music, therapy, and me

I asked my sister, the second grade teacher, for a topic for today's Thrifty Therapist post, and she suggested that I talk about the importance of laminating and having a laminator. Now, I am going to take this and make it my own, but know that I purchased my own laminator as soon as I possibly could because none of the methods that I had to use before I bought my laminator worked well for me. They work well for others, but not for me for some reason. On this post, I will talk about inexpensive ways to laminate visual aids (and then I will talk about the pitfalls that I have found with each of these materials - I hope that you will have better experiences with this than I do!). Technique #1 - Clear Contact Paper - You can find this for about $6 USD if you do some bargain shopping. Make sure that you make note of the width and the length of the rolls to ensure that you are getting the best deal for your money. Clear Contact Paper is very good for covering large visuals. It is flexi...

I am working on a project that I have been developing, writing, then getting very uneasy about over and over again. I think it is a good idea, but then my inner critics start up, and I get frozen.  NO MORE! I am pushing past those critics to publish my Music Therapy Internship Manual.  I am looking for a different title, but I don't know what it will be yet. This project is fun and a labor of love. I have felt, for a very long time, that we need to offer more to music therapy students to make the entire process of being music therapists less confusing. Since I cannot find what I want to offer to my interns, I have decided to write what I am looking for. I have published the first three chapters now. The first chapter is all about the process of finding an internship. The second chapter is about how to prepare for the starting date. The most recent chapter , released yesterday, is about the first day of internship and goes into a bit about time management. I am going to make ...

Today is the first, official day of my Fall Break, and the second day of being at home. Since everyone finished their progress reports, we were able to work from home yesterday, and I DID! I started off the day with some blogging (before work hours, of course!), and then followed up with some TPT exploration as I worked on a list of things to include in my next visual aid creation. I started with looking to see what sorts of music schedules are out there, and there aren't many. I remembered that I had purchased one from TPT that merged music education with special education, so I went back into my purchases and found all sorts of things that I already own. That started a marathon printing session, and while printing, I also remembered that I wanted to find some different language "goodbye" phrases to go with my "hello" phrases. I ended up spending $13.30 for four different resources that I will print out when I get to work. After the printing was finished, I sta...

It is the first day of the last break of the summer - what I like to call my Fall break even though Autumn is still two months away from officially starting. We get to work from home today, so I am going to spend my time putting together a new tool for my music therapy room - a visual schedule. I have never used a visual schedule for my group sessions because I do not often have a set session strategy for what I do with my clients. I often change my mind when each group walks into the room to accommodate how my clients are interacting with me, with the music I play, and with each other. So, I have never really had a good way of making a visual schedule that covers last minute adaptations. I think I have found a way to do this now. I am going to use generic terms for the types of things we do in music therapy. This will allow me to have a basic structure while still allowing for changes to occur in the moment. I will also use this format in a general manner for most of my groups. Being ...

For those of you not in the "School-Based Therapist" know, ESY stands for "Extended School Year" and means that I have to work summer school whether I want to or not. Today is the last day of our ESY session, and I am more than ready. After tomorrow's  "progress note" day, we have 12 days before we have to report back to start the regular school year. I have one medical appointment, but that is the only obligation that I have for break. Other than that, I plan on working on my library and that is about it other than my usual self-care stuff. I have three groups today because there is an all-school movie during the last group time. Someone walked into my room yesterday to actually test the temperature and to tell me that there was someone else showing up to evaluate the computer system that controls the temperature. They interrupted a group session, but I am happy that someone is actually acting like they are doing something. Only three groups to run in...

It is Wednesday, so it is time to talk a bit about what I am reading these days. To start, it is easier to talk about my personal reading than my professional reading because I have not been doing much professional reading lately. I will start with the professional reading, though, because there is not much to talk about. This morning, I walked into my library where I have currently stashed all of my professional textbooks. I selected one from the shelves that I have purchased but not even opened yet. The book that drew my attention was Group Analytic Music Therapy  by Heidi Ahonen-Eerikainen (sorry that I cannot figure out how to do the umlaut over the a on this program).This book was published by Barcelona Publishers in 2007, and it was part of a sale order that I made a couple of years ago. I picked it because it is part of analytical music therapy, a form of music therapy that confuses and intrigues me, but also because it concerns group music therapy which is my primary servic...

