music, therapy, and me

It is December 31, the last day of the year, the last day of my trip, and the day before the rest of my break. I am currently sitting on the bed in my sister's old room, blogging at 5:22am because my sister has a medical test to get to by 7:30am, and I have to be ready to go to the airport when she is finished. The bed is still made (I have to strip the sheets before I leave), I am showered, and my mother is in her computer room watching her favorite YouTuber (not me) and learning about making more Barbie miniatures (her current hobby). The cat came in and squeaked at me about 30 minutes ago, and this is really the best start to the last day of the year that I can imagine, so there you go! My word for this year was Cultivate . I tried to grow, develop, bloom, and nurture myself and my ideas. I did pretty well, I think. I actually started my business in a formal manner. Did I complete ANY of the tasks that I established in the first bloom of 2025? Absolutely not, except for "us...

Six days left before I go back to work for the last six months of my school contract year. I am getting ready to send my boxes back to my house and pack up all of my things so I can travel across the country to the world of cold. This is always the hardest part about visiting - leaving again. I love this part of the country, and it is always a wrench to have to leave it. I also love where I live because it is different from here.  Yesterday, my family members took me to one of my favorite places in the world - the La Brea Tar Pits. This is a park complex in the middle of Los Angeles where fossils were found in the 1870s while people were excavating the area for oil and gas. There are tons of animal remains contained within the tar, and excavations continue. The animals in the tar pits come from the last 60,000 years and includes the end of the Pleistocene era and all of our current time which is known as the Holocene (Thanks to A Field Guide to La Brea Tar Pits  and the articl...

Oh, well, this is awkward. The surprise is for me, not for you, though you could go to this link to download a previously released free resource in my TPT store... Surprise?? Anyway, my sister and mother are taking me somewhere. I had to fish out a school id that identified me as "teacher," and am now waiting to see what we are going to be doing. My sister has a medical issue going on, so she just called to say that we would start our adventure after she goes to urgent care to get medication for her issue. I am hoping that it will be a good time. I've been warned that we are going to be walking lots and will need to have layers, so I know we are going outdoors. I have some suspicions, but I am not really worried about it. I know that my Sister and Mom will have thought of something pretty good for me. We will see what it is and go through it all! I'll reveal more tomorrow about the surprise. Anyway, I am now sitting in my guest room, in my pjs, at what is 9:38 am at ...

I am halfway through my break now, and I am starting to think about work again. I am not really planning sessions or anything like that, but I am starting to figure out my timeline for the next six months. Even though I still have six months at my current job, I am finding myself more and more looking at the future. I am both exhilarated and terrified by this change in my life. The last time I had such an enormous life change was in 1996 when I moved across the country for graduate school. It is more than time, though. I never intended to stay where I am as long as I have. The problem is that I am unsure how I will earn money starting on July 1st. If all goes as planned, I will start the new year in my own home. I will have another four days of time away from work to arrange things in my house and my life. We have an educational enrichment day away from work, so I am going to spend some time taking stock of what I have in my music therapy resources. The music therapy room is getting mo...

It is the time of year when I tend to do some reflection on the past 12 months. It is easy to do this now because I am away from the demands of my regular life, so I spend time in the early morning hours waiting for others to wake up and get going. It really bites when my internal clock is set two hours ahead of everyone else's clock, but it provides me with time to think. I am finishing up a planning journal that I started back in September 2024. It lasted 15 months, so I think I got my money's worth out of this one! This book of mine will be completely full once I return to my home. The new journal will start on January 4th, and I have been designing elements of it for the past two months. I love having these books, and I am thinking of new ways to use them in the next year. This year has been a difficult one for me as a human but not as a music therapist. I went through my first round of cancer - everything is fine now, at least, that's what they tell me! This health stu...

It is Boxing Day here where I am, and it is raining again. It was raining when I came to visit, we had some sunshine yesterday, and now it is raining again. That is a good thing for the place where I am located, but it is getting to flooding stage because the desert ground is getting saturated and will be sliding down the mountains pretty soon. Where I am staying is not in any danger from mudslides, but you never know what might happen... Anyway... Yesterday was a good day of leisurely celebration with Mom and Sister. We ate good food, opened our presents, and did all of our traditions. I received lots of capybara items - my favorite animal of them all. I also opened up the cutest little R2-D2 Bluetooth speaker and a huge R2-D2 popcorn tin. I now have more of my favorite Ivy Corelle dishes, and my sister's secret Holiday Casserole recipe (all sorts of M&Ms in a huge dish - SCORE!!). The gifts I gave were duly appreciated. Mom got all sorts of glue from me while my Sister got lo...

