Wednesday: Back to the Routine

I took yesterday off to get some breathing treatments going and some relief from the pollen that has taken over my existence. Today, though, I have to get going to work. The day has already started out better than yesterday did. When my alarm went off, I was able to get up, and I haven't coughed much at all. I will take my nebulizer to work and do a treatment when I arrive. I can't do a treatment before that because it makes me shaky. It is better to wait than to drive under the influence of this drug. So, breathing treatments have to wait for later this morning. I can do another treatment when I get home and then I will be ready to sleep.

We will play Instrument JINGO today. I had originally planned on doing a brass demonstration, but my breathing just hasn't cooperated, so I remembered JINGO and prepared that instead. It fits the theme of the second week of the month, so JINGO it is. (By the way, my theme for this week is "instrument information.") Some of my groups will explore my novelty toy instruments, but most of the groups from now on will play JINGO.

So you may be wondering how JINGO works as a therapeutic music experience, and the answer is that it really isn't. There is nothing about that game that makes it music therapy. In fact, anyone can run a bingo-type game like JINGO. It does not incorporate musicking of any sort. There is nothing in my training that makes me uniquely qualified to run this particular game. So, I would not characterize this TME as "music therapy," but that's okay. There is a time and a place for every sort of interaction. I cannot breathe, so this is what we do. I don't have to worry about coughing all over everyone while I am trying to sing, and we still learn about instruments.

Now, I could write a TME that includes audio discrimination goals in addition to the game play goals, impulse control goals, attention to task goals, all sorts of different goals, but the game is not something that only a music therapist is trained to do. This doesn't mean that bingo doesn't have its place in the world of a music therapist - it certainly does, but I do think about whether what I do is actually something that clients experience only in music therapy when I am designing my TMEs.

How do we decide whether something is "music therapy?" My criteria are simple. I want my experiences to be things that I am qualified to provide to my clients. I want them to be able to take some of the things that we practice together with them into their futures. I want them to experience things in music therapy that they do not get anywhere else. I also want my clients to be interested and engaged in what we are sharing. I believe that clients have a choice for engagement, and I want them to choose to participate in what I share with them. There is no reason why my clients should be playing bingo every week in music therapy. Even if their goals meet the goals of bingo, we should be doing other things in music therapy sessions than just bingo.

I could enrich our simple game of instrument recognition into something that I would consider to be "music therapy." We would work on listening and audio discrimination (as I mentioned before). We could select our preferred timbre and compose some music with that timbre for a goal-related purpose. These are things that would take the non-music therapy game of bingo and turn it into something that morphs into something that I consider to be music therapy. The bingo game is the vehicle that leads us into the interventions that I am uniquely qualified to offer to my clients. The game becomes the first portion of our journey towards a different goal, and it provides a bit of fun to entice clients to engage. Even the most stoic of my adolescents will play a game of bingo....

During this world music therapy week, I am glad that I am music therapist. I am fortunate that the profession that captured my imagination way back in the day is still something that challenges me and keeps me interested in things. Would I change things about this profession, if I could? Of course, but the benefits to me far outweigh the detriments. Most of the people who read this blog on a regular basis are also music therapists, so I hope that you have found that the benefits are more prevalent than the detriments. If you find the balance tipping towards more detriments than benefits, you might consider changing what or how you do things. Your responsibility is always to your own engagement and happiness. If you want to leave the profession, then do it. Do not stay a music therapist if you are not interested in the clients that you serve. Change jobs, change professions, change your geographic location. You owe nothing to anyone when it comes to your profession. Nothing.

On that note, it is time for this music therapist to prepare for her work day. Five groups today - no individuals, so there will be some quiet times between the morning and afternoon groups. After that, we have a communication meeting about the state of the company that I work for - these discussions are a bit too rah-rah for my tastes, but there are interesting bits of information shared, so I will go. That's one of the things about being a music therapist that I don't really enjoy - the politics of working for a company, but that sort of stuff happens in every job, even if you are the business owner, so that's just part of being a professional these days.

Happy Music Therapy Week, everyone!