Today, I am starting up the official post series for The Thrifty Therapist. I am trying my best to make all sorts of efforts to share tips and techniques for saving money as a music therapist. I think that there might be someone out there who will benefit from these posts, so here we go. I have some things that I have learned over the years about making inexpensive instruments, getting as much spending from every bit of my money, and making difficult decisions because I don't have much room in my budget for buying new things. So, my intention is to write a bit about these tips and techniques on Tuesdays. I almost forgot today - I was home due to being dizzy and not able to move around. I think I am better, so I plan on going to work tomorrow, but I did not do my usual morning blogging routine today, so here we go! Let's talk about being thrifty. Part of this consideration is the underlying fact that music therapists are not often well-paid. Many other professions are in a simil...

I spent time working on Chapter Two of my internship handbook - Becoming a Music Therapy Intern: Preparing for Your First Day of Your Internship this weekend, and I released it yesterday. This is a project that I have been working on for a long time. I have wanted to do some sort of internship manual since I started supervising music therapy students and interns. It came out mainly because it seems that many interns (at least, the ones I have encountered in all sorts of places) do not know some of the specific rights and responsibilities that they have and that their supervising music therapists and academic faculty members have. I have been writing this resource for a very long time, and I finally woke up to the fact that I can self-publish bits rather than waiting for the entire thing to be released at the same time. So, I have started. I am using my TPT store as the initial platform for release because it is easy for me to use. As I get more chapters, I will either bundle them or ...

I am proud of how I spent my Friday. Now, I initially did not want to do anything but stay in my bed and wallow in my down feelings, but I forced myself to leave my home. Leaving my house means putting on clothing other than pajamas, making sure that I have my phone and cash, and then heading out into the world beyond my home. Leaving my house means having to be in the heat and humidity. I did just that yesterday. I have been trying to use my unlimited movie pass often this summer. Since I do not work on Fridays, I try to go see something on Friday afternoons and again on Sundays. I decided to go see Fly Me to the Moon  yesterday, and once I had decided to do that, I got going... more than an hour before the movie start time. So, I was in my car and very early, so it was time to do something else. In June, I went downtown (not my favorite area of my town because it attracts all sorts of tourists) to the library to pick up my library card. At the time, I had three other errands to r...

I am finally accomplishing something that I have been working on for a very long time. Isn't it interesting when you finally take a gulp and do the thing that has been on your to-do list for years??  Let me explain... For years, I have been offering webinars and networking with music therapy students and interns. One of the recurring themes that has happened over the years is that interns are not well-prepared for the experience prior to applying to internships. There are some folks who are surprised by the fact that they have to do an internship. There are others who feel overwhelmed by the entire experience from application to graduation. I don't think that any music therapy student should start looking for an internship without a foundation of knowledge about the process and the experience itself. So, I am writing an internship handbook to help students understand what is going on in this process. I released the first chapter, Becoming a Music Therapy Intern: Finding Your In...

So, it is Thursday again. I have four groups to see today and a job shadow visitor coming to spend the day with me. I am going to write a bit here before taking a shower and heading to work for this day. After today, I have three days off before going back to work for my last week of our extended school year. Then, 12 days off before the start of the regular school year. Yesterday, I was sitting in a meeting of the "specialists" - AKA, all of us that do not have a homeroom but who see every single student in our school, and one of my co-workers mentioned a t-shirt that I was wearing. It was a gift from my dad - it features a music staff and a stylized cat drawing based on a treble clef. She said, "You always have the neatest shirts," and I realized that I did, and most of them come from either my sister or came from my dad before he passed away. I then got onto Amazon and bought two novelty t-shirts in his memory and in honor of my sister (who is very much alive!! I...

It is time for a new series - The Thrifty Therapist - something to happen on Tuesdays because I like alliteration and themes. Here's what I'm thinking... One of the things that unites us all is a quest to get more for less. We music therapists are no different from anyone else - we want things that work for us for less money. So, I am working on ways to do just that. Now, this does not mean that things will be free, but there are ways to find materials, share ideas, and stay within a firm budget as a music therapist. This series is going to be a way to share ideas and things that have worked for me in my decades of being a music therapist. There will be products that I use, things that I offer and sell in various places, some free things to download and use right away, and some questions and surveys of the music therapy world. I have recommendations for gifts for music therapists and for equipment, instruments, and supplemental materials for working with different populations o...

It is Monday, and time to talk about music therapy internship things. I will be hosting a visitor on Thursday who might become an applicant later on. So, I guess my thoughts about closing things down will have to wait a bit more. We will see. The primary purpose of this post is to advertise a new resource out there for music therapy students. This is the first chapter in an internship handbook that I have been writing for a long time, and I released it out into the world on Saturday. Please consider buying it, if you are a music therapy student who wants more information about getting an internship placement. It is available in my TPT store at this link . It includes a way of organizing information and a reproducible form for use. It is also only $2.50 USD. I hope to have the next part up by next Saturday - How to Prepare for Your Internship Once You Have One (title is a work in progress). This is a labor of love for me. I am constantly amazed about what music therapy interns do and do...