Merry Christmas, to those of us who celebrate, and Happy Wednesday to those of us who do not! It is time to start one of my end-of-the year traditions - recaps and reveals for the next year. Today, let's recap this year a bit. I'm not going to sugarcoat it - 2025 was a rough year for me. The major headline is that my doctors found and then cut out my first bout with colon cancer. I am hoping that preventative colonoscopies will keep me from having to lose any more of my bowel (I've already had over 2 feet of large intestine surgically removed), but we will see. My grandmother died of complications with colon cancer and a work acquaintance of mine also recently passed away from the same thing, so this has been on my mind this year. I did not go on any trips this year. This is unusual since we (my Mom, my Sister, and I) are starting to take summer trips as a unit. Instead, due to the aforementioned cancer, my Sister, Mom, and Aunt came to my house to help me through my first ...

Yesterday, I received notification that I am now a pre-approved provider through the Certification Board for Music Therapists again!! This is the second time around for me, and I am hoping that I can make this into something beneficial for me and for the music therapy community. I am beyond excited that this happened before the holidays, and I am looking forward to my first CMTE opportunity! I have plans - SO many plans - so, I am going to work on things during the next couple of weeks. It is time to get started on all of this in order to transition into the next iteration of my life!! Be on the lookout for our first CMTE offering, coming next month, especially if you are someone who works with adolescents in music therapy who are diagnosed with intellectual or developmental concerns. I can't wait!! See you soon??

It is time to finish up my holiday plans, print out the last little things for my Mom, and finish the laundry and the dishes. I have some routine car maintenance happening later this morning, so there are things to get going. I need to get the car washed (it is FILTHY!) before I take it to the car shop, so I have to get going here. Before I do all of that, though, I need to print out some digital files that I found for my mother's enjoyment. She is currently really into making Barbie sized miniatures, so I found some files that will help her do that. My sister just rolls her eyes when Mom gets started, but I keep reminding Sis that it could be worse and that Mom's habit is not that bad as far as things go. It is a messy hobby, though, and Mom hasn't been able to get rid of her other hobby materials, so things do pile up. As they do around here. Wonder where I get it from? I don't. I have to make different sized pages in order to get these things at the appropriate size ...

My last therapy day happened yesterday - two groups and a Holiday Sing. I have to go to work today, but I will not be seeing clients. I will be avoiding the physical behavior management training that we have this morning because I just plain old hurt. The only thing that has torn me from my comfortable bed this week is the thought that I do not have to get up at 4am next week or the week after. It is time for some rest, and I am looking forward to that and to the next six months at work. Rest is something that I crave, so I am glad that there is only six months left of this particular job. Anyway, today's plan is to get through whatever training we have to do and then skip home to take a nap! That's the plan. I have to clean out my car and get it washed. I need to wash dishes and put them away in the kitchen. My to-do list is getting longer and longer, and I just want to sleep my available hours away! In this quiet December morning, I am trying to think about what has happened ...

It is finally here. The last day before Winter Break. It is also the last Holiday Sing that I will lead as music therapist at my current job. I may be involved in other holiday concerts in my future, but not at my current job. This is it! I am exhausted, but hopeful that I can get through it and then collapse into sleep without stress for the rest of the day. My last two groups are cancelled due to the  Sing, so I have two more groups to lead before I am done being a therapist for 2025!! This is manageable. I need a shower and some somewhat festive clothing that will accommodate getting onto the floor with some of my students. After my sessions, I will spend some time getting my playlist, amplifier, and microphone setup before heading into the world of Sing time. Santa is coming during the dance party part of the Sing. That should throw everything off the rails, but it is something that we can do to help our students and our staff through a rough month. In addition to the usual hol...

I did it! I spent most of my weekend engaged in crafting, and I have a new trip journal to show for it! One of the signature pages The front cover Now, the pictures here are just a bit of what I actually created this weekend. This journal has five signatures of about 20 pages each. and I managed to put in pockets and pictures and things called belly bands all over the place. It is ready to go on a trip with me later this month!! It is the second journal that I made over the weekend. The first just did not work the way I had envisioned, and the paper I used (wrapping paper) spread ink all over my fingers. So, it is currently abiding at the bottom of my craft bag, waiting for the oblivion of the recycling bin here pretty quickly. That's the nice thing about making things out of recyclable materials - it is okay to dispose of them as well! The actual experience was pretty fun as well. I met some new crafters and chatted about different things during the two days. That is the kind of o...

