Being an Internship Director: Writing and Thinking and Planning, Oh My!

It is the Monday before I head back to my school-based therapy job, and I am not ready to give up the life of a lady of leisure... at all! It is pretty silly to want more time off, but that's the way it is right now.

Since it is Monday, it is time to write a bit about being an internship supervisor. Now, I haven't had an intern since January, and it appears that I will not have an intern in the near future. That is fine with me because I am enjoying the process of doing therapy rather than teaching someone else how to do therapy, but I also miss being a supervisor a bit.

To fill the time and to accomplish something that I have dreamed about for a long time, I am writing a general internship handbook.

The first three chapters are published through my TPT store. To access them, you have to sign up for TPT (formally Teachers Pay Teachers), but it is free, and you can access so many free resources that it is more than worth it (in my opinion). Anyway, if you are or know any music therapy students who are looking for information about music therapy internships, I encourage you to start with Becoming a Music Therapy Intern: Finding Your Internship Placement and follow up with the second chapter, Becoming a Music Therapy Intern: Preparing for Your First Day of Your Internship. The last chapter of this pre-internship series is titled, Becoming a Music Therapy Intern: Day One of Your Internship. 

I am currently working on the next bits - this will be the Being a Music Therapy Intern portion of the handbook. I hope to have the next chapter finished by next Sunday. We will see, though. There is lots of information that I am wanting to include, so I have to edit before I get things up for purchase. There is something invigorating about writing this handbook. It makes me feel excited about the internship process again after some time of not being as enthusiastic as I am now.

My enthusiasm for supervision ebbs and flows. There are times when I dread having to teach someone how to do my job, but there are more times when working with someone else fills my energy and keeps me going as a supervisor and as a music therapist. I enjoy being an internship supervisor more than not.

Like I said at the start of this post, I am between interns at the moment. I am taking my time as therapist without the additional roles of mentor and coach. Being a music therapist is also something that I love, so I am enjoying the opportunity to be the only therapist in my work space. I have rediscovered songs that have been long forgotten, and visuals that have been consigned to boxes in the back of my closet.

Since I do not have an intern starting on Thursday (our first day back), I am going to organize my storage closet. The drum set needs to be set back up after sitting in pieces all summer. I want to set up my laminating table and task box preparation station. I also want to to do more with my visual aid inventory. Completing that project will help me move forward with other projects that I have planned for this quarter. I will be taking in a collection of DVDs to watch during my lonely day in my music therapy room on Thursday. Friday is our professional development day, so I expect that I will have to go through physical behavior management training and various professional development topics that will have little to no relevance to my job. That will be time to take out all the laminating that I have done during the break. It needs to be cut out and Velcroed before students start on Monday. I also have plans for my walls. Lots to do that will be accomplished the way I want it to be done. I also don't have to explain my vision to someone else which makes doing these jobs a bit easier. So, while I miss interns, I am also not missing interns. Does that make sense?

Today is reserved for rest, relaxation, creative pursuits other than music, and a doctor's appointment late in the day. I have two more days of break before Thursday rolls around, but I am already into work mode. I may spend some more time working on the next chapter of my general internship handbook - I may not, We will see what is going on as I move forward with the day. Whatever happens, I will head into a new year. That part is inevitable at this point.

It is almost time to start the 2024-2025 school year. Here we go...

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