Fun Friday: Figuring Things Out

Picture of a red bud tree in bloom (my mom always complains that the buds and flowers on these trees are purple and not red.)
This will probably be a short post because I got out of bed an hour and a half after I woke this morning. I do not have much time to write, but I do want to keep up with my named posts, so here goes.

Today is Friday (thank goodness), and I have a chance to write about something fun... for me, at least.

I am a puzzler. I especially love logic puzzles, and I am very drawn to real-life puzzles. I manufacture puzzles at times just so I have something to solve. Right now, my biggest puzzle is how to do better with using the materials that I have to support music therapy services in my clinic.

Here's how this particular thought got started...

For two weeks now, I have had sessions that I have lots of things that supplement at various places. For example, I have lots of instruments that would have supplemented my unit on the Pacific Island cultures very nicely, but they are at home and not at work. I did not take them into work for this week because I did not remember that I have said instruments until I was in the middle of the sessions on Monday. EERGH!

So, I am now on a quest to create a database that includes a list of all of my materials, cross-referenced with my session themes for each month, and linked to therapeutic music experiences (TMEs). I am also going to shift my TME file a bit - adding a new category for how to include more ways of experiencing the TMEs that I present to my clients. 

I am at the starting point of this quest. I have (almost) an entire day where I do not have client interactions, so I will be figuring out some of the details of this journey today while two fans are installed in my room to help circulate the hot air around this summer since my facility cannot afford to replace the air conditioning unit that I have been complaining about for three and a half years. Fans will be installed later today. Whee!

My favorite thing about figuring things out is that there is no clear path. There are so many ways to proceed, and I will probably end up trying them all! Right now, I have a vision where I can type in my culture of the month and see everything that has been tagged "Pacific Islands" - TMEs, session strategies, books, visuals, games, digital resources, powerpoint presentations, you name it! I then want to click on specific listings and see where those things are stored in my music therapy storage - home, work cabinet #1, etc. I went down a rabbit hole yesterday when looking at barcode scanners and different systems for cataloging things. I have decided that I really don't need those systems right now, but they are something to consider in the future.

Who knows where I will be headed next?? Certainly not me. If you have a good format for what I'm thinking about, would you let me know? Thanks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music. As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience. DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals. Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more