It is almost here - I am going to spend the evening and tomorrow in the company of fellow paperfolk - a crop weekend! I have never done this before, and I am both excited and queasy when I think about what I am about to do. I no longer scrapbook the way I used to - too much space to cover for a book that is not really easy to move around, so I am not sure if the projects that I have available will actually be okay. I mean, I know that the purpose of this weekend is to just engage in some crafting, but I want to fit in and make friends. That is the part that is excruciating for me - the wanting to make friends. Anyway, I will be constructing a new trip book. The one I made several years ago during my March Christmas visit is almost full. I will be filling it up with the events of this past summer - I didn't travel, but I was host to my aunt, sister, and mother once, and then my Mom came back for my surgery, so the summer months were busy. Once I can sit down and journal all of that,...

 Here you go! A demonstration of my new TMEs by the Numbers file in my TPT store! Available for free!!

So, here is the deal. I have come up with a system to boost my creativity when it comes to writing therapeutic music experiences (TMEs). Of course, I can't upload the video file that I just put together to get you to see what I'm talking about, so this entire post is just a practice in futility. Ugh. Anyway, my dice have dictated that I write a chant that focuses on motor skill development, in an AB form, using Orff/Keyboard instruments, for the month of November, and working additionally on oral motor and speech skills. I also rolled that I should do things in the key of F, but that has nothing to do with a chant, so that dice result is moot! (Thank goodness!) Gak! While this has been a good way to help spur my creativity when it comes to writing TMEs, this is not the best time to be engaging in this practice. I will work on it a bit more this afternoon after my five sessions are finished. I tweaked my finger (the one that's been broken twice by clients) yesterday. I will ...

Usually, I do a Make It thing on Mondays, but I didn't make much this weekend, so there really isn't much to report on. I cut out some gift tag materials and straightened up the floor in the office/craft area but that was all. I did lots of online shopping and have some logistical shipping problems to solve, but that's okay. I like challenges.  So, all that to state that I am not going to share something that I have made this week. I am just going to talk about getting ready for our next break. It is only twelve days away. Twelve angst-ridden, scream-filled, disappointment brewing, stressful days. The biggest problem that we as the faculty of the school have is that our Behavioral Health Technicians (BHTs) do not get a break and have to face two weeks of non-school programming without us including two major holidays. It makes it awkward to feel happy about getting some time off. Guilt over. Time to move into some gratitude. I am grateful that I can navigate this time of yea...

'Tis the season when I am inundated by the sounds of the holiday season - everywhere you go... I am going out into the world of retail later this morning to see if I can find some things for my Mom's holiday and birthday. While I am out, I am sure that I will be hearing versions of holiday music while strolling up and down the aisles of my local stores. I tend to avoid stores during this season, mainly because I am not a fan of crowds, but also because the sounds get to be overwhelming. I get tired of the entire holiday hoopla, but it is better now that I am not stressing about extra church services and many programs. I have to get some things for my Mom's stocking, so I have to head outside of my home for the express purpose of shopping. Thankfully, there is drive-up service as well as online ordering, so I can keep most of my shopping where I want it - away from the constant musical bombardment of holiday music! That being said, my favorite song of the season is a hymn ca...

Okay. It is crunch time now. Fifteen days between us and winter break. Let me tell you, folks, working with children this time of year is not for the faint-hearted! There is just not enough time, energy, or words to explain what happens in schools between Thanksgiving and winter holidays. If you have never worked in a school during this time, then kindly just nod your head in sympathy when a school teacher or therapist expresses their levels of exhaustion and/or overwhelm. My week started with a horrible day - all of my clients were disgruntled and snarly. The week has progressed into more kind conversations and emotional expressions, but the noise level in the class next door is very loud - which is very unusual! We are having constant shifts in classroom composition both with students and with staff members, and we no longer communicate these changes with all school staff members. I have not had the expected staff members in most of my sessions this week. That changes how I do things...

I am not looking forward to work today. On Monday, the groups that I see twice a week were just plain old mean and nasty to each other and to me. I hope that they will be a bit nicer to each other today, but I am not anticipating that things will change significantly. Once I get back here from work, I will have a meeting with a couple of people to start planning for a new symposium. It will be a late night, but it should be a productive one! Is it only Wednesday? Seventeen days left before break. I hope that I can do it without taking time out, but who knows. To add to my list of stressors, I have required that I eat things from my home rather than getting food from other sources this month. It has become way too easy to justify getting food delivered while I am still shopping for food to put in my pantry. So, I am making myself heat things up. Yesterday's dinner was a taco salad - quick, easy, and no extra money spent on food. It also means spending some time meal prepping on the ...

