Sentimental Sunday: First Nostalgia Post of 2024 - Post 3314 - A Recent Glimpse Into Being an Internship Supervisor

It is here - the return of my nostalgia posts where I look back at a blog post that I wrote a bit ago. I select these posts using a random number generator, and today, I decided that I would start to select the number once I reached 24 seconds of number generation. Today's number is 3314 - a post from August 2023 - a recent look back. 

This post is all about the topic meetings that I strive to use during the time interns are with me (- and, it reminds me of a project that I wanted to get finished for my fellow intern supervisors that I never started. Add it to the list of things that I want to do). We did some of these topics, my former intern and I, but we did not do them the two times that I would like to do with every intern. This is my way of ensuring that we talk about the administrative tasks that are part of being a full-time music therapy clinician. During topic meetings, we address how to do things that I do all the time. I would like to flesh this series out a bit more and then offer it on YouTube for all music therapy students and interns to access. (Another project for the never-ending list of things I want to do...)

Recently, my interns have had difficulty with things like writing songs, making visual aids, thinking creatively about how to approach goals and objectives, and these things are essential for my job. I am having to figure out how to teach these things to people who have not really experienced them before or have not had to do as often as my facility demands. I wonder if this is common or just luck of the draw when it comes to who I am accepting into my internship.

I wonder if there is any interest out there for people who want to explore these types of skills. I wonder if people would be interested in being part of workshops or coaching for these things - the things that I have always loved about being a music therapist. Things that I think I teach others pretty well - those that are interested in learning about them...

My mind goes into full-out creative thinking when I go through these past posts. I am always inspired by the things that I wrote about a long time ago - or not so long ago. Often, I am inspired to change things because I am still engaging in the same sorts of practices - good and bad. The bad habits and practices that I find in these past posts that continue to challenge me give me the most emotion. I often am ashamed that I have not done what I wanted to do to make myself function better. This post sort of makes me feel that shame, but it also gives me some direction for the near future. I am not an internship supervisor right now (as of FRIDAY!), so I have some time to focus on the tasks and skills that I feel current music therapy interns and students need to experience before they become professionals. I then want to focus on making resources for these students and interns to access as they want to learn more about these things.

I am inspired by this post, and I do want to work on the resource that is referenced in post #3314 for other internship supervisors. Anyone want a list of topics for these types of meetings??

Thanks for being here, friend.