Somehow, it is Friday again, and this Friday is the day before payday (so my check will be in my account tomorrow - Whoo-Hoo) and a day of leisure because I do not have anything that I have to do until Sunday at 1pm. I am in an introspective mood, so I will probably work on the laminating things that I want to get finished for my room while thinking, planning, and reviewing my quests for the upcoming school year. After our trip last week, my family members are trying to recover from the germs and rigors of travel. I am just tired, as far as I can tell, but I did end up with an itchy patch on my neck and shoulder, so I may need to get some cream for that situation. It is also time to start my trip journaling. I might be able to fill up the rest of the pages in that journal, but who knows? I am a bit scattered in thought and process at the moment. I have lots of excuses, but I really just need to realize that this is what I do during these months. I am looking forward to the even keel of...

This time of year is when I tend to get all overstimulated by the thought of personal and professional quests. I tend to struggle with depression as the heat increases, and one of the ways that this manifests in me is super critical thinking and evaluation of myself and what I want to do versus what I actually do. So, I tend to set unattainable quests during this season of my life. Right now, I am a bit consumed with my goblins. Let me explain... I get overly critical of myself and tend to figure this out when my thoughts and comments include the following words: COULD WOULD SHOULD (Especially SHOULD) This is my SHOULDA goblin - at least, this is how I envision him lurking around in my brain. He sneaks out when I start thinking things like "I SHOULD be reading music therapy articles instead of fiction books." Often, I can stuff those thoughts back into my brain, but it is more difficult during the summer months. So, I am currently exploring why I feel this way - that I should...

Do you ever have times in the year where you find yourself affected by many different things simultaneously? I am two days post-vacation and am missing my family members who are now safely tucked away in their own homes. I still work in a warm room, but my room is a bit cooler than it has been for sometime now. I have an itchy neck area - I think I have a rash there that I will need to treat with my old ointment. It is not currently very hot here, but the heat will be building through the weekend. I am not feeling very effective in my personal life at the moment. I do not know why I am feeling this way, but it probably has something to do with my summer SAD. I do not enjoy summer much in this area of the world, but it is what it is. I has also taken me lots of time to acknowledge that I do not like how I feel and act during the summer months. I am not doing much to counteract this as far as medication goes, but I am doing things to help me keep going through the heat and the humidity t...

I am feeling defeated. I am sure that this is a part of my summertime blues, the fact that our extended school year schedule starts up again this morning after too little time away, and influenced by the fact that my only applicant from this past year turned out not to want to be an intern with me. All of those things are combining to make me just feel crabby and cranky and not all that excited about anything to do with my job. Over the next 13 work days (or 18 calendar days, if you prefer to count that way - I do), I am planning to decide whether I keep my program open or close it down completely. This is not a decision that I am going into lightly. I am grappling with this decision on several levels including personal and professional. At this point, the only thing that seems to be keeping me in the internship process is my professional guilt. I'm not sure that's enough to keep the program open. I have one year and 357 days before my internship has to be closed down due to my...

I did not write this past week - mainly because I was on a vacation with family members and not inclined to spend much time sitting in front of the computer, but also because I spent lots of time driving and out of my usual schedule. Right now, I am waiting for a confirmation call or text from my family letting me know that they are home safe and sound. After I get that confirmation, I am going to go to sleep - again - in order to try to reset my body into my work routine. Tomorrow, though, is the first day back for the rest of our Extended School Year session. Thirteen more days (12 with students) until the next break. I am not planning on doing anything out of my house for the last break of the summer - mainly because this break included traveling. I hope to finish up the music room and library resets that I have started in the last month, and I hope to start with the kitchen reset. Tomorrow also starts the next contract year for us all. I have not been offered or shown my contract, ...

Well, it's official. I offered yet another applicant a position as intern at my facility and was denied yet again. I am frustrated by this process, by the lack of interns, by the effort that I put in to be rejected again and again. (I also have a headache and travel-related body aches, so keep in mind that my thoughts on this topic are a bit skewed toward the negative, at the moment.) I am to the point where I think it is time to close my internship program rather than go through this time and time again. Closing my internship is something that I have thought about one other time in my tenure as ID, and that was when I was stuck in a room that was not appropriate at all for music therapy and was in the midst of a depressive period. Once I moved into my big room that I have now, things got better with my emotions and my attitude towards being a mentor again. I was asked to take my internship off of inactive status by the Director of Professional Practices, so I did. Since that point...