I am a music therapist who gets creative blocks at times, and that fact just annoys me. I do not like it when I cannot create something just whenever I want or need to do so, and I have explored many different ways to spur my creativity over my many years as a music therapist. The other day, I grabbed a set of Dungeons and Dragons dice at Five Below. I have followed several people on various social media platforms who use these to make decisions - I especially enjoy Roll for Sandwich - check it out! I thought that this could be a good format for me, and I turned it into a couple of therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) already! Now, I have released this as a free resource in my TPT store . (It will not always be free - get it now!!) You have to have an account in TPT to access the information, but signing up is free and there are tons of free resources that music therapists can use and adapt.  Here's how it works. I have determined a criterion for each die value. Each die has a diff...

There are nineteen days between now and the end of the work month for me. Fifteen of those days are work days, and I am getting ready for the last winter break of my career (probably). This is a year of lasts for me. I will be retiring from my current job and transitioning into another role as a music therapy professional at the end of my contract year. This is my last December as a school-based music therapist, and I am both happy and nostalgic about it all. If you know anyone who works in school settings, then you know that this is one of the most difficult times of the year - in ANY school. In my school, things are compounded by it being a residential and day setting for children, adolescents, and young adults who have significant developmental and psychiatric symptomology. Amplify the usual pre-holiday excitement with trauma backgrounds and the uncertainty of family involvement and you get the miasma that my students bring to their music therapy sessions this time of year. Meanwhil...

Today is Saturday, and I am trying to figure out a priority for today. Yesterday, I ended up making the start of some dinner meals by cooking two pounds of hamburger and then separating it into containers for easy use during the next three weeks. That is all that is between us and Winter Break. I am looking forward to the next three weeks. We are supposed to be getting snow at some point in the next three days, and I am sure that it is the start of a good winter season. I am happier in these cold, dark times than I am when it is hot and humid outside. So, bring on the snow and the darkness. I just finished ripping another book of CDs to my computer. There is something quite nice about making sure that I have my music available to me whenever I want, but it is also a bit of a chore to sit and watch while the music gets translated into another digital format. I currently have over 20,000 music pieces in my library, and I have about three more CD cases to go before I am finished. I guess ...

Today is a day off, and other than some online shopping with my Mom and Sister later, I do not intend on leaving my house at all for any sort of consumer action. Black Friday deals are not for me! Instead, I am making small books for my co-workers that share the music therapy space at work. One is a recipe book and the other is a future adventures book. I hope they will like them, and it will give me a chance to explore my creativity through making something that I love to make - small journals and books. One of the things that has really sustained my music therapy professional journey is cultivating hobbies that are not related to music at all!  I love making journals, and I make them out of all sorts of things. Right now, I am in the design phase of my thinking about all of this. I have to figure out how to make a recipe book. It will be easier to set up the future adventures book, but there are other considerations for that book than the recipe book. It will be a good challenge!...

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States where I live, and I woke up with a feeling of gratefulness and thankfulness that I haven't felt for some time.  As I have explained, this is not really my favorite holiday of the year - mainly because of the way our capitalistic society has taken it and turned it into a day of overindulgence and spending for the upcoming Christmas holiday - but I do like the original thoughts behind it all. I like having a day where the focus is supposed to be on thinking about the things that we have rather than the things we want to acquire. So, I woke up and felt good about today and the things that I have, the people I love and who have loved me, and for the future for myself and for others. I hope this Thanksgiving optimism lasts for the rest of this season. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate.

Have you ever had your creative and intellectual property stolen by someone? I have, and it was devastating! Someone passed off a song that they learned at their internship (which was my internship as well) as their own in a professional conference presentation. I couldn't believe that they stole my song by taking credit for it when it was complimented, but I heard her say, "Thanks, I wrote that song in my internship." Nope. I WROTE THAT SONG IN MY INTERNSHIP! I graduated before this person started, but it was MY SONG, not hers! As a result of that one comment where someone took credit for something that belonged to me, I have been a voracious defender of copyright protections ever since. I strive to find the original sources for every song that I use in my sessions. This is because I always remember that situation and do not want to take credit for something that is not mine to begin with. So, I am a bit of a researcher into copyright issues and how to avoid complication...