music, therapy, and me

I am home from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and the World Congress for Music Therapy. I am recuperating from some pretty severe jet lag caused by my trip back home from the western side of the continent to the eastern side of the continent and then back to the middle of this continent - all in 24 hours. Vancouver was a beautiful city, with many beautiful things, but it was also a city that had lots of unhoused people who were shooting up on the streets. I have never seen heroin users shooting up before, and they were there, all over parts of the city. Apparently there are no prohibitions to using drugs as long as you only possess enough for personal use. As a result, there are many people who are using drugs and unhoused and with mental illness wherever you go. My therapist nature kicked in and wanted to problem-solve, but my attentions would be better focused here than there. It was interesting to see and experience. One of the things that struck me about the things that we did...

Well, here we are on the brink of Day Five of my current break and another day at the World Congress of Music Therapy. Today is Friday - I have to repeat this to myself because I never really know what day it is during conferences. So, today is Friday, and all of my travel companions and I go home tomorrow to our various places in the world. They are going to stick close to the hotel today while I do more today than I have at the conference so far - one more session during today, if I last that long. I have been promised poutine when I get home - the one thing that I wanted to try while we were here in Canada - so that is the anticipated highlight of my day. I woke up this morning with a runny nose and a horrible sinus headache. I took some meds to help and am hoping that I will be able to be something other than a horribly sniffly mess during today's discussions and papers. It's been four hours so far, and no change, so I'm not really hoping for much. I had ice cream for d...

It is 5:49am here in Vancouver, and I am showered and getting ready for the second full day of the World Congress for Music Therapy, the fourth full day of our visit here, and the third to the last day that I am going to be here. I am enjoying everything except for some hip pain which is exacerbated by sitting and then having to hike up some really mild hills and the VERY soft beds that are here at the hotel, but other than that, I am enjoying things. The first full day of the conference was my presentation day. I presented on thinking critically about the future of music therapy and clinical training. The presentation started off with two delegates but ended up with nine. We had some interesting discussions about possible futures that we might experience at some point. I am looking forward to writing up the comments and sharing them after the Congress is over.  Before my presentation, I attended the Spotlight session, saw some friends, and sat with John Lawrence who I know from th...

Today is the third day of the World Congress of Music Therapy (or is it "for" music therapy?? I haven't paid attention.), and it is my day to present a workshop that will, hopefully, provoke some ideas about the future of music therapy education and 9clinical training. I am hoping that people will come to see me, but I am convincing myself that I will present what I need to present to the people who are there - whether it is 1 or 100. (Oh dear, I just stubbed my toe on a chair leg and nearly went down on the floor. I am in my hotel room, trying to be as quiet as I can because my mom is still sleeping. I am wandering around in the dark a bit, and was watching my tablet and not my location. Silly me. This is NOT the way to start off the day!) ANYWAY... I have been very nervous about this presentation, and I am not sure why. This entire trip has been anxiety-producing for me. I don't know if it is the fact that I have stepped away from things like music therapy conferenc...

It is early on day two of my break, and my Mom is starting to stir a bit in her slumber. I have taken a shower and am waiting for her to wake up so I can change the pant selection I made in the dark. I decided that jean leggings were just too casual for tonight's World Congress Opening Ceremony. I'll go for black leggings instead. The Congress starts off tonight with the opening ceremony and a welcome reception. Even though I have paid for the reception, I am going to skip it for several reasons. First, I do not relish being out that late and having to walk back to my hotel by myself. Second, I think I will have enough socialization and interaction with folks during the opening ceremony. Third, I have a workshop in the morning that I must go over again and again and again. My nerves are getting more and more intrusive as the time goes on. By this time tomorrow, I will be a nervous wreck, but, by this time on Thursday, I will be calm as a cucumber because I will be able to simpl...

It is day one of my last summer break for this summer, and I am currently in a place I have never ventured before. Getting to this place was definitely an adventure. My day started with sleeping past the alarm and waking up an hour after I wanted to get up. I managed to get out the door 8 minutes after I woke up...in a panic, of course. The rest of the day was spent in planes and in airports with my travel companions having to wait for me for several hours because I had a later arrival than they. By the time I FINALLY cleared customs and made it to the greeting area, I had been traveling for 19 hours. We then had to navigate the train system (not difficult at all), check into the hotel (originally tried to give us one room rather than two), and then head off in search of food. My travel companions ate at an open air bar in the hotel, and then we talked to the front desk about a very strong mildew smell in our bathroom. We had to stay up a little bit more for the shower curtain to be sw...

