Wednesday - Returning to Work in the Snow

I stayed in my house yesterday, and I did absolutely nothing of note. Today, I am heading back to work because we are finally experiencing above zero temperatures and are having school rather than snow days. The snow starts up again tonight and tomorrow, so we may have more snow days this semester. In fact, I think this might be an eight-day snow day year. We will see.

I used to drive in for snow days, and I have an overnight kit at work right now, just in case. I feel guilty that I am not going in for snow days these days, but I know that it is safer for me to stay home than it is to try to drive on ice. This year, I want the alternate days off, but I have to be at work to get them. In the past two weeks, I have not felt like leaving my house to try to drive on the ice, so I have remained home on our three inclement weather days. My rational mind knows that it is a safe plan, but my emotional mind is steeped in guilt that I am not there to provide music therapy for the residents of my facility.

When I end up back in my music therapy room today, it will be the first time in seven and a half months that I will be alone. My intern graduated last Friday, so I get to do my full caseload again. There are six groups today, and my plans will change because of the entire snow day thing. After only being at school five of the eight days that we have been back after break, my students will probably need some low cognitive demand, high motor opportunity, lots of options sessions for today and tomorrow. This week is supposed to be instrument/ensemble week, but I think we might scrap that theme in favor of something a bit less information-heavy, especially since I will only see about half of the school in the next three days.

So, what will we do instead? I'm not exactly sure yet, but I know it will involve drums, balls, world music, and not too many instructions for how things will happen. Once I tire out bodies, I can then move into some of the other things that I might want to do with my different groups. That reminds me, I want to print off some instrument pictures for a jazz band TME that I am thinking of.

One of the secrets to doing music therapy with the population that I work with (children and adolescents aged 5-22 with diagnoses of intellectual/developmental delay and concurrent chronic psychiatric concerns) is to engage their bodies in as much of the therapeutic music experience (TME) as possible. Once folks are able to engage their bodies in learning experiences, they tend to remember those experiences a bit better than when I just talk at them. So, I am getting ready to write some TMEs that include movement with learning about musical instruments.

I may or may not run this TME with clients during this week. If I don't no biggie. If I do, wonderful - that will help me refine the TME before I share it. The testing process is always a big one when developing any new TME. I have to see if my clients do what I expect or if they come up with new ways to experience what I design. 

My morning is full of client interactions, and I am happy to be back in the therapist's chair. I am putting up my new schedule and rearranging the storage room a bit because I have let it become a complete and total mess. I can move the drum set to the door side of the storage room and the task box creation station to the back of the storage room. By focusing my energies on the storage room, I can take an inventory of what we have available, and I can organize it all. I have been itching to organize it, but that has been my intern space for some time now, so I have not felt like I could do what needs to be done. That excuse is no longer relevant!

I don't have too much time to organize today, but I will have more on Friday when I only have two groups and an entire morning of organizing time to use up. Today, I can go into the room and look around. I will probably end up moving some things today just because I am too excited about taking back the space. It is time.

So, today's plan is to head to work on semi-cleared roads, run six music therapy groups, stare at my storage room to see what I can move around and what I can remove completely, and then stagger to my second job to run choir practice. After that, I will take my meds late, sleep, and head to work a bit later than I will today. Tomorrow has three groups and two individuals on the schedule, so I can do a bit more organizing and planning then. I also have to work late to accommodate the late arrival, so some more time will be available to clean and organize then. On Friday, I will spend more time in that room and make things look worse before they look better. Next week will be an entire week (hopefully we don't have any more inclement weather days in January) of sessions and strategizing, so I will be figuring out my focus for next week.

I am ready to start this next phase of being a music therapist, but we will see if the weather cooperates. Let's hope that it does because I am more than ready to just be "therapist." Happy Wednesday.