Sentimental Sunday: March 20, 2017 - Variations on a Theme *Part Two

Today's past post comes to us from March 20, 2017. Post #1478 was the second post in a series. I am often surprised by things that I have written - this is one of those things. I do not remember these posts, but they challenge my way of thinking at the moment - this is a good thing, and it amazes me that these thoughts were my thoughts!

This post happened after my attendance at a super regional conference in Colorado. It was a good conference - one where I had the opportunity to share my interests with others in ways that I find most relevant to me - we created some art, we watched videos, we talked about burnout, we talked about research in clinical practice. It was a good conference for me, and one of the last ones that I attended in person - I think there was one more regional conference in 2018 that I attended because it was at home. I was able to save on hotel fees while getting some time with my parents and siblings. I came home to write this series of posts.

For some reason, my brain went into a series of thoughts about commonalities between music therapists and into my own process as a music therapist as I continue to find my way through this profession. I think about these things on a regular basis, but I think this analogy was the best one for my brain to organize my thoughts.

If you read this series, you'll see that I think of music therapy as a theme. We are all taught some basic elements of music, psychology, and human development. We are supposed to have the same foundational information (I don't think we get that, but we are supposed to). That forms the theme.

Now, my undergraduate education was a behavioral program. We did not get lots of experience with other types of music therapy sessions, but we learned about other philosophical and technical music therapy opportunities. I see these different ways of doing music therapy to be variations on the basic theme. There is the behavioral variation and the psychodynamic variation. There is the neurological variation and the guided imagery variation - you get the idea.

As I move through my own life as a music therapist, I can identify times in my life when I experienced different variations. That is what this particular post is all about. (Read it here...) My variations to the theme that I have learned have been unique to me but have also influenced how I do the job that I choose to do everyday.

Is there such a thing as a variation on a variation? Hm. I need to do some music theory exploration to see if that is a thing. I haven't read the next post in this series, but it references what clients bring to our thematic material - I would think that this would be a variation of a variation...

Now I am shifting into non-sentimental stuff...

It is Sunday again. I did absolutely nothing yesterday but read and sleep. This has been a strange week - lots of things happening that are not a problem to anyone but me. I didn't write yesterday...or Friday...or Thursday, mainly because I have been sleeping later than usual and have not been up in enough time to write. I have moved to my summer bedroom because my winter bedroom is too hot for sleeping and downstairs is much cooler in temperature during the hot months. I do not have a light alarm downstairs (yet - that will be fixed by this afternoon), so my body has been sleeping until it wakes up - about an hour later than usual - and I have been awake much longer in the evenings as well. I have not quite started to get into the routine of being up much later than usual, but I will work on it. I want to do things that I will be able to do if I take advantage of my current routine of being awake about two hours later than two weeks ago. 

I feel like I have stagnated recently. This is a common theme for my professional life. It happens more after conference season, and this feeling has been amplified by being passed over for a position that I really wanted this past week. I am trying really hard to contribute to my profession, but I guess I am not all that desirable within the profession at the moment. This spring has been a bit detrimental to my sense of extrinsic value, but I continue to figure out what I want to do and what I want to know.

The post from 2017 reminds me that I can change - it reminds me that I have changed before and am not finished as a music therapist yet. There you go. I am more than my recent experiences, and I'm not done being a music therapist or with my role in this profession.

Well, it is time to head upstairs and get ready for work.