would significantly expand the procedure section...) The Allergy Song Therapeutic Music Experience Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC Purpose : To discuss health implications of being outside in nature; to provide humorous point of view to allergies.   Source : Original song and lyrics. © 2016 by Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC. All rights reserved. Materia