It is Saturday again. It is also the start of my next break from work. It is time to spend some time creating and then sharing that creation with you all. So, what should it be? Should it be a folder activity? Or a game? Or a TME? Or another type of project completely? The nice thing about the directive on the picture - Spend Time Creating - does not specify any sort of creativity. Anything goes on this day! This is the second Saturday where I am trying out a new blog post topic. My thoughts are preoccupied by events happening really soon, but I have plenty of things that I can share with others during these posts, so let's go for it! Here's an idea that I can share with you all ! I did not create this, but I now know how to generate a file like this. I went through the tutorial, and it is really easy, once you know how to make the code ! Here it goes!! Word Search Puzzle I am in charge of the cultural monthly curriculum for our school, and one of the things that I like to make...

Other than a meeting with my intern, I am finished with the 2023 summer session of school. We ended up vacating the music therapy clinic when the temperature started at 75 degrees F yesterday. I had to spend a bit of time in the room, finishing my notes, and setting up the CD player so folks can have some music next week, if they decide to brave the heat.  My breathing feels a bit better today. The cough is back - I don't know what it is in the room that is making me sick, but I have my suspicions. I am hoping that an extended amount of time away will help me breathe better. We will see. I got some good financial news this morning when the city told me that they have been significantly overcharging me for water. My bill had gone from $70 to $331 per month over the past two months. Apparently, the new "smart" water meters that they installed were messed up, so I get a credit for all the money that I have sent them the last several months! That is really helpful since I hav...

It is Thursday again, and it is my last Thursday at work until August 10th. My room was a toasty 79.8 yesterday when I left it, and I have a hoarse quality to my speaking voice right now. I am trying really hard not to be angry about the fact that this CONTINUES to be a problem, but it is difficult when I am not feeling well. I am not happy about getting  to spend another day in very hot temperatures with clients who are unable to regulate their own temperatures well, but it is only one day...so, I guess I will go. Only one more day. After all of this, I can have some time away and in better atmospheric conditions... Time is getting away from me. I have only three days before I head off towards 15 hours of traveling to get to my destination. I cannot get anywhere from where I am at the moment without more than one flight. So, my travel day will be a long one, starting before dawn, and not ending until after my regular dinner time. Fortunately, I have lots of time between flights in...

I have two more days of work for this summer session, and I am overly ready to be done with all of this stuff. There is so much to do, and time is getting short. I just want to get finished and get going. Everyone else at work has an additional week to go, but I am taking all of my professional time for this new school year to go to the World Congress. The best thing about this is that I get to spend time in a new country with music therapy colleagues. The worst thing about this is using up all my professional days in the first three weeks of the new contract year. I will not be using any other professional time this year, but I don't need to. I have recently re-upped my board certification so I have no need for continuing education this year, so no need for more professional time. I have eleven sessions to go through before the end of school happens. My intern is now doing full sessions, so I am moving into an observation role rather than a leadership role. I have to lead five of ...

My intern is starting to lead session elements and is close to taking over the entire group caseload. which means that I am moving from the role of "therapist" to the role of "observer." I have found my clipboard and am using my feedback forms during every session. We have established some goals and are working towards those goals. I enjoy watching interns start to develop their own relationships with students and finding their ways of doing music therapy. This is the best part of being an internship director, as far as I am concerned. While handing over my clients to someone else is always difficult, I enjoy watching interns grow in confidence and skill over their 1020 hours at the internship. I am still on call for all groups. If my intern takes up most of the time in the session, then the intern will finish the session - I think that will happen in all of our 30 minute sessions this week. If my intern does not take up most of the session, then I have to finish th...

