Sentimental Sunday: Post #169 - July 14, 2011
Wow. Today's look back into my thoughts and blog posts has hit me hard. Check out this post from July 14, 2011 to see what I was thinking and writing about back then. It is definitely a concept that I am still living, thinking about, and trying to figure out - 12 years later...
The past week was a difficult week - seems like the same sort of week that I had back in July 2011. This time around, I don't think that I did anything wrong. The students that had a bad time in music therapy came in that way - they had decided that they were going to hate every single thing that they were provided before they even knew what was g
oing on. There isn't much that I can do when students are bound and determined to hate what we do - I believe that music therapy is most effective when the client is interested and invested in the process - when clients are unwilling to participate, then are the things that happen in a session actually therapy?
My intern is going through this situation with our clients right now. Some of what is happening is in response to the intern's role as primary therapist - testing boundaries and the such, but most of what is happening is our usual pattern. Most of what is going on is what happens with our population when there are significant changes to our structure - and those things are happening right now. Peers are moving around - new peers are coming in, old peers are leaving, staff members are shifting all over the place, other staff members are leaving, and there is the start of the holiday hype. There is a sense that we don't have much security in anything right now.
This is not a new turn of events for the place where I work. We have been through this situation over and over again in the 27 years I have been at the facility. It has been worse, but it has also been much better. One of the problems that we have is that our admissions team has been admitting clients who are beyond our abilities to maintain and manage. We are all getting hurt by these clients, and that makes it difficult to find any sort of positive outlook when having to face extremely violent kids day after day. This is not a new situation, but it is something that is hard to live through. I am glad for the reminder that I can only contribute a portion of the session happenings - my clients have to be part of the triad before therapy can occur...
While this is not my favorite piece of word art that I have made, it serves to remind me of what is the most important part of the music therapy therapeutic triad - the client. It's not my plan that makes music therapy happen - it is how the client interacts with the things that I offer that makes what I do "therapy."
Will we survive this particular season of angst, anxiety, and plain old nasty teenagers? Yes, we will. Will it be easy while we are going through it? Not at all. Will it be complicated more because of my age and deteriorating physical condition? Yep, but I can make adjustments and continue to do my job - trying to be as consistent in my responses and reactions and expectations as possible. I think, that, more than anything else, is the key to going through difficult times as a therapist - remembering that being consistent can be the best tool in my arsenal.
I am heading to my part-time job feeling tired, a bit sore, and sad that it is Sunday and tomorrow is Monday. I am not interested in any of the movies being shown at the local theater, so I can't even escape into a movie for a bit. There will be a church bazaar at the Catholic church across the street from the Methodist church where I work, so I might get some treats to being home with me. I might not. For now, though, I need to take my shower and start my laundry before heading out. I think I will get some pizza for breakfast before I head out.
This too will pass.
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