Break Chronicles: Day Three Wrap-Up and Day Four Anticipation
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 the Online Conference for Music Therapy. I left after two speakers because I was getting nervous and wanted to prepare for my talk a bit later. The topic was perspectives on research, and I enjoyed the discussions. The first speaker (who has presented at OCMT before), Professor Felicity Baker, Ph.D., spoke about engaging in more large studies because smaller studies do not really mean much to those who are making decisions about health. This is something I resonate with because I feel that my Master's Thesis was only an exercise in how to write a thesis rather than being any sort of interesting to anyone, EVEN ME! The problem that I have with the concepts presented is that it shoves out clinicians like me who cannot spend years and years doing research. I have to actually do the music therapy with clients! That has always been a concern of mine when it comes to research. I do not often find the research priorities of the authors have any sort of relevance to what I am doing as a clinician with my clients in my area of expertise and clinical interaction. It seems that research and practice are often disconnected significantly.
This is why I don't take selfies...
The second presenter, Dr. Rika Ikuno-Yamamoto, spoke on a topic that was a bit more relevant to my work as a clinician. Her topic of choice was on a practitioner-centered view of research where she spoke about really analyzing what she was doing when she was interacting with clients. This is completely my area of interest. I am more interested in what decisions and choices we make as music therapists in the clinical arena when interacting with clients than whether tones at 440Hz are more effective in gaining attention than tones at 436Hz. I did not take many notes during her time, mainly because I was getting nervous about my presentation.
After I finished my own presentation, I went to two others. The first was not exactly what it was titled, but it was very interesting and pretty applicable to my setting. Dr. Hayoung A. Lim, Ph.D., LPMT-BC, and Alejandro Arevalo, LPMT-BC, MTA, NMT-F presented on a social communication focused group run in the music therapy clinic at Oral Roberts University. (One of my interns came from ORU, so it was interesting to get a glimpse of where she had come from.) The presentation was titled, "SOCOM: A social communication music therapy protocol for adults with developmental disabilities." (I immediately thought of Bonnie Houpt when I saw the title! She does a podcast centered around working with adults with Intellectual and Developmental disabilities that I like. I thought this might be something that would be a spark for her. Hi, Bonnie!!)
I thought that the clients would all be adults, but most of them (that were presented to us) were not. There were a couple of clients that were over the age of 18 but most appeared to be younger than that. The program that they started down at ORU will age and mature with the clients however.
The structure of the groups is that of a university class. They offer two "courses" called SOCOM 101 and SOCOM 102. Students have to register through the music therapy clinic for one of their courses, and they meet twice per week for 45 minutes each session. The first day of the week is called "Homeroom" where they work on a music theory concept. The second class of the week, called "Study Hall," is focused on practice. There are 3-6 students per class session, and some are held online. The first course, SOCOM 101, is entitled "Foundations" and tends to provide opportunities for students who do not communicate verbally. The second course option, "SOCOM 102: Principles," is planned for students who are able to communicate verbally. Every client goes through an assessment before being accepted into the program, and every student has to follow a syllabus as well as complete homework assignments.
While I found the set-up of the program interesting, I did not really find any new ideas. This presentation, however, sparked lots of questions about my own way of being a music therapist - which is good to have happen. I want so much and expect so much from myself that it is easy to get into the pattern of feeling less than. If nothing else, I am hoping that this conference leads me into new things. Nothing has really been different or new for me yet, but that's okay. That shows me that I want to explore new ideas and things.
I have reached an age where there really isn't anything new out there. There are just ideas that I already know but have forgotten. It is time to review all the things I already know. I have really stepped away from study and review and doing new music therapy things over the past two years - mainly, I think, because my medical issues have been taking all my attention and strength. Maybe it is time to get going on the other things that I have not been doing recently that I loved.
Today's line-up is a series of discussions about telehealth and music therapy. This is the one Spotlight Session that I really want to attend. After that presentation is over (2 hours of sitting in uncomfortable chairs!), I will go to several other paper presentations until I cannot stand it any longer and meet my family for dinner and hobbling up the hills to the hotel. I have been hugged by friends throughout this conference. I am meeting new music therapists - I met a music therapist from Sydney, Australia who just came up and started talking. I love those types of folks - the ones who just come up to me and start talking about anything. I am always too nervous to do things like that, so I appreciate others who aren't shy about it at all! I am still looking for Janice - where are you, Janice??? - before I will feel like I have been able to see everyone that I want to see. Everyone else that I meet is just icing on the conference cake!!
I have remembered to talk to people about the Online Conference for Music Therapy, Inc. Next time, I will make business cards to hand out with my information and OCMT's information so I don't have to write things down. I hope the delegates at my presentation will take what we talked about and think more deeply about the "what-if" scenarios that we discussed. After all of that, I hope that we can find our ways into doing music therapy at our best levels. That is what I am striving for, and something that I think I have lost a bit in the past couple of years, and I am still not sure why I feel that way.
Comments
Post a Comment