Home Again...And, In a Better Mood Than This Morning

I am now back at home, in my own surroundings, and ready to get going on the rest of my month. While I love traveling, I also love being home. I appreciate home so much more after being on the road, so I am grateful for the chance to head out into the world and then come back to a place I love to be.

My day ended up much better than my morning indicated.

This morning, I was in a bummer of a mood. I was stuck in self-pity and criticism loops. I am less prone to that type of thinking now. The change happened because I had several small and one big interaction with people at conference which allowed me to reflect about things.

Music therapists are a wonderful bunch of people. Over the course of the day, I engaged in some shameless (well, sorta) self-promotion after realizing that no one really knows that I've been talking about the therapeutic elements of music (they even use same terminology that I've been using for 12 years now) for a very long time. I met my new AIAC representative today, and I am glad to know that she is taking over. She started her internship back when I was the AIAC representative, so things have gone full circle. One music therapist apologized for something that I did not recall, but I did appreciate the guts that it took to apologize. Several people asked me about my blog (after the aforementioned self-promotion), and a friend of mine offered some suggestions about how I can start to increase marketing and cultivate new opportunities.

After starting the day in a bah, humbug type of mood, I am ending with a feeling of contentment. I have some things to think about and to do, but I am feeling a bit more comfortable that I can do things to move me towards my goals.

For now, I am going to contemplate the ideas that I have been presented, and I'm going to research guitars. I need a new one for home. I promised myself that I would get one when my hand rehabilitation was over, and that's been over for quite some time now. I did not go through all of my trip money, so I will have enough for a new instrument.

Thank you, music therapy colleagues, for just being you. You will never know the types of things that make a difference in the lives of the people around you. I was the recipient of those things today.

Love you all!

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