TME Tuesday: Gathering Ideas for a Themed Session

TME Tuesdays: Box with abstract background design including the following text: www.musictherapyworks.com; TME Tuesday; Therapeutic Music Experience Development for Music Therapists by Music Therapists; Tuesdays; Work smarter, not harder.
My current project is to put together a whole bunch of ideas for a cat-themed session. This is inspired by an early morning visitor who showed up outside my office door. I think it is one of the cats from next door, but I am not entirely sure. This cat does not wear a collar, but I'm not sure that either of them do next door. It comes up to my glass door and scratches but it will not allow me to pet it for long. It will not come into my home, though I did get a nose in the doorway this morning.

I like making themed sessions, but I don't often use those session strategies in my music therapy practice. My adolescents are not always the most receptive to themes, and the amount of mood vectoring that I have to do on a regular basis often precludes themes or strategies. That doesn't stop me from thinking about themes, though.

Perhaps I like themed sessions because it fulfills a bit of what I thought I would be doing as a music therapist when I started off. My dream job was, and continues to be, working for Sesame Workshop, writing songs to teach kids information. I would love to design songs for animated cartoons or skits that teach information to kids. Since I do not work for Sesame Workshop, I put all those energies into music therapy things. I think it is a good trade off.

My visitor has left, but the thought about getting this project going remains. I am moving from being in the clinical area to spending most sessions in my office these days, so I have some time to think.

Stay tuned for sing about cats in the near future. There will be a sing about dogs at some point in the not-so-near future as well. I can keep this going as long as I can come up with themes...sing about dinosaurs, sing about super heroes, sing about farms... the list can go on and on...

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