I am going to try a new series of posts - we will see if it takes off in any way, but here we go... Now, I am really pretty good at making up series titles for things, but I am not as good at keeping up with them, but we will try it anyway. Today's change up in topics is brought to you courtesy of the Dollar Tree where I dropped a cool $60 this morning, buying things for my upcoming trip and spending money on books for kids and all that stuff. It is also brought to you courtesy of Kathy Schumacher over at Tuneful Teaching. ( You can find her on Instagram using this link. ) She recently released a cute visual aid for free, so go check her out!! I realized that I make all sorts of things, but I rarely share them for others to see, so this is the day that I will try to get some of this stuff out into the world for others to enjoy. Of course, I am making this decision with little to no plans or action steps or anything, but you know, that is how I roll these days. (Don't believe me...

Yesterday's music therapy sessions included thrown blankets, kids running around the music therapy room, people screaming about iPads, and lots of shivering because the beginning temperature of the room was 62 degrees F. It got to 67 degrees by the end of the day, but it continued to start off REALLY COLD! I have done my notes all week, so I am caught up until yesterday's SIX group sessions, so I can devote a little bit of time to talking to my intern about our PBIS system this afternoon before heading out for our long weekend.  I am exhausted again. I started coughing a bit more yesterday than I have in the past week. It is just difficult to know whether I am coughing because of something in my environment or just because... Either way, I have not slept well for the past three nights. This evening is one of my musical evenings. I splurged on season tickets to our (somewhat local to me) amphitheater for the Broadway season this summer. Tonight, I will be sitting in my WONDERFU...

Yesterday was the first day back after a week off, and when I walked into my music therapy room, there was a problem. It was 58 degrees F in there. Way too cold!! So, I popped off an email to my supervisor (who is VERY tired of the temperature complaints, I am sure!), and another one to the teachers of the classrooms that I see on Mondays about the temperature situation. After that, I attempted to figure out what I would do with the clients on the schedule. This is Country of the Month week, but I am tired of doing the same thing every week, so I went for something different from the Country of the Month presentation - songwriting! It was nothing spectacular or complicated. We wrote a song about our favorite things to do in the summer. I distributed some of my summer rhythm cards for inspiration, and then, off we went.  I did the same thing with all of the groups that we welcomed into the music therapy room. Some of my students selected one of the cards for their contribution to th...

It is time to go back to work and back to my internship program. Intern #36 will be leading opening interactions and one therapeutic music experience (TME) for two groups today, and I will take over those two groups and lead the other two groups we have on our schedule. I have the country of the month on my schedule, but I'm not really feeling it today. We will see what I end up doing with my clients in my groups. It is always interesting to watch each intern develop into their own style of therapy. Interns tend to start off as beings who are focused on strumming and making the chord progressions happen. As they become more practiced and more comfortable in the leader role, they are able to assimilate client responses to music into their interactions, but it takes time. Today will be the first time that I sit with my clipboard to give formal observation notes for my intern. I have a form that I printed on 500 sheets of NCR paper (you know what that is - it's the type of paper t...

Today is the last day of the mid-summer break that I get during our Extended School Year every year. Tomorrow is my return to my music therapy room, my current intern, and all my clients. There will be some new clients and other clients will be gone. A week is a long time in the term of a psychiatric residential treatment facility, and it is always interesting to see what happens during our breaks. It is also interesting to see how many emails come through during that time. Most of the ones that I receive have little to nothing to do with me... I am never really all that ready to head back to work during our breaks. A week off is just not enough time for me to finish up things at home, get bored, and then start getting ready to return to work. I only truly feel refreshed when we get into two weeks away from work. I don't get that length of time off anymore. We used to, but not now. Now, the longest duration of any break is about 13 days - not quite enough for me to get bored while ...

Today is day eight of my break. There is one more day after today before I head back into my regular work routine. It is getting more and more difficult to go back to work after these occasional weeks off. I am yearning to get bored, but I never really get there with the current schedule that we have at work. It's the same old song, so let's get back to something else. Over the past week, I have been able to accomplish some big tasks and some little things that needed to be done. I put up some shelves and some pictures. I swept the kitchen floor and cleaned the bathtub. I got the leak in the bathtub fixed (Yay for plumbers!!) and folded all the laundry (except the stuff in the dryer). I spent some money that I should have saved, but there is some joy in the things that I bought. I moved all of my craft stuff out of storage and am currently putting things back in that same storage. I published another file to my TPT store . I've watched my first two episodes of